Indestructible Truth
collage, 6.25 x 6.25 inches
ingredients: vintage ephemera, image transfer, ribbon, azalea blossom, featherThe lovely Tammie Lee of Beauty Flows is hosting this week's drawing challenge, Prayer/ Meditation/ Still Point. As soon as I heard what the theme was, I knew I was in; much of my art revolves around these concepts, so it was right up my alley, as they say.
While I worked on this piece, I asked myself what "indestructible truth" actually means to me in relation to the theme of the drawing challenge. When I come right down to it, the only indestructible truth I know, that I feel sure of in my heart and soul, is that everything in the universe is connected to every other thing. Every human being, every blade of grass, every rock, every animal, every tree. When one thing is affected, it can have far-reaching consequences; this is known as, "the butterfly effect". Here's how Wikipedia describes it: "In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state." I prefer to meditate/pray while outdoors in nature; that "still point "is the moment I feel that connection, or 'become one with everything'. The experience cannot adequately be described in words.
This reminds me of a joke (and who doesn't love a good Buddhist joke, right?) A Buddhist walks into a vegetarian restaurant to order a veggie burger. The server asks, "What will you have?" The Buddhist replies, "Make me one with everything." (Sorry, I can hear the collective groan, but I just couldn't resist.)
Notes on technique/strategies:
Going back two posts ago, I wrote about strategies for pushing your art to another level. I incorporated a couple of them here, one being the "throw out your first ten ideas"idea. I really didn't keep count, but I threw out a lot of them, because I've developed habits of doing the same things over and over, and I felt the work was getting stale. I also limited my materials, in that I decided not to include any representational objects, unless they were real, such as the flower and the feather. Then, just to make it even more frustrating, I tried to limit the amount of compositional elements, because I've been feeling like my compositions were too busy. That required a great deal of restraint on my part; I just had to keep asking myself, "Will this improve the piece, or not?", and frequently the answer was "No!". As a result, I am happier with this piece than some of the others I've made lately.
Dont't forget to visit Beauty Flows for links to more posts on this drawing challenge!
Beautiful art..soulful and inspiring!
ReplyDeleteVictoria
thanks for stopping by, Victoria, and for the positive words!
Deletejust wondering why make a collage for a drawing challenge rather than a drawing?
ReplyDeleteIn the "drawing" challenges, the word drawing is used very loosely. Any form of expression is acceptable; people do everything from paintings to photographs, or even poems.
DeleteLovely as always.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words, Mary!
DeleteYour "life motto" speaks to me. Love your new piece and such a strong title!
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if the Dalai Lama understood the joke:) - eric
Thank you so much, Eric. No, he didn't understand it, but was laughing about the fact that he didn't understand!
DeleteBoy your telling of your process here spoke to me loudly as I read it just now. There is a saying about how 'less is more' but I sure don't fit into that mind set most days. I usually run out of time, or space, or materials, or successful attempts at an idea...and then I scale back, cover over, change things to a more simple effort. So my going forward two steps and then one step back leads to a more spartan (for me) piece and it pretty much always works better. I like how you are aware that you were getting repetitive; that's a difficult one to cross over because it gets one into the unknown (uncomfortable) again. But leads to discovery and is always influenced by what is YOU (the repetitive bits) anyway...only shown in new ways. Then one can find threads. It makes me so happy to be inspired by others' art, and to try to capture some of the feeling for myself to be interpreted by myself. Like this work a lot...N, x
ReplyDeleteNorma, I'm happy if reading about my process helps you in any way. I understand exactly what you mean about two steps forward and one step back; it often works that way for me, too. It's true that crossing into unknown territory is uncomfortable, but I always learn something from it. Thanks for visiting, and for your insightful comments. xox
DeleteI so enjoyed your thoughts, the video and your approach to your art. I enjoy looking at your collage, something soothing yet alive about it. I also feel that we are all connected. Thank you so much for joining us.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tammie, for inviting me to participate, and for your very kind words about my art. I'm so glad you enjoyed the post! xox
Deletei think your strategy may well be worth the offer in as such that it proofs to be the exercise it needs to be. restrain makes you look at each addition in a different way, which you describe already. and i do think the effect is appealing! i'm also convinced there's just as much meditation involved in restraining as there is in setting lose, so to speak. my eye was drawn STRAIGHT AWAY to the words, no deviation, which is of course also cardinal, not? well done, sharmon! :-) n♥
ReplyDeleteNadine, thank you for your kind comments. I agree with you that there is much meditation involved in restraint, though perhaps a different kind than just letting go. Both are ultimately valuable strategies.
Deleteit seems to hold the memories of each of the elements..love this. I've enjoyed reading about your process too.. especially the throwing out of the first ideas to help release habbit. beautiful piece.
ReplyDeleteSue, thanks for visiting, and for your kind compliment. I'm glad you enjoy the piece!
DeleteThis piece FEELS like a meditation to me, the images all play so well together and have such relationship to one another.. I think you nailed your truth right down to the substrate... xo
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cat; that's what I was hoping for. Working on this piece really was like a meditation; I added pieces slowly and calmly, trying to just let the piece tell me what it needed, if you know what I mean....
ReplyDeleteI liked the theme very much. Drawing Challenge: Prayer/ Meditation/ Still Point is quite interesting to hear. You have add all the flavors in the article. I thoroughly enjoyed it. You can see such post in essay writing service UK.
ReplyDelete