It is a grey day that does not inspire me to pick up my camera. Instead, I’ll share some old artwork that I photographed yesterday, when the sun was shining. Some in-process works on the counter in my studio reminded me of the art I’ve got tucked away here and there, and I thought that it would be nice if some of it got a chance to see the light of day.
It looks like the date on this piece, one of my early art journal pages, is 2.27.2013. So much has changed in the last 13 years, but this page was an important step in my creative journey, and I still love it. The substrate is canvas and the media used includes paint, ink, rubber stamps, machine stitching, hand embroidery, and real rose petals.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with many means of creating art: writing, painting, drawing, photography, stitchery, and other media. In the end, I think it just comes down to a need to make marks, as Elaine Clayton explains in her book, (aptly named) Making Marks:
From early childhood, the very young draw with true glee. There is something intrinsically rewarding and compelling about making marks and changing how a surface looks. . . . Young people simply follow the natural impulse to draw. It feels good to interact with our surroundings using the simplest gestures. It’s as if we were saying, “Recognize me.” In our young hearts, we know that we are individuals with the ability to alter our environment, and we get excited about it. We have free will to effect change! We’ve always known that drawing is proof of individual determination, our unique ability to make a difference in the world. Making activates our human desire to create, drawing on our emotions and experiences.
