Today, I want to show you some of my visual diary playful creations. This is where you will begin to see some themes appearing in my artwork.
Back when I lived in Melbourne, I did a general drawing class as part of my art course and found that I had developed an absolute LOVE of lines. This quickly developed into a love of geometric shapes over the years between 2004 and 2013.
This top image seems to be one that a lot of people really like. Personally, I am not sure why? The reason is… to me it is a flop. I turned out okay-ish but it wasn’t what I had wanted to create when I put pen to paper. But I guess that is what happens with art. Sometimes you just make what you make and it is in the eyes of the viewer as to what they think is great.
At the time that I put this up my Shapland Art Facebook Fan Page, I wrote this caption: ‘Life sometimes feels a bit on the blurry side, filled with colour, messages, hopes, dreams and sometimes the road is littered with broken dreams discarded as life experiences come to each of us. In the hardest of times, if one looks just a little closer there is positive opportunity for change, transformation and hope. Sometimes I am trying to put the pieces of my life together and they don’t always fit… but I’m always watching for my own personal silver lining.’
I guess that sums up where I was at when I did this piece.
Ink Pen with water wash in Visual Diary
Created: 13/3/2011
This image below has never been titled as I wouldn’t know where to begin. All I can remember about the time that I was creating this piece was that I had just come through a relationship break up and finding myself again as a single woman. I quite like the complexity in this piece.
Created: 16/1/2011
Actually, all of the drawings below were completed around the time that I was re-connecting with myself as a single and empowered woman. It was an intense but deeply healing experience to draw these images. They took days to complete but oh so worth the effort.
Black ink pen in my visual diary
Created: 4/1/2011
Another untitled image – no idea what I was thinking while drawing it. I was just… ‘being’.
Black ink pen in my visual diary
Created: 4/1/2011
And below is one of my fav pieces because of the simplicity in it. I remember staring with a figure 8 and expanding outward. All of my drawings here have morphed out of a single mark on the paper to become what you see now. I rarely sit down to actually design them, they create themselves without my left-brain-ness dictating where things will go. I think that is what I really truly love about lines and geometry — they are whatever they want to become. The possibilities for creation are infinite to me.
Created: 27/1/2011
Please comment on or share this post – thanks.
S
The Creative Life 
I absolutely love your work, it inspires me! I have a thing for circles at the moment, and geometry is tugging at my mind. I also like the way art can be used to express what’s on the inside, or what is happening in my life. And love to treat it as a type of ‘therapy’ that can be done from home. Do you mind if I link to your post from my blog sometime soon? I’d love to show everyone your work!
~WilderSoul
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Hey – I am stoked to hear that you love this type of art as much as I do. Please do share my blog, I am very touched and grateful as I think art is not only therapeutic for us as artists but also for the viewer and I would love to help other people find their inner artist too!
Awesome.
S
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I have added a little write-up to my next scheduled post which comes out at 9am Saturday NZST. I have focused on how we can create art, and feel it is is a flop, and yet there are others who really like it. I often feel this way, and I want to let others know that it is quite normal. It is such a therapeutic thing to do, and I would so love to see people throw away their inhibitions, or thoughts that must be a fantastic artist in order to express themselves with art. Or if we are artists, then I would love to see us all throw away thoughts that every mark we make must be part of an incredible masterpiece. It is not what it’s all about. I believe that art is for everyone.
I don’t know if the link will work before Saturday… just in case it does, here it is: http://wildersoul.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/geo-roundel-number-13-yippee-last-one-before-the-garden/
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Oh my gosh! I can’t wait to read your blog. I love your thoughts on making a mark on paper not having to be something that creates a masterpiece. It’s too much pressure that way too many people put themselves under. I know, I’ve been there and it’s a horrible perfectionism place to be in.
Art is so subjective and it should be. In my humble opinion, art is about touching the soul and bringing it to life through the marks on paper, brush on canvas or whatever the medium. Just because it is not something that ‘traditional’ galleries want to hang does not mean that what we create is not special or profound. Art and allowing self-expression is about the creative journey, not so much the destination.
Of course, it is lovely to receive a compliment about your work and to feel touched when someone else likes what you have produced, but in the end the artist just needs to be at peace with the art and let it be whatever it will be to the viewer…
I am so looking forward to your blog.
S
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It’s a real pleasure to meet you, and I hope you enjoy the blog 🙂
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