Month Five: Make Art!

So… per my last post… I’m catching up. It’s mid-August, and I managed to go all of June and July without writing about my ArtsOdyssey projects. My bad! I was just too busy enjoying myself, I suppose! But, here I am, and here’s what I was up to last month: MAKING ART!

I’ve loved to make stuff since I was… like, a baby? My parents have endless stories about me repurposing and “artifying” recycling and garbage and clothing and anything else I could get my hands on. My mom is a graphic designer, so I spent many, many, many a childhood afternoon combing through her enormous paper samples collection and drawing, cutting, colouring, painting, collaging, papier-mâchéing, and basically experimenting with any other manipulation I could dream up. I also spent an absurd amount of time playing around in Quark Xpress and using up all her Letraset (graphic design throwbacks, y’all!). As I got older, I also increasingly loved all manner of craft, particularly anything with thread, yarn, or fabric. I learned to quilt and embroider from my amazing aunty, whose quilts and charming little pieces of art adorn my parents home. I made friendship bracelets and little cross stitch designs positively relentlessly. I began taking private painting lessons from a family friend – a celebrated painter whose expressionistic acrylic portraits seemed like some sort of witchcraft to me. I made stuff and made stuff and made stuff some more.

This culminated in my brilliant idea to layer on the big printmaking year-long survey course when I was in the second year of my music degree, on top of an already full course load plus a gazillion music ensembles. It was the most over-scheduled year of my life, but the only part of it I really remember is being in the studio, working on an etching or a screen print or a woodblock or a litho. Driving home in the snow at four in the morning after printing all night. Basking in the warmth of other people doing the same thing and all just being alone, together. Oh sweet Jesus I loved it. So much that I almost tried the death-defying act of pulling-off a double major in studio art and music performance (my advisor wisely talked me out of it).

Well, then I got busy. I went all in on music for years and years, then after I stopped performing, I went all in on law and business (and if you’ve been here for a sec, you know that part of the story). And that brings us to July, when I decided to get back on the art-making horse (wait, is that a horse that makes art? My kinda horse!) and make some damn art. I chose the project of making a series of small linocuts, since woodblock was my favourite technique in college, and it’s a process that can be done without chemicals or a press.

To get started, I wanted to find where art lived inside of me, and what could inspire my work. Basically, I wanted to go on an odyssey within an odyssey to find my style.

“WAIT WAIT WAIT!” I can hear every artist reading this screaming at their computers, “YOU CAN’T FIND YOUR STYLE BEFORE YOU START, YOU FOOL!”

I hear you. But, while I say I’ve gone years without making anything, that’s not entirely true. You see, I’m a passionate doodler, I’ve been messing around on and off for years with hand lettering, and I’m also a long-time Bullet Journalista. In other words, I’ve been drawing and lettering for the past few years, even though it hasn’t been anything serious. I also take in an enormous amount of art, digitally and, when I can, in person.

Plus, I felt totally lost “just starting.” I felt like I needed to understand what I was aiming at before I started running toward it.

Lucky for me, I found two amazing sources of inspiration and clarity. First, the wonderful Andy J. Pizza. His podcast, Creative Pep Talk, and his two fantastic Skillshare classes were all absolutely instrumental in getting started on the right foot. The other was Lisa Congdon, whose art I’ve loved for ages, and whose book, Find Your Artistic Voice, was another key tool for me in establishing both my “starter style” and the confidence to make something – anything! – again.

So, it’s mid-August as I write this, which means this project should have been done for a couple weeks. Spoiler alert: I’m not done! And that’s okay! I’m loving it still! I ran into all kinds of challenges and little technical roadblocks, but now I’m off and running and about half-done my three-print series. And I’m feeling so inspired and engaged that all I want to do is cancel the rest of my projects for the year and do this every day. Is that good or bad? I have no idea… that’s why it’s an odyssey! But there’s eraser and bits of rubber everywhere, and I’m dreaming about words and animals and landscapes and texture and layers and colours, so I’d say it’s nothing if not beautiful.

To art! I’m back, baby, and I’m grateful.