Featured Show us your talent.

That's about right.
If I have nothing, but want to build something, I engineer and build it in my mind, almost never on paper except for measurements if it has to fit into something.
This isn't to say I don't see modification options in some things or 'marrying' things.
~
For the Assemblages I'm always picking up stuff wherever it is, garage sales, thrifts, even in the street like the little white #3 I got yesterday that has often been run over and is like the ones in the changeable black signs you see in office buildings. I like the spring steel tines from street sweepers too.
I have 'palettes' like a painter does but much larger as you may imagine.
I have flat files and drawers so I can look at what I have and have the items tell me which objects want to go with which.
You would be amazed at what they say to me! Most notable is when they don't belong.

 

Well said!!!

 

New vocabulary word... kilter. Well, my portraits DO talk to me, sometimes.
And thank you, I think!
No, definitely, thank you!

*wondering if Komo has to groom and exercise his theory, and clip its nails*

 

Gila, I agree. I stare at an empty space or surface and my mind usually doesn't come up with much. For example, if I had started totally from scratch to create my BIL's card, I don't think I would have gotten very far. But by starting with this image and building on it (almost literally), the card gradually took shape...




My sister was an excellent "free flowing" type of artist in her paintings and drawings. I look at our art work from when we were kids, and she drew graceful, lyrical type scenes at a fairly young age. I, on the other hand, drew people almost as tall as the paper with striped clothing in bold colors and wearing various bits of prominent jewelry. Clearly our minds and creative eyes differed significantly.

My mother, I think, could do some of both. She was a textile designer and could paint beautiful flowers free-hand, but also took elements from antique architectural and decorative arts book plates to incorporate in paisley and other decorative-arts style textile designs. And even though some or her designs were very painterly, as a textile designer she had to strategize the placement of design elements so the design as a whole could be repeated endlessly on a bolt of cloth. Without the aid of a computer, I think I would have found that daunting.

 

Methinks it's a matter of living in terms of "what could be" vs. living in terms of "what is."

Creativity of any sort is about adding something new to the world, which requires a bit of courage, a bit of perseverance, and a lot of acceptance that "what is" today needn't be what will exist in the future.

And anyone who's open that much to "what could be" isn't likely to be as conforming or to fit in quite as well, especially when young where the pressure to conform can be intense.

 

Thanks, Pat, and Kingsy. I shall modify my position thus.
Types of artists.
1. Start with no defined stuff.
2. Start with stuff and define it.
3. Bi-stuffial (does both)

I call it The Gila Theorum of Artist Stuff.

 

Yes! I was the art and science teacher's pet. She was the best and that surely caused me issues that I don't recall but...
I credit this> Before that I was incarcerated in bed for 11 months for Rheumatic Fever at 6 years old.
While well seen to by my family members I learned to take care of myself somewhat, to be my 'own man' if you will.
This allowed me to make my own decisions when peer pressure arose. I did what I wanted not what they wanted me to. This caused issues too but I didn't care. Many eventually respected me for it I think.

 

Ha!!!!!! 'Bi-stuffial'...................... WOW!

 

Thanks, Aquitaine!

 

LOL @ "bi-stuffial"!

 

I once took a self-test on left brain/right brain tendencies. The results said I was very right brain AND very left brain, but that I tended not to use both sides of my brain simultaneously.

This actually fits what I experience. When I'm being creative, I'm not all that analytical, and when I'm being analytical, I'm not usually all that creative. It also explains my history, where I was a good (left-brain) technical writer and project manager but I am sometimes also a good (right-brain) designer.

Although, now that I think about it a bit more... when I was a writer I did bring creativity to it, and when I do design work, I do bring kind of an analytic approach. So... I dunno...

 

I have a number of pet theories; in many ways, many arts are similar.
I met a professional clown once, and was surprised to find that he approached his art much like a painter or poet, or dancer.

When it comes to music, I don't think much about the creative process; music just rattles around inside my head; sometimes something I've heard, sometimes something original, and I semi-intentionally work on it, inside my head.

But if I pick up an instrument with strings on it, music flows out of my fingers; sometimes something I knew already, often something new. Maybe that means I am "bi-stuffial."
Sometimes I write it down, or record it.

Chuck Berry once was asked where his music came from, and his answer was "the music is always playing, somewhere out in the Universe; you just have to tune it in."

I do feel like that sometimes....if I'm working on an arrangement of something, I'll often feel "it has to go like this." I don't have a good answer if asked why...I feel like "isn't it obvious? That's how it ought to go." Sometimes it is clear I am considering alternatives, trying and selecting the best one; other times I just know there is only one possible answer.

 

You are both bi-stuffial. As the Theorum author, I am entitled to make these diagnoses.

 

Glass projects. Designed, etched and assembled by me.

 

That's how it usually was for me when I used to write poetry. It didn't feel like it was coming from me, but through me. I didn't choose the words, I heard the words and then wrote them down.

 

Well, WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!
Glass!!
MoreOther... I absolutely love every piece.
Wherever do you learn how to do that???

 

I knew it could be done. This specific technique I consider to be my own invention. I don't do it anymore.

 

On second thought. I shouldn't even think about learning how to do it. I'd probably cut my fingers off.

 

Here are some dollhouse doilies I made a couple of years ago. I created the designs in the software for a great little electronic paper cutter, so can make new doilies at any time using any type of paper. That's one thing I love about online design... it's easy to make changes and duplicates.

 

Ha!!!!!!!