Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Mistakes Stirring Invention

Any of you who journal, or paint, or create . . . Oh heck . . . if you're alive . . . know we make errors! And one of my greatest joys in the spontaneity of journaling is the way our creative minds show us solutions (and some, better than the original plan!). These next couple of pages are examples of exactly that!


Those of you familiar with the progress of my previous journal page with the fun paperclay 3-d frame, know my plan now would include leaving the following journal page blank where I needed to place my big letter "B". Right?

So immediately, the next day I went onsite with a private student venturing out into her first plein air adventure . . . and you guessed it! Where did I paint? Right in the space I needed to save. Here's the gurgling Lithia Park Creek, sitting right where I wanted to have white space. I fretted and pondered about cutting out the image, inserting a full page and on and on.

Rather than add a full page, I decided insert a small, almost "footnote like" page with, of course, my big "B" the first item on the lil' page. Next to my "B" I practiced a print from a self-portrait tile I'd recently carved. I like printing two times, yellow first to add warmth to the human skin then, a darker color (here, I've used Brown Madder). On the back of my mini-page, I found this beautiful business card from a peer watercolorist, Marni Marnee (http://www.marnimaree.com/), complimented all the colors on these pages. And I added how we'd met when she pass thru the Ashland Art Center where my studio is.

I continued my journal sequentially, with the sketch from a "Plein Air Workshop" I was teaching. Top left on the full page, is a sketch of my dear painter friend, Silvia Trujillo (http://www.silviatrujillo.com/), (who'd instructed the oil students) posing her hand to crop a portion of a student's painting during critique. Farther down the page is one of my watercolor students busy at work.

So I can attest to the fact that mistakes can make me more creative and inventive. Honestly, I have to say I've not gotten to the point where I celebrate errors, but I DO aim to get there some day. Another goal to aim at . . . it keeps me going and getting more comfy with myself.

I suggest "Celebrate Your Errors!"?

1 comment:

Laure Ferlita said...

Nice save! And yes, we're often shown a better way when we're open to it.