Coasting the Middle

I've come to the realization that I am coasting the middle. I am a creative person, Right Brainer with Left Brain tendencies. Last night I went to the monthly meeting of the Graphic Artists Guild-LA Chapter. As always it was very informative. The speaker talked about organizing with the Right Brain, "the creative side". Before his talk began we took a short quiz to determine if we were predominantly Right Brain thinkers or Lefties. There were some words in the Lefties word list that matched like:
Analytical
Controlling
Detail-Oriented
Focused
Goal-Oriented
Perfectionist
Planner
Reliable
Saver

But I had far more Rightie words:
Artistic
Big Picture
Chaotic
Creative
Disorganized
Distracted
Dramatic
Dreamer
Easy-going
Emotional
Fun
Impulsive
Intuitive
Messy
Non-Linear
Off-Beat
Outgoing
Passionate
Procrastinator
Visual

The fact that I listed them all was a very left brain thing to do. But I love my lists that's the way I make my life have some sort of organization. It was really comforting to hear other people's organization consists of piles, controlled chaos, repurposing of everything and scheduled naps and TV breaks. There were a lot of great tips in his speech that can also be found on his website www.creativelee.com

Be Aggressive

::::Chanting:::::::Be Aggressive, Be Be Aggressive. That was the theme of my critique tonight. I am definitely being more free with my approach to this music inspiration project, but I'm not going to change overnight. I started off explaining my piece by talking about my music selection and art making process. I concluded with pointing out the problem areas of my painting. Considering I felt like the painting was 50% complete, I didn't see anything wrong with pointing out my downfalls. But my teacher had a different take. He was going to point out all of the criticism I mentioned about my painting. The fact that I accessed them prior to the critique was a plus and minus. It was good that I was able to see a problem, but the fact that I did not correct it showed a lack of risk. Rob told me I need to be more aggressive and said it was cowardly that I didn't find a solution to the problem I saw in front of me.

I put an object smack dab in the middle of the painting which divided up the composition. After I placed the object there I wasn't sure how to remedy it without starting over, so I tried to think of how to work around it and put other elements in the painting that would balance the composition. One of my classmates suggested cutting off a part of the painting! Now that's a solution I hadn't thought about! But it makes perfect sense. So I'm going to cut off a part of the painting, sew it on another section of the painting, and do tons of layers all over the painting. I'm going to try out this aggressive approach and take more risks.

Riding a Bike

People say you never forget how to ride a bike once you learn. Well that might not be the best analogy for the point I'm trying to get across, but it felt so natural to spend half of my night painting. Usually after work I'm exhausted and ready to eat and sleep. After dinner I veg out in front of the TV for about 6 hours! Wow I sound like such a couch potato! But tonight I painted it felt great! I think I'm really going to like this piece I'm working on. I have no concept sketch that is mapping out the composition just free flowing thought. This is very different from my usually approach to art.