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| Spring flowers bloom |
What mood is that? Hobbes asks Calvin while discussing creativity and inspiration in a cartoon by the great Bill Watterson. Calvin's reply, Last-minute panic is probably recognizable by many of us who play in creative fields.
It's not that ideas and possibilities do not abound, but somehow getting to the nitty-gritty often awaits that last minute crush.
Recently, after completing eight collage pieces for a set for Amy Poehler's upcoming production for Netflix of Wine Country, I found myself unable to focus on just one creative area. I was all over the place. Perhaps this was in part a direct effect of the intense pressure to complete the eight pieces. Last-minute panic had been the rule.
So now do I have to wait until another last-minute time?
Gee! I hope not.
Plodding on will continue until some brilliance shines through. Maybe I'll even get another film gig. Wouldn't that be great?
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| Ready to mail |
Ever since friend Cindy got me started on this Round Robin Journaling thing, I have found that most of the time, even if stressed for time, it is a truly pleasurable activity.
This month I was pretty sure my theme was going to somehow be around butterflies as I was seeing so many as flowers bloomed with the advent of spring. But that was just not what showed up when I opened the journal and began playing.
Blue-footed boobies of all things! Or Sula Nebouxii to be precise. What hilarious creatures! They don't even look real. So they were just perfect for the rest of my theme--no butterflies, but what the heck!
I can't wait to see what shows up next month.
And, btw,look up these colorful creatures--they are pretty interesting.
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| confused? maybe |
I'm not sure just what my attraction to faces, especially those of women, is but my drawing hand just keeps playing with them. Perhaps it is about the issue of success and failure. I'm drawn to the relationship between them as well.
In the continued drawing of face after face after face, playing with small changes to see the result, I find I feel like young Gerald Hodges (and if you don't know his story you should!)
He is quoted as saying about joining his high school swim team when he could not even swim: I felt like if I couldn't handle not being good at something, then how could I consider myself a successful person?
Well said, young man. We can all learn from you.
In spite of having read Brag, The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn by Peggy Klaus, as a dyed-in-the-wool introvert I still struggle with the tooting. Still, I am excited and proud of a recent achievement.
I was contacted by a set decorator at Paramount Studios and asked if it would be possible to create several pieces for an upcoming film. After many back and forth conversations about just what they needed, the big question came--could I create eight 12 x 18 fun figure collage pieces in 10-14 days?
Taking on the challenge, I immediately said that I could...and went searching for the parts and pieces. Cutting and sometimes enlarging followed, along with creating backgrounds and layout.
With the piece shown here I first found the wine-colored blazer. Add a skirt made of inverted spike leaves, plant stalks for legs, duck feet and I was on a roll.
Other pieces used images of pencils, flowers, crow feet, super enlarged vinyl record grooves and more to create pieces that were more than a little bit "off." In the process, I giggled a lot and frequently laughed aloud as things came together. Not my usual mode of work, this was really a lot of fun as well as being a huge "outside the box" push.
While my fun and challenge are now a thing of the past, I find I am looking forward to the film, which is only now in production. It is Amy Poehler's directorial debut for Netflix, Wine Country, and has writers and a cast of pals from SNL, including Tina Fey.
I'll toot my horn now, because, after all, it is Hollywood...perhaps the eight pieces will be onscreen for five seconds or even not at all. Still, what a great coup for me. Toot! Toot!
