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Where do you get your Inspiration?

Where do you get your Inspiration?

I’ve been working on some new techniques at the moment. They are most likely tried and trusted methods of other artists and been done before in one form or another, but they are new to me anyway.

Ive always had a fascination with shoes and can recall being mighty upset not being allowed the shiny patent numbers with a bow on the front and delicate buckle to the side that I favoured, over the more sensible option of sturdy leather lace ups and I was all of about five years old. Today it’s my kids dragging me away from the shoe s and I can even admit to a certain euphoria when inside a shoe all on my own with a few hours to kill, trying on everything my heart desires. At one stage I had around sixty pairs of shoes including a pair of bright blue suede stilettos that I rarely wore, but just had to have because of the Elvis song of the same name. Today the collection is a bit smaller, but I certainly have an unusual amount and of course there are ones that are more beautiful than practical and don’t get worn nearly as often if at all, just like the blue suede numbers. Theres a crazy amount of black shoes and boots and well speaking of boots, I think I may have too many of them, never mind the shoes. My latest acquisitions are what I call my Ab Fab pair. Theyre a bright riot of neon pinks, greens and other gaudy colours with a large wedge heel but boy do I adore them.

Now why am I going on about shoes? Well, naturally my fascination with them boils over into my art of course and just today Ive been working on a triptych of old fashioned shoes that have allowed me to experiment with aging techniques and making the canvas look like its as old as the shoes would be if they were here now. Ive got crackling going on, texture that appears like a rumpled old photo and colour that sings of aged old sepia photographs that you would find in Museums the world over.

I haven’t finished yet either. Theres a lot more I want to do with these techniques now that Ive found the ones I want to stick with. There is the collection of old memorabilia I’ve acquired and I’m using these techniques for artwork of them; I’m sure they are going to be a winner. If not, Im sure I can add them to my growing collection of shoes even if I can’t wear them.

 

This reminds me of a story I read as a child, of a young poor girl who told everyone she had an impossible amount of dresses. No one believed her of course and towards the end of the story she got sick and stopped going to school. One of the other kids went to visit her eventually and found drawings of all the different dresses all over the walls that this little girl had done. It always stuck in my head that as an artist you could really have anything you wanted because it was in your head and you had the ability to recreate it onto paper or canvas, therefore imprinting it on your mind and of course making it real and more likely to happen. As I hear in nearly every seminar Ive ever attended, it becomes a positive affirmation becoming something you can get if you desire it enough. Who hasn’t put a picture of an ocean cruise or car or whatever on their fridge as a goal to their dreams?

Artists have the ability to really make it happen because of their skills to visualise and therefore make it happen.

As for me, well Im off to look at more shoes.

Posted: Monday 1 February 2010

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