Entering the Fear

Another set of hot and humid days has sapped my energy and forced me down into the basement to work. I started the day doing quarterly sales tax filing, preparing paperwork for my DBA (Doing Business As) license, and updating my website some more.  This was all rather uncreative work, which started to frustrate me somewhat because despite my low energy due to the weather, I am feeling deeply motivated by the creative work that I am doing now.  However, much of this work requires a large amount of energy and focus, which just isn't possible for me this time of year.

So, I decided instead of getting myself frustrated and waste my limited energy, I spent some time contemplating the nature of work that I am doing.   Rather than talk about the pieces themselves, which are not ready to be shown just yet, I thought it might be interesting to share the process and why I am doing what I am doing. In particular, Why am I exploring the chakras?

After I finished the painting Etain, the fourth in the series of Ancient Irish Goddess-inspired paintings, which explored the elements and energies associated with the different Goddesses.  I realized it was important to balance these paintings with God-inspired paintings and came up with the idea of exploring the masculine energies associated with the elements in paintings that corresponded to the Goddess paintings.

The idea was there, but accessing the masculine has never been a strong skill for me.  Childhood experiences, long forgotten memories began to rise, and with them fears that I thought I had let go of long ago.  I wasn't debilitated by these fears, but I was not certain how to approach the masculine paintings in a way that was not skewed by my past experiences.  I wanted something balanced and also something that was fresh and not just a rehashing of old concepts.  The harder I tried, the further away I got from the concept. I began to feel, oddly enough, disconnected from my own body. 

So the idea to do a series of paintings based on the chakras as a way of balancing my energies and reconnect me to my body again, while I did more research and exploration of the masculine archetypes.  What I didn't expect was how much energy these paintings would demand.  Drafting the knotwork that would comprise a major part of the painting was technically difficult, but the actual energy that went into painting the first piece has been surprisingly intense.

Work on the root chakra has me starting at the base, tapping into the primal energy and, as a result, stirring up the very things that started arising when I approached the masculine archetypes.  It seems that no matter what I work on, I am at a place where these memories, fears, and feelings must be addressed.  So that is where I am.  How will I do it?

Right now, I don't know.  For the time being I am learning to sit with these feelings and just be with them.  It isn't easy.  The adventure begins...

DoAn
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Sedna: Plumbing the Depths

Sedna (graphite, watercolor & ink)

Sedna, goddess of the arctic sea, controls the sea mammals and the balance of life and death in the cold north. Her transformation from beautiful young woman to a hag-like goddess is told in many conflicting tales throughout the Arctic peoples.  I have put together a condensed version here:

Sedna began as a beautiful young woman, courted by many suitors, but none pleased her father. Then a mysterious stranger appeared, claiming to be a great king in the north, and convinced her father to let them marry. Sedna went to live with her new husband only to discover that he was a cruel Skua (sometimes it is a Raven) in disguise. She called for help from her father who came to her aid and as they escaped in a small canoe, the angry Skua sent a terrible storm to topple them. Sedna fell into the water and clung to the side of the canoe to keep from drowning. Her father, fearing that they might both die, cut her fingers off so she sank down into the icy depths. As she sank, her severed fingers became seals, walruses, porpoises, dolphins, polar bears, whales, and sea otters. She became an important figure for the hunters of the north who relied on her generosity to survive. If Sedna felt slighted, she would call her sea animals to her and the people would starve.

The subject of this piece had been haunting me for over a year.  I have several sketches, even another painting started, but in the midst of this exploration I felt called toward exploring a new style.  I combined mediums and explored the contrast between realism and symbolism.  I even went with more muted colors rather than my usual saturated hues.  But what haunted me wasn't the new mediums and techniques it was the story.  How did I relate to it? Why did it speak to me so strongly?  Many interpretations speak of Sedna as a symbol of overcoming victimhood.  It can be a powerful story for that and at one time or another we can all relate to such a theme.  This theme didn't speak to me in that way.  I kept thinking of the nature of creativity and how Sedna could be viewed as such.

My relationship to Creativity started out as something joyful and powerful.  As a youth, I spent many many hours creating. I won awards for my work. I had shows in schools and in the local community.  When I was young, if someone asked what I want to be when I grew up, my answer was an enthusiastic: "an artist!"  However, as I grew into my teen years, my dream of becoming an artist was tested.  Common responses to my career goal were: "That's just hobby.  What are you going to do for a REAL job?  No one can be an artist for a living. It is time to grow up!"

This began the separation between me and Art.  As I grew older, and the messages that I could not be an artist grew stronger and more insistent, I found my life grew darker and less enjoyable.  I wandered aimlessly for sometime.  Then, when given the opportunity to go to Pratt in the Fashion Design program, I turned it  down. Afterall, how could I choose such an irresponsible career! I gave up on my art entirely then for almost a decade.  This, I think of as severing Sedna's fingers and sending Creativity to the icy depths.

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This decade was the darkest of my life.  Depression became who I was.  I felt lost and empty.  Each year grew worse and worse until it became clinical and I was hospitalized.  During that darkest of darkest moments, I found a glimpse of Creativity.  It began in an art therapy group (which I was resistant to at first) and grew into a daily practice of putting paint on paper.  I was reaching out to Sedna.  But it was an arduous journey.  Like the Shamans who must travel through many obstacles to reach her, I too had to plumb the depths and face many difficulties.  After all, having shut Creativity away for so many years, She was not trusting of my intentions.  What if I refused Her again?  Since my reconnecting to Creativity, I have had to do a lot of work, a lot of personal healing, work and healing that continues to this day.  The Shaman may reach Sedna at the bottom of the ocean, but then he must turn around and go back.  It is a dangerous journey both ways.

My relationship to Creativity is better than it has been in a long time.  But it is being tested again.  Is this the return journey?  Many obstacles are being thrust before me, just at the time when a career in art is taking off.  This is a test, I know it.  As I make this second leg of the journey, maybe Creativity wants to retreat out of fear of being abandoned. I know I must communicate to Her that I will not cut her away, even when there are many voices around me saying I should.  Continuing to communicate to Her, respecting the process, sharing my work with others, staying true to Her are all keys to keeping Her favor.  I believe working on this painting was my assurance to Her that my commitment to Creativity will not waver, even while I find ways to remake a life in a very uncertain world.  I have yet to figure out how it will work out, but one of my current mantras is: "Not Knowing is Okay"

This may not be the perfect interpretation of Sedna's story. It may not even be the correct one, but for present moment, it is the interpretation that makes sense to me. 

DoAn


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Walking the Spiral: Brigid: Igniting the Inner Fire

Within the deepest reaches of the inner darkness, there exists the smallest ember.  It is a tiny spark of light, that once given the proper fuel, has the potential to ignite into a blazing fire.

Brigid, the ancient goddess of creativity, inspiration, poetry, metal-working and healing, is a goddess of fire, but not the kind of fire made of flames.  This fire is the divine spark, the ember at the core that ignites the body, mind and spirit into life.  It can be related to the Kundalini energy rising up from the base of the spine to the crown of the head, activating power centers throughout the body. Brigid is associated with the dawn, because, like the sun rising out of the darkness, we hold in ourselves the potential to rise above our own inner dark.

This painting came after a long period of introspection.  I was facing a challenge in regard to the direction of my art and was contemplating my ability to make a living from my paintings while following the spiritual path they were taking me on.  Could I do it? Was it right to do so?  Working on "The Morrigan" lead me to the darkness of this introspection.  I learned that I had a connection to fiber as a creative medium.  I developed skills in making sculpture from wool, which allowed me to continue making an income through my artwork, while I could let the paintings reveal themselves in their own time without the added pressures to produce and market them.  Working on "Brigid: igniting the inner fire" lead me from the darkness of uncertainty and fear out into the light.

DoAn
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Walking the Spiral: The Morrigan

The Morrigan: The Dark Mother

I recently listened to the audiobook The Creative Fire by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, in which she discusses the cycle of creativity.

Most people think of the artist as being moved by flashes of inspiration or asking for a blessing by the muse.  Estes explains that creativity moves in a continuing pattern of rising and falling.  This has been my experience of creativity.

After I completed the painting "Boann: transformation of a goddess" I felt I had reached a zenith.  I felt inspired by this new insight into my artwork and I felt wiser and more aware as a result as well.  It wasn't long before I felt a slow decline from this highpoint.  My creative work slowed. While I felt more connected to the spirit of the work than ever, my connection to the act of painting felt strained.  Suddenly, that light of inspiration grew dim.

The Morrigan is a dark figure in Irish Myth, probably even predating the arrival of the Celts in Ireland.  She was a goddess of fertility, the controller of death itself, and later became associated with war.  How could a fertility goddess be connected to death?  It seemed strange to me at first. But it doesn't take much introspection to realize how growth is preceded by death and decay.  Land is made fertile by the decayed plants and animals that enrich the soil.  A fertile mind is enriched by the knowledge absorbed. A fertile body is nourished by the breaking down of nutrient-rich foods taken in.

The creative process is likewise nourished by a period of decline, a period of darkness that is the opposite of that outward expression of the flash of inspiration.  Without this period of quiet, without this symbolic death, the creative expression loses fertility and richness.  Estes uses the Demeter/Persephone myth from the Ancient Greeks as an excellent metaphor for the creative cycle, even making astute distinctions between the way the myth differed in Pre-Helenistic and Post-Helenistic Greece.

This analysis of the creative cycle can be used by artist and non-artist alike.  For we all go through a period of darkness in varying levels throughout our lives.  From waking at daybreak, after having slept in the dark of night, to the coming of spring after the death of Fall and Winter's sleep, to the ups and downs of any one of life's situations.  "The Morrigan: The Dark Mother" taught me that there is a huge difference in outcome when one embraces the coming dark, rather than fearing it and trying to push it away.  No matter what, the dark times will come; we have no choice.  But we can choose how to move through the dark times.  We can enter with awareness and grace, coming out of the experience like the spring sprouts bursting from seeds planted in the fall, with determination and filled with the joy of creation itself.

DoAn
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Walking the Spiral: Boann

Back in 2006 I began a series of paintings inspired by Irish mythology.  I intended the paintings to explore the ancient Celtic gods and goddesses through a more modern and personal eye.  What I didn't realize was that this series would set me on a personal, spiritual journey that has forever changed my relationship to painting.   Over the next four blog posts I will share my journey, as it has unfolded so far, in relation to the painting of the first four pieces of the series.

Boann: Transformation

Boann: Transformation of a Goddess

The first painting in the series depicts the transformation of the goddess Boann into the river Boyne, after she had unwittingly released the waters from a sacred well. The creation of this painting came out of a difficult time for me emotionally.  I didn't realize at the time that my relationship to my art was taking a more spiritual path. Like Boann as she was torn limb from limb by the raging waters she released from a sacred well, I felt parts of my inner self being stripped away.  Intense feelings of sadness then rage surged through me.  Many times these emotions had no context. I couldn't make sense of what they stemmed from.  I did, however, have a sense that these emotions were connected to the collective unconscious.  There was no particular reason I came to this understanding, it was something I just knew.

In the painting Boann looks out from the canvas to the viewer, her gaze squinted.  She is looking at the physical world and the spirit world at the same time.  As she loses her body, she begins to merge with the spirit.  I also began to understand that spirit was influencing my painting process.  Once I let go, realizing that nothing was going to hold back the waves of emotion crashing upon me, I found rays of light, like those that streak down upon the Salmon of Knowledge.  Here, the Salmon holds a hazel nut from one of the sacred trees that grew around the well.  Boann's curiosity not only freed the waters of the well, but the five Salmon of knowledge which is obtained by the senses.  The Salmon, having fed on the magical nuts of the hazel trees, possessed the wisdom of the world and inadvertently brought this wisdom to mankind.

I gained a kind of wisdom as a result of this painting. I had a deeper understanding of who I was, what I needed and a clearer sense of purpose.  This kind of wisdom often can only be gained by a severe and painful stripping away of one's ego.  Boann, who had gazed into the well out of rebellion for having been barred from it, paid the ultimate price, but also evolved into something greater.  Sometimes, sacrifice is necessary for growth.  This painting taught me that great sacrifices were ahead, but they would lead me toward a deeper knowledge of myself and the path I was embarking on.

Once I completed this painting, I felt scoured clean. I was raw and open, but it was necessary in order to approach the next painting, which was leading me down into a kind of darkness I had never encountered before.

Next, The Morrigan.

DoAn
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Painting Rebirth and Renewal

I am happy to report my new working schedule is really working out well.  I am getting a lot of work completed and other work attended to without feeling like I am neglecting one thing for another.  I have completed recent custom sculpture orders.  I have written over forty pages of creating writing and completed tons of research for my novel.  This schedule affirms my dedication to a creative life, and I hope will help continue to guide me toward a full-time career in making art.

Lion and Lamb custom order by DoAn

I also made some wonderful progress on the Etain painting.  Something powerful happened recently as I worked on the piece.  I am not sure if it is the new working schedule, the return to painting, the changing season, or a combination of all these, but I really felt the energy of rebirth and renewal coursing through me as I painted.  I began with the leaves, painting, then scrubbing out the paint, going over them with a yellow wash.  Then I moved on to Etain's face. As I painted her, and her features emerged, I reflected on the many changes that I have gone through in the course of my life, and how many more I have to experience.  Each wash that revealed more and more of Etain's face, brought me deeper into my own experience of renewal and how it seems this experience always comes out of the darkest of places, often in a flash of light.  I have found myself wallowing in darkness, a slow, winding descent into despair, for what seems an eternity, and then, when the time for change comes, like the igniting spark of Brigid's fire, I am in a new place, inspired and shaking from the newness of my perspective.

Each time I work on these goddess-energy paintings, I think, this is the one that speaks the most strongly to me.  First, I thought it was Boann, who dragged me through an emotional hell, then The Morrigan, who made me face some of the darker aspects of myself, to Brigid who lifted me with the inspiration of a life fueled by creativity and self-empowerment, and now with Etain, I think, this, yes, THIS is who I am! The one who is constantly being reborn, reawakened, alive to the newness all around me.  I am realizing that each painting is the most powerful piece at the moment that I am painting them, because I am experiencing the energy they represent as I create them. Once I complete Etain, I know the next painting will be THE painting best representing my life and where I am.

This is precisely why I paint and why it is so difficult and necessary for me to do it.  This is why whatever it was that spoke to me at OAC in Missouri telling me to explore painting as a spiritual path and look to the sculpture as a way to support myself while remaining creative. I have no idea where these paintings and the future paintings will take me, but as I experience this transformative energy, I know it is something I must do.  Each time I sit down to paint, and then step away and observe as a witness and not a painter, I know I have connected to something much bigger than myself.

I am thrilled to continue and see where all this takes me.  I am even more thrilled to be sharing this journey with you. 

DoAn
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What is Needle-Felting?

I have been talking for most of the year about making wool sculptures using a technique called needle-felting.  What is needle-felting?  It is a process of felting (fusing the fibers of wool together) using a special needle that has tiny barbs on it.  By repeatedly poking the wool with the needle, the fibers of the wool compress and lock together.  With the needle, I am able to shape the wool into just about anything I like.  I can fuse different colors or pieces of wool together without the use of glue or sewing. 

Needle-felting began as a craft form in the mid-eighties, starting primarily as a way to create flat applique on fabric.  Since then, it has grown into making three dimensional sculptures and even wall art.  Stephanie Metz has been one artist who has turned needle-felting into a fine art.  Her work is large, highly detailed pieces that are developed from a theme and are shown in gallery shows. Her work really pushes the boundaries of how needle-felted sculpture can is viewed.

I am interested in similarly pushing the boundaries of needle-felting.  Right now I am exploring the natural world by creating sculptures of birds and animals, some with little micro-settings.  My work will soon be shown publicly at several shows I have lined up this summer, later to be made available for purchase online through my website and my Etsy shop. As I develop the sculptures, experimenting with complexity and technique, I plan to create more pieces with a theme, perhaps considering gallery shows of the sculptures as well.

In the meantime, I will show some sneak peeks of my sculpture.  Today, I will share a little overview of my needle-felting process:

Step 1: I take wool roving, which I purchase from Beth Marcellus of Warm n' Woolie Farm, a local wool farmer, who raises the sheep, processes the wool and dyes the wool by hand.  (I also buy my free-range eggs from her.  If you haven't had free-range eggs, you don't know what REAL eggs taste like!)

Step 2: Using the special barbed felting-needle, I felt the wool roving into various shapes, which will eventually be fused together to make the whole sculpture.  Each pieces can take several hours to felt into shape.  That's thousands of individual pokes of the needle!

Step 3: Once the separate pieces are made, I fuse them together using the needle.  (No glue or sewing involved)  Then I begin the shape the overall piece.  In this case, I am smoothing the line between the wing of the cardinal and where it meets its body. Then I will add the beak, felting more wool onto the head to smooth the transition between the beak and the head.  That's several more thousands of pokes of the needle.

Step 4: Now I begin to add the fine details.  Here I add the black mask on the face of the cardinal. I add some black details on the wing and tail feathers.  More shaping of the head, adding cheeks, and body, adding a puffy chest, takes place as this stage.  Yet more thousands of pokes of the needle.

Finished Piece: Once the final details are added. I sew the glass eyes on and the sculpture is finished.  In this case, the sculpture is an ornament, so I sew a string on as well.  This is a small sculpture (about three inches high) and takes between six and eight hours to make.  Sculptures larger than four inches, and those that have legs or other more complex features can take from 15 to 35 hours to complete.  I don't even want to imagine how many thousands of needle pokes that is!

DoAn
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All artwork, photos and text © Copyright 2005-2010 DoAn Art (Antony Galbraith) unless indicated otherwise. All Rights Reserved. Any downloading, copying or use of images on this website is strictly prohibited without express written consent by Antony Galbraith.

Stages of Creation: Part 4

Step 4: The Creation Stage

I have done the research, come up with the image, mediated, and completed the drawing, and planning. Now I am ready to really bring the painting to life. This process is the least complicated, but often the most demanding.

Before I start painting, I get the colors together that I selected from the previous stage. Then I use the tracing paper and transfer a very light tracing of the drawing on the painting surface. In this case, it is an Ampersand Clayboard Smooth board.

Then I might play some music to help connect me to the energy of the painting and to set a creative atmosphere. In the case of the Goose painting, I listened to a lot of medieval music, with a tendency toward heavy drums. The band Corvus Corax became a favorite while working on this piece. The music helps to connect me to the painting, which is beneficial when I have to stop and start painting many times.

When I actually start the painting, a curious thing tends to happen, I find myself entering a meditative state, similar to when I am creating the drawing. I have a tendency to lose track of time. In fact, I often can paint for five or six hours straight, thinking when I have stopped to take a break, that I have only been working for an hour or two. When I am working on the beginning stages of the painting I need to be sure that have a good chunk of time in which to work. If I have a place to be or have a job to go to, it is not a good idea to start painting, or I will end up missing the appointment or being late for work. If I wait until the end of the day, after I get home from work or my appointments, I might paint until the wee hours of the night and end up losing precious sleep! At later stages when I am doing detail work, I can start and stop more easily. So, sometimes I can paint for an hour before work or after I come home, without fear of disappearing from the world for too long!

Where do I go when I paint? If any of you meditate, you might relate to this experience more easily. I practiced very serious sitting meditation for over four years before I began shifting my focus more heavily on painting. To me, there is little difference between sitting meditation and painting. The only difference perhaps is in the posture. In both instances my mind is open, my thoughts are focused, but not fixed on any one thing. I am connected to the present moment. Suddenly, I am aware of no past, present or future, perhaps, I am aware of them existing all at once. I believe this helps me to create a painting that is connected to universal energy. It helps to keep my artwork authentic, which I hope, in turn, helps my work to reach people on a deeper level.

The tools I use here are:
(clockwise from the bottom left)
--The drawing from which I refer occasionally as I paint, mainly for the finer details that come later in the painting.
--The color sketch and color palette
--My laptop, which I use to view reference photos (I try not to print too many of my photos to help save trees and reduce waste)
--My tracing of the drawing (beneath that is a composite photo I created in Photoshop to use as a compositional reference)
--My cup of tea (now it is white or green tea, since I need a steady hand at this stage)
--My inks for painting
--Blending medium (for extending the drying time of the inks)
--Masking Fluid (This is a special liquid use to mark off areas of the painting that I don't want the ink to cover. Perhaps I want to reserve white in places. I can brush the masking fluid on and let it dry. Then I can paint all over it. When I am done, I simply rub the masking fluid off and the the area it covered is untouched by the ink. I can paint that area or leave it white.)
--Spray mister (to keep my palette wet so the inks don't dry out)
--Jar of water with my brushes in it
--Small jars of mixed colors
--Watersoluble Ink Pencils (These come in handy for very tiny details, as this painting is only 5 x 7")
--My mixing palette
--Paper towels (These are made from 100% recycled materials. I try to reuse them many times. Since once the ink dries it is permanent, I can re-wet the paper towel and don't have to worry about the ink running.)

The length of the Creation Stage various depending the painting. Some paintings can take weeks or months to complete, others only a few days. Usually, the smaller pieces take less time. But, if I am doing a lot of glazing work, the time to finish a piece can be significantly longer due to the drying time required between layers.

I am adding the finishing touches to the Goose painting now, and I will be posting the final piece in a few days. Be sure to check back to see the result. At that time, I will also share the background information about the Goose and why I chose it as a subject.

DoAn

Stages of Creation: Part 3

Step 3: Cultivation Stage

Now that I have the idea or concept and a composition is drafted, I can explore color! Color is a very important factor to my paintings. It is probably the main thread that connects all my varied styles of art. I am drawn to saturated colors. I like rich, vibrant colors that are still natural and not too garish. This is probably why spring and autumn are my favorite seasons, as they tend to be the two most colorful seasons.

The purpose of this stage is to determine the color palette that best suits the piece. The colors I choose are not only part of a visual aesthetic, but should also match the theme and concept of the particular piece. Color not only reflects the world we see, but it can also evoke mood, create atmosphere, and act as symbols. I try to incorporate all these in varying degrees in each of my paintings.

In this stage, I will create a color sketch of the painting. First, I transfer the drawing onto paper, then I will start to paint the image using the colors I think will work best for the piece. I am not as concerned with detail or exactness of the image. I am focusing mainly on color relationships. While I am painting, I keep track of the colors I use and think are right for the piece by making a small color palette on a separate sheet of paper.

One of the side benefits of doing a color sketch is that I get a second chance to see if the composition works. In the case of the Goose painting here, I realized once I started adding the trees in the background, that the painting was feeling too cramped. So, in the final painting, I will get rid of the trees and leave an open sky with a low horizon. Now the goose can breathe!

Often, while I work on the color sketch, I make notes to myself about the piece. For example, on the Goose painting, I didn't like how dark the grass was behind the black-berry bush, so I made a note to lighten the green in the final painting. I might make suggestions about altering the composition, adjusting a color, or adding or subtracting details.

The tools I use here are:
On the left side:
Colored pencils for coloring small details or fine lines
Permanent marker for writing comments on the color test.
Paper for testing out colors.

In the Center:
Bottles of Ink.
Bottle of blending medium for mixing with the ink to keep it from drying too fast. (Once ink is dry it is permanent and nearly impossible to make corrections.)
Color Palette of selected colors for the final painting.
Color Sketch.

On the Right Side:
My cup of tea. (I am back to black tea here, as this part of the process doesn't require any careful brush strokes.)
More bottles of ink.
Jar of water.
Small containers for storing newly created colors. (Sometimes I have to combine two or more ink colors together to create my own color mixtures. It is much easier to make large quantities at one time to make sure the color is consistent in one painting.)
Dropper for mixing colors.
Brushes.
Ceramic palette for mixing colors.
Paper towel for absorbing excess water and pigment from brushes and for clean-up.

Once I get the colors right and have a good color palette created. It is on to the next step: the Creation Stage

DoAn

Stages of Creation: Part 2

Step 2: Growing Stage

After the idea or inspiration for a painting begins to take more solid form and substance in my mind, I can begin sketching and working out the composition. Here the previous research and meditation have its greatest influence as the image begins to appear on paper.

I usually make several drawings, some will be simple line drawings, others will be value studies. I will play around with compositional elements as well. I use many different pencils for doing the drawing and value studies. I use tracing paper to trace over my drawing and then use the tracing to reposition the drawing. That way I can experiment more freely with the composition and save time from having to redraw the entire thing from scratch. The rubbing alcohol is used to fix the graphite on the tracing paper so it doesn't smudge all over the paper when I am transferring the image. I use the colored pencils for tracing so I know what part of the image I have already traced. For example, in this drawing I have the main goose in the foreground and two other geese in the background, one swimming, one flying. I can trace my drawing, then transfer it to a new composition, moving the flying goose higher or lower to create a stronger composition.

Often, when I am working on the drawing, I lose awareness of time and my surroundings. When that happens, it is only when I step away from my desk to stretch or refresh my tea that I notice fully what I have been working on. I may decide to do some refinement at this point, or perhaps follow up with some further research. Occasionally symbols or images appear in the drawing that correlate with a deeper meaning from what I had originally intended. This happened recently with my drawing for the painting Boann: Transformation of a Goddess. After several hours working in the drawing, I stepped away and noticed that I had drawn a fish. I did some further research and found out about the powerful connection between Boann and the salmon. The information was very likely in my mind from previous research, but it was stored somewhere in my subconscious memory, because I wasn't aware of it. The trance-effect of the drawing process tends to bring the subconscious material out onto the paper.

The other valuable tools I use are erasers. I use the white nylon eraser for getting rid of large areas completely. The kneaded eraser (that knobby grey item) is used to lighten areas without erasing the pencil completely. The electric eraser (the thick pen-like object) is one of the most fantastic inventions! I use this as another drawing tool, erasing areas to shape and give form and depth to the drawing. The power of the eraser lets me erase fine areas all the way to the white of the paper. Sometimes drawing is more about subtracting pencil marks, more than making marks!

The tissues are for smudging the pencil on the paper to create more gray tones I also use the tissues for applying the alcohol to the tissue paper.

You can see some field guides and some photos for some quick references, in this case, to make sure I get such things as the number of leaves on a blackberry branch or the pattern of the goose feathers correct. Even though I am working with myth and folklore, I like to have some aspects rooted in reality. I would prefer to have most of my information come from direct observation, but unfortunately, until I can become a full-time artist, I often have to rely on other sources like these.

And lastly, my faithful cup of tea! By this time, I am beginning to move away from the black teas, into black tea blends and oolongs. Soon, I will be breaking out the greens and whites.

During this step, I might take breaks and, weather permitting, go for walks in the park. I usually bring my camera and take pictures of things that inspire me, or catch my eye. If I have time, I might bring my sketchbook and do some quick observational drawings. Usually, however, the walk is more about stepping back from the drawing process. I might need to clear my mind or settle my energy. This part of the process tends to raise my energy and I find that once I get up from my chair, I feel a bit antsy and hypersensitive. Walking outside helps to ground me once more.

Once I get a feeling that the drawing is ready, it is time to move on to the next step: The Cultivation Stage.

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Stages of Creation: Part 1

There is much that happens before a painting is completed, posted on my blog and loaded to my website, or various print-on-demand sites. I thought it would be helpful to my clients, those interested in my work, and to other artists to share my creative process with you. Over the next few posts, I will be giving you the step by step process of how I create my art.

Part 1: The Germination Stage

Here you see my desk with many of the tools I use to brainstorm and come up with ideas and compositions. Many times, I already have a picture in my head of what I think I would like to create. Other times, I have no image, but an idea of a theme or a subject. In either case, I need to refine the image or develop the idea into something workable. It is rare that I can actually recreate the images in my mind to my satisfaction, so research helps to develop something more workable.

You can see several books that I reference for ideas. In this case, I have an idea to create a painting based on myths and totemic relationships to the goose. I look at books on folklore, mythic traditions, field guides, and studies in biological behavior. I use the computer to do some additional research (see the pages of notes on the right). I compile all this information and write about it in my journal, which you see in the center. On the left are small thumbnail sketches that pop into my head as I research and write my notes.

In the back are CDs of music that I listen to while brainstorming. Music is a very helpful tool in creating my art. Sometimes music is a direct source of inspiration, like the band Boann's Clan was when I worked on my painting Boann: Transformation of a Goddess. They had a CD that was about the life of Boann. I am not always so lucky to find such perfect music, however, and usually find music that is relaxing and inspiring. Music helps me to set a mood and atmosphere for creation. I often listen to the same music over and over while working on the same piece. No matter what I am doing, or what other jobs that might take me away from working on my art, I can put in the CD and I am right back in the same space I was the day before.

Occasionally, I will stop, do some meditation, and let the information I have gathered interact and merge in my subconscious. This helps with developing images and gives my intuitive side an opportunity to offer input. I am much more interested in allowing the subconscious have a more prominent role in the development of my work. The research I do helps to ground my work and gives it the potential to reach a wider audience. My intuitive side, helps to personalize the gathered information, so that my work remains original.

Lastly, there is a cup of tea. There is little I can do without a pot of tea nearby. Those who know me, know about this minor obsession of mine. It doesn't matter what kind of tea: green, black, white, oolong, etc. Though I do tend toward the blacker, more robust teas at this stage of the creative process. The lighter teas like green and white are more favorable at later stages of creation, as they tend to be less stimulating, and allow me to connect more directly to painting as it is being created.

Next Step: The Growing Stage

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