Inspiration

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
Vincent van Gogh

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come from something good or bad. Love, hate, a song, a word, the color of the morning sky, or the stars at night. I suppose all art is inspired by something. I never thought that way but looking back at my work I see it is true. I mean even a photo is inspired by what you are seeing.

Of my three fav paintings two were done years ago when I was still an undergrad. One I call ‘Dark Shit’. It was painted just after I got out of rehab and is painted in grey undertones with swatches of black and red over top. Still dazed and confused from a summer in hell it is if I stood back and threw my demons on a canvas hoping to trap them there.

Not even a year later I painted the blue painting on the sideboard. ‘Elephant Rose’. Totally diff from the dark one it is all bright shades of blue. Inspired, if anything, by the sheer joy of survival and putting some of the dark times behind me.

What I never experienced before was a continuing inspiration. In the past year I have done a dozen ‘quality’ sketches, one painting, and picked up my camera again. All inspired by the words, and just desire to see, of a good friend. What was an off handed comment about a rough sketch became a months long project ending in my third fav painting ‘Gurl Parts’. A summer vacation became an overdue artistic release of charcoal. I picked up my camera again just to see if she was right. And I started taking dozens of pics in sl partly in competition but mainly just to her reaction.

Probably the biggest body of work I have ever done in such a short period. Inspired by a my friend.

Thanks

tuneage