Every year in the spring and autumn, I go to the Discovery Gardens in Dallas to buy my fair share of plants. This year, I bought mostly milkweed as I am starting a garden next year with milkweed and passionvines.
I enjoy wildlife gardening and much of what my art derives from nature and enjoying plants. I have always loved science and planting for wildlife while photographing and writing about them allows my art and science to merge.
Out of the cold, the remnants of melting snow,
The crackling of ice on pavement
a familiar sound of birds…
I was seeking peace,
doves above me, rise and fall
the sound of morning
and all I needed was peace
I have been isolated for the last four days. I feel like my whole life is a reboot with snow and ice as the catalyst.
It’s embarrassing, a comparison of New York in the snow versus Texas, but this isolation is everything I needed to recreate myself or maybe, more like get back to the person lost in the turmoil of daily life.
The sound of toil on a telephone pole
the incessant builder,
digging a hole.
I was seeking purpose
nothing stops in nature, every Machine
says its so, I was desperate for purpose
with no specific place to go
How often do you listen to the sound of nature, the cracking of snow, the sound of birds, it is a simple, easy and yet so difficult for most of us. Our lives are filled with things that need to be done.
Sometimes the greatest accomplishment is simply stopping long enough to listen, to hear our inner child. This is something I’ve been struggling with for many months.
Birds-Seeking Peace & Purpose: Finding peace in nature.
Birds-Finding peace in nature: Poetry
The richness of red in a winter landscape
remembered as a child, they call them a soul
seeking attention,
a high pitched chip as I walk home
the realization of joy, is knowing
we’re never alone
so why do we feel so, alone
I’ve been fighting depression for all my life, in the last few months, it’s been a constant. Even while I was doing what I love, going places and exploring the road, depression kept a hold on me.
This morning, the chore of walking the dog introduced me to my young self, a need I might have overlooked, the simple act of listening to the birds finds peace. The next obstacle or summit is probably joy-that has more to do with God than nature.
I was seeking silence,
I was wanting joy, a familiar soul
in the sounds of birds among the trees
a small child I used to know
A painting about a suicide in a field. I wanted the sudden disturbance of the birds to be a warning. I am still working on finishing this piece.
From a Canvas: Back to Painting – I wouldn’t trade being creative for anything but there are parts that can be a curse. If you approach it with the wrong attitude, it can be frustrating. I am writing a book about the process of finding happiness and contentment when brain chemistry has a mind of its own.
My biggest obstacle is knowing where to start. Do you write poetry, prose, paint something or go disappear and photograph for a while. The problem is the desire to do which doesn’t always align with inspiration.
Sometimes the image happens. There isn’t always a clear and perfect image in mind and that’s okay. This pastel is of the city at early evening. I wanted the lights reflecting in Lake Ray Hubbard to show movement.
Creating without inspiration is like painting a wall. Push the paint back and forth, end up with a solid color with no intricate shadows and detail; not exactly creative.
When the inspiration meets the desire, suddenly the paint does its own thing, you can be in another room if it weren’t for the hand being your vehicle for painting. The photograph finds its own light and models itself a composition that was already in place before you found it.
This painting sat on my easel for quite a while. I just recently finished it and it will be a news item soon. I have had a very intense and productive pastel series in recent months.
Even more interesting is how words create their own, without thinking of the right word or seeking a rhyme-it just writes itself. The feeling is euphoric and being unable to get into that feeling is where depression, mental block and so much frustration begins.
The way I handle this process is to realize you are exactly where you need to be at any given time, what needs to be written, painted, etc. has not formed yet. The panic you feel is you’ll never have that amazing feeling again and a hopelessness grows.
Realize depression, anxiety and frustration are all part of the process of discovering the next work and it will be already developed because through all the empty moments, it was slowly developing itself.
If you consider yourself just a lightning rod to the inspiration and a humble steward to explain that which might be as simple as a flower or something that could potentially change the world or at least the world of an audience that receives it, you may find hope in the darkness.
I believe creativity is a great burden that we are given to explain things in a different way-there goes my humility, but I do feel we have a responsibility to be true to the vision, honest with its execution and without preconceive intention.
That which we create is no longer ours, it is the property of the viewer. The audience, will discover it and make it their own from their own experiences, I don’t believe the creative needs to explain their intention unless the viewer wants more background, art is in the viewers eyes.
It’s been a long time, I feel like I’ve been knocked down, floundering on a canvas, this is my moment of getting back, picking up my tools and describing what has been developing for far too long.
Random acts of creativity: Picture the most euphoric state you can imagine; the birth of a child, flying down a ski slope or a rollercoaster or the view of an awe-inspiring sunset and realize how transient that state is. This is what creativity is for me.
It is when everything aligns naturally and suddenly the strange riddle you’ve been deciphering becomes completely discernible. The riddle is inspiration-I equate it to craving something to eat but not quite able to decide what you are craving.
Photography: I have experienced this state of clarity in each medium I work with. My photography used to be, a love of landscapes which weren’t always available to shoot depending on the quality of light and time of day.
I would find an abstract pattern in nature but the image never quite meshed. In a landscape, you can plan for shapes and composition allowing lines to create depth and dimension for the viewer but how do you explain objects and make them have interest to the viewer.
So many attempts failed because I was missing the crucial aspect of the image-it wasn’t the shape, it wasn’t the color, instead it was how it interacted with light.
you just know you’ve captured something beautiful and the excitement is that transient state of seeing what’s invisible and showing it to the viewer.
Artbygordon 2019
As I continue to see nature beyond the larger scope of a landscape, the isolated image becomes more clear. I find myself noticing, even in the flattest, blandest afternoon light how something evokes an emotion or at least interest from a chaos of details.
After I shoot a landscape or an object, sometimes you just know you’ve captured something and the excitement is that transient state of seeing what’s invisible and capturing it for the viewer.
NEXT Post Creativity in Painting: Pushing Paint
I just started a new painting about the night sky, just did a simple underpainting of trees in the front yard with a moon and star-filled sky.
The more I get back to painting, the more I find myself seeking a graphic element, simple and more abstract. In the past it was more about mood and peripherals and now it is about the shapes and how they interplay.
I’ve been admiring too much abstract images I guess. I’ve also been seeking how light interplays with objects in my photography, which seems to be a principle in the new/old series.
I am getting back to several images of water-they all were somewhat complete but I was never completely pleased with them. It is amazing to me how much an image literally plays itself out while you paint.
There is the first obstacle of pushing paint around, overcomplicating what you see and over-explaining a simple principle of light and shadow.
The droplets on the rose are perfect example of how it is not overcomplicated creating reflection and light-it is a very subtle, simple rendering that delivers the best image.
When the subconscious overrides the conscious and truly sees and renders simple the image as it is-this is when the hand and the brain tend to work independent of consciousness, the lines, forms and subtle detail seem to create themselves.
To show the progression of recent paintings, I need to go back to previous series. This is where the shape is becoming a bit more important than the feeling and depth of the water.
I feel like I am getting back to full circle, the paintings in the new series will have more detail in the water, more sharper contrasts of light and I will get back to the reason I loved the night sky and water.
The next post will be about the night sky with the newer images. I am excited about the new series and see my vision truly taking shape.
Back to the Canvas- got back to the canvas yesterday and found my purpose for water. The problem with water or even capturing images realistically is seeing and capturing the basic element of the image.
To Truly See: Getting back to Details
After you’ve truly seen and conveyed the basic idea, the essence of water with temperature and depth, then you can stray from the reality of the colors and even the perspective.
Intention: What is the Basic Premise
It all depends on intention, my intention is always to see the depth and clarity of water first, after that I can express the place or time and I’ve succeeded in the whole reason I started painting water in the first place.
What has happened recently is a loss of conveying the details. Waterfalls end up looking like flows of hair or cotton and the water clarity and depth instead takes on a nondescript study of color.
The Shift: To Truly See
There is a point where I can push color back and forth without truly seeing but with any luck there is the shift, where the subconscious remembers what it knows.
This is what happened yesterday, suddenly the brush moves with little consciousness from the artist-it’s like all the forms and strokes are already there.
It is almost an out-of-body experience because the hand the brush, even the colors and the forms tend to paint themselves. I’ve experienced this with writing too and it is an amazing place that no artist wants to leave.
New Elements in Recent Works
I’m not sure if it’s because of shooting so much graphic photography but recently I have more intention on form and contrast of light. The actually scene is secondary to the relationship of the elements and the contrast of light.
There are many ways to show depth and perspective, this is just one more option and I’m really beginning to see a shift in my work overall as elements supersede or at least complement mood.
2019: A New Year – A new year, an unblemished calendar but what to do? How can I make 2019 a special, productive year?
The question definitely has to do with my readers but at the same time, I can’t deliver meaningful content unless I know what my readers and subscribers are wanting or even expecting.
I have decided to break my posts into specific columns so you will have an idea of what to expect and there will be a constant theme going through my content although varied as it might be.
I used to create the blog on Blogger and than share it with multiple network channels but I am trying to localize all the content through the website.
Here are a list of the upcoming posts and what I envision for the year.
The Artist’s Window: It’s how the artist sees the world, how we find light and what makes the ordinary extraordinary from an artist’s view.
Depression for the Layman: How to live with depression and tips and tools to live a good life despite the illness. I will be putting all the pieces into a book with other self-help books in the works.
From A Kayak: I’m trying to bring this back; it might be a view from a tree, a view from a platform-it’s just going to be different places in nature.
ArtbyGordon: New Series, new subject matter and my reactions and thoughts on art and being creative. Artbygordon and life creatively will merge into this catchall for living a creative lifestyle and breaking the boundaries of the expected.
Gardening: From the beginning to end of the garden and different aspects of life woven through a life filled with nature and gardening. On a practical note: all the winners and losers, maintaining order in a chaotic garden and other thoughts on life and creativity.
Travel and Writing: This will be the travel side of my blogging. I will highlight at least one place through each month-it could be reviews on food, venues, concerts-anything travel with a little bit of nature added in for color.
The Reluctant Military Dad: This is a new piece of the puzzle-it’s about being a single dad and letting go. It’s about my son in the military and the aspects of a dad watching his son become something great.
General parenting insights and topics about raising kids in today’s world-being a step dad to my oldest son and all I’ve learned on this journey of parenting.
The next thought, what my readers are wanting and what to add to the blog-I would love to hear what people would like to read about.
I am excited about 2019 and feel my brand and its scope is growing. Please be a part of the Artbygordon newsletter to get up to date news on series, appearances and latest writing and photography.
Creative photography- There are several elements that lend themselves to a mood photography. Previously, I would look for abstract patterns but my final image never added up to my passion or interest.
You can’t fake the inspired image but you create inspiration with textures, composition, colors and shapes. If the photographer has no interest in his or her subject neither will the viewer.
There are several elements that always find themselves into my work, whether it is painting, photography or even writing.
Creative photography:
Nature: Always the center for most of my work, nature is where I get my peace and inspiration from. Nature has always been a comfort and my strength.
Recently, I have learned not only to find beauty and peace but also the isolation of light and the abstract patterns that continues to interest me.
This is a recent motivation for my art and photography. I’m continuing to seek light as it creates patterns or abstract images from nature.
I’m learning to find light in the midst of a flat landscape. I isolate nature at it’s simplest form.
My intention is to keep the image simple and as iconic as possible while still saying something about the subject.
The clean empty space is what creates the atmosphere of solitude.
Isolating nature has become the style my most recent images. In addition, I’m planning on expanding with still life.
One reason for growing a wildlife garden: If you build it, they’ll come. And they are beautiful to watch in the garden.
All photographs are from my garden. It is amazing how you build a landscape and they come and use it. I have the whole life cycle in the garden. Next post I will show the birds that come to the garden when you don’t spray insecticides.
My intention has always been to create art that was realistic and once I attained a certain skill level I would just tweak reality, just enough to make the viewer a little off kilter.
It probably stems from years of depression which, although is part of the creative process, also makes the person feel off center. The paintings that approach surreal are a bit more dark but nothing too obvious.
Moonflower is a painting of the morning glories, moon flowers, which only bloom at night. I wanted to share a bit of the darkness and mystery of evening but I wanted the flowers to have a bit of a magical feeling to them.
The willow tree is a tree from my youth. It makes it into most of my paintings and is a bit of a symbol of time spent in New Jersey. The dark green lawn in the summer beneath the shadows of tall dark willow trees.
The same trees were struck by lightning and ended up becoming outdoor furniture where many of my very old poems were written on copied on.
Blackbirds are a consistent subject in both my paintings and writing. They are mysterious as the night sky and symbolic of impending doom.
Halloween has always been a subject as every year I see a different feeling to capture. I love the dark evening and the idea of goblins in the trees, I have always been a big fan of horror movies and my uncle used to buy my brother and I horror comic books and the feeling and thrill of being scared has continued through my writing and painting.
Child of ten is a diary of sorts, my dad died when I was ten. This is a painting of the effects of losing a parent at the age of ten. There are many symbols including the egg which represents the soul. Again the blackbirds are in the field and the child watches the future unfold.
The death of my father was a catalyst for much of my earlier writing and has only recently shown up in paintings.
This painting is from a dream when I was very young. My grandfather came out of a willow tree as the lightning hit the tree. The red flannel shirt is from the dream and I remembered the shattered bits of wood-I am planning on another attempt at this painting as the face wasn’t quite correct.
Many older painting ideas are now resurfacing as I begin to gain more confidence. I plan on creating a more concise series on the surreal side.
