Artistic Firsts, Optimistic Outlooks, Helping Others
As artists trying to find our place in a creative community, we tend to seek validation of our abilities through a variety of milestones along our paths of growth. Without some level of external acknowledgment we often wonder how good our work really is. As Fran Dussaman reflects, “Like many artists starting out, I enjoyed the process of creating but didn’t know if my work had any artistic merit.”
Having one’s work accepted to a juried show, being invited to display work in a gallery and making a first sale are all examples of achieving a dream, and these events always suggest we must be doing something right! With this sort of validation, we are given the great gift of hope.
Hope is also something many artists try to encourage through a message attached to their art. Sometimes it’s reflected in the vision for a piece, such as Carole Belliveau’s belief in “the potential in every child and the promise of our ever-renewing chances in life through creativity,” and sometimes it’s through the act of helping another, such as Tejae Floyde did with her art when she volunteered to raise money for a friend.
Sometimes a little hope is all we need to get us through the day (or the painting).
ON WINGS OF LIGHT
Sharon J. Navage | 34" × 27" (86cm × 69cm) | monoprint with stitched, layered relief print, collage elements, hand marks on Revere
I attended a workshop by Lennox Dunbar where I learned to carve MDF board and treat it as an intaglio style plate. These gave me my background image with an open area in the middle. I made a relief carving of a bird from one of my photos and decided to print on fabric instead of paper and bead it. I then hunted through my stash of collected items for compatible colors to stitch into several layers, including the ribbon. The remaining pieces were added over a number of days. The story is in the hand marks, “I found a bird on the road to Paris.” . . . All roads lead to Paris in my dreams!
“Instead of focusing on the finished product, just start creating. The piece will tell you what it wants to be, and sometimes it will be completely different than your original vision.” Fran Dussaman
DESPERADO
Fran Dussaman | 10" × 8" (25cm × 20cm) | joint compound, acrylic paint, stamping, wire, plaster wrap, rebar tie wire on plywood
Like many artists starting out, I enjoyed the process of creating, but didn’t know if my work had any artistic merit. I finally found the nerve to enter three pieces in a local juried art show. It was a scary proposition. Could I handle the possible rejection? Would I still enjoy the process of creating if they decided my work didn’t have any artistic merit? Turns out my fears were unfounded. Two of my pieces were selected, and Desperado took first place in its category! Not only was my work not rejected, I’m now officially an award-winning artist!
THE WINDOW BOX
Sharon J. Navage | 28" × 22" (71cm × 56cm) | solar plates, polyester litho plate, chine collé collage elements, image transfer, digital printed acrylic skin on Rives BFK
A dream of every artist is validation. This can mean any number of different things to other artists. Validation for me was the invitation to this particular show.
This piece was created specifically in response to an invitational printmaking mentor/prodigy exhibition. My idea was to stay true to my love of mixed media while meeting the printmaking criteria of this show.