Where have I been?

Life has taken some unexpected twists and turns this past week, hence no blog entries.

Firstly, my poor jaw decided to ache and hurt and bother me, so I opted to not return to the workshop in Calgary. I'm sure I missed some great stuff, but I'm going to have to settle for what I managed to glean on Day 1. One of the most interesting things that Jason Pollen presented was that you have to do something over and over and over to get it to click in your head. To do this, you need to clear the deck (so to speak) by focussing on one element.

If you just look at one thing, you can let everything else go into soft focus. What you get is a sharp look at the one element and how you can use it. It doesn't matter which element you choose, just limit things somehow.

This might be to pick a size for a piece and then work to that size and that size only over and over again. This will allow you to really experiment and discover what it is you can do and want to do.

His words struck a chord with me because I've been working in a very minimal colour field lately--white on white. What I was discovering was how to play with shape and line to create design. His point is that if you don't limit the playing field in some way, you get overwhelmed and never really learn anything.

It's rather like being lost at sea with no compass. Interesting! From personal experience, I would say that he's right on the money with this idea. In addition to my recent white on white, a few years ago, I made a number of pieces that were all 8" x 10" and I found the same thing.

By working in one size only, I was not distracted. When you focus like this, you have to find solutions to overcome the limitations and that's where the creativity starts to blossom. Try it, I think you'll like it!