The Need for Change

It has been four months since I started painting full-time and I am already feeling the need for some change.  I don't know if this is normal and happens to all artists, but I'm trying to see it as part of the "growing as an artist" process. Right now I have an itch to do something different. I have the urge to experiment and break free from my now, very tight, painting style. I want to explore and let loose, the art equivalent of letting my hair down.

This feeling has left me feeling a bit torn though. How do I explore and still meet my obligations with the galleries that represent me? Do I give up my current work and do a complete 180? What do I do with these pieces that I create once I feel like they are completed?

What I have decided to do is give myself the week to just "play" with no expectations of creating anything spectacular. I've been wanting to work a bit more abstract and play with textures, or "implied" textures, by using different papers, perhaps fabric. I'm not really clear on what I want to do other than not worry about figures or forms. I miss working abstractedly and just experimenting with techniques. I am giving myself this whole week to get this out of my system and see what develops, if anything develops.

Am I giving up my regular work? No. I actually really enjoy my current series but I feel like I need to loosen up some. My style went from pretty loose to very tight in a short amount of time, and while I am very happy with how my skills have grown, I miss my former ability to "just see what happens" as I paint. I feel like I'm a bit on auto-pilot lately and I am hoping that this week will give me a much needed creative jolt. This work that I am playing with right now may find it's way into my current series, maybe it will morph into a new series that combines both styles. Maybe this is just what it is, fun and a creative vacation from my work. I don't know what will happen until it happens and I step back and see how I did.

These are really bad photos of what I worked on today, which are 5"x5" panels with multiple layers of paper, wax, and gesso. These pics don't show the subtleness of each piece or the true color of the wax that was used. In fact, they look pretty plain and awful on this site. I am actually really happy with the way they turned out. Are these masterpieces or ready to be shown in a gallery? No, probably not. But what I can say about these pieces is that it's a good start at my week of playing.