Into the middle of things.
After a month of focusing on The Mama Temple Art Exhibit and Events I am reflecting, regrouping myself and my creativity. Often this will go very inward after such an outpouring of energy into a collective project. I declare the entire month of July an exhausting but rousing success! The artists that sent in Artwork, and the facilitators of the workshops were absolutely treasures. Each work of Art unique in its technique and message, and each woman who presented a workshop was community focused and came with integrity, generosity and a wealth of knowledge to share.
Please go to www.themamatemple.org for more info on the recent exhibit and events that were offered.
If you didn’t get the chance to see the exhibit, I made a visual only video and it’s available here:
The Mama Temple Art Exhibit
In Medias Res 23” x 33” Mixed Media on Canvas by Jennifer Randall
In Medias Res, Latin for in the middle of things. I always feel in the middle of something! Do you? As soon as one thing is finished, I am already in the works of another. I feel this is an intragal part of a creative lifestyle. Always moving circles intersecting and shifting. Sometimes everything is compartmentalized into tidy categories, neatly separated and organized. Most times the ideas are flowing and often integrating/melting into each other. The collage painting above evokes that feeling for me. It’s chaotic, messy and a bunch of ideas all carried by one flat plane.
I purposefully have to remind myself that I will discover beauty. Even in the dark or the mess. My eyes will adjust in the shadows as well as the light.
As I shift from last month and The Mama Temple, being so community oriented, into creating my own art, I am hopping back into some ideas i have been tossing around for awhile. Drawn to experimenting with feminine archetypes, and my love of fabrics and clothing, I’ll be exploring how to integrate these into upcoming work. I have worked with fabric a lot in the past and am looking forward to finding ways to do something innovative for me. Bringing in a bit of anarchy, renouncing some old patterns and stereotypes.
What are you in the middle of lately?
What patterns and stereotypes are you up against? What creative steps do you take to overcome or redefine these?
A stereotype may be negative or positive, but even positive stereotypes present two problems: They are cliches, and they present a human being as far more simple and uniform than any human being actually is. - Nancy Kress