Collages made from magazines
Music credit: Don’t Give up on Love by Ludlow via Epidemic Sound
In this video I share a small creative exercise: making collages from our imagination and an old magazine.
SIMPLE BUT NOT EASY
This kind of simple art exercise or challenge is an important part of my art journey. The premise is simple but the execution is not always easy. It involves thought and problem solving and working within constraints and trying to make something from not very much…
REFINING SKILLS
Just like any other discipline, art requires practice to refine skills, to develop self awareness and expand our zones of comfort. I enjoy incorporating small challenges into my art making, whatever the outcome may be. Being relaxed about the outcome is key, I think.
HAPPY WITH AN AVERAGE OUTCOME
I’ve now learned to be happy with not always loving what I create, particularly if iI’m just exploring or doing exercises.
I know that making average stuff is just part of art making. It’s actually a really important part…. It has taken me a long time to understand this though.
I used to think that everything I created must look lovely. That if I created something ugly it meant I wasn’t a good enough artist. I was insecure in my own abilities and wanted my work to somehow prove to myself that I was indeed good enough. This desire for perfection did not help me make better art, it added a weight of expectation and too much pressure. It just caused me unneccessary suffering along the way and a feeling of stuck-ness.
Putting too much significance on the outcome and wanting something to look good meant I became stuck doing the things I knew I could do. It meant that the joy of art making was always wedded to the outcome. It also meant that I didn’t allow myself to take any risks or push myself. Now I fully accept that not everything I create will work out how I want it to and actually if it always does I’m probably playing it too safe. Ofcourse I still want to make beautiful art that feels good to me, but I believe that creating art that I really love comes from creating lots of art, sometimes successful and sometimes not so much….