As creative Image Makers, sometimes it is not easy to see the forest for the trees, so to speak. Getting the creative process started is sometimes easier said than done. Writers talk about writer’s block, Artist’s who paint talk about the fear of staring onto a blank white canvas, photographers search for “Their Niche,” and so on. A good starting point is to find something that resonates with your personal interest or something you feel strongly about. There are myriad possibilities to choose from, such as people, architecture, landscapes, abstractions, color, sports, animals, cars, global warming, pollution, social injustice, on and on.
A particular interest that stirs my imagination is the simple but yet complex nature of the human face; two eyes a nose and a mouth. I have been fascinated my entire life with this mystery, how is it that we all share the same basic features and yet we all are unique looking individuals?
There are 6.7 billion faces on the earth today and each is distinctive in
expressing the “anima” within. In regards to this enigma, I have been making mixed-media, mask-like images and photographic portraiture pretty much my entire life. I combine many mixed-media techniques in conjunction with the photographic medium. Some of these techniques include photo-printmaking, digital imaging, Photoshop, coloring with pastels and oils, bronze sculpture, collage, charcoal drawings and SX-70 Polaroid images.
The idea is to discover an alternative point of view that will help generate unique and poignant imagery within one’s particular niche or series of works. Once “on track,” the creative journey gains momentum, giving rise to new ideas and unpredicted results that fuels the imagination. Art is a dynamic process; the magic is in the doing, the results are proof that magic exists!
Professional fine art photographer David Hoptman teaches two online and interactive courses at The Compelling Image-The Abstract Image and Mixed-Media Photography.
Tags: alternative process, bronze sculpture, camera, creative, creative process, image, mixed media, photo, photo-printmaking, photographer, photography
May 25, 2009 at 7:29 pm |
CREATIVE PROCESS THE ROOTS PART ONE
Inspiration engages creative process.. what is the precursor to inspiration.. how does one cultivate inspiration through an enhanced awareness of visual and sensual stimuli. When this process becomes conscious one begins to see the world in a different context. This personal interrelation of sight sound and the individuals unique response and adaptation to this very stimuli is what sets the ground for creative process, although not through direct correlation.
Becoming consciously aware of the way in which we interpret our reality around us is the basic starting point one needs to cultivate in order to set the foundation for developing creative links, that will serve as common ground where imagination and intuition are the substrate. These two intangible concepts need to be accessible in order for one to carry out creative endeavors.
Setting up a certain patterning as to be able to repeat the onset of creative process is what is at the heart of this attempt to pull together and lay down a direction and path which unfolds before the initiator a viable road map which can set into action the mystical and somewhat elusive process of creativity in any format/media.
By format I am referring to painting, photography, creative writing, music, sculpting etc.etc.
There are subtle cues that one needs to become aware of in order to put the creative process into a dynamic mode. There are visual cues such as light quality, color, form, texture etc. There is also auditory stimuli that one need to take into consideration, which affect our moods, temperment and perceptions. Tactile qualities are also part of our immediate environment and these too give rise to emotion and affect the feedback loop that we as individuals create due to our conditioning from the time that we come into this reality.
The many facets and myriad combinations of all this stimuli affects us all differently to some extent but on the other hand we all share a common reality which conditions us in a more or less typical fashion. It is the regularity and banality that we as creative beings must find a way to use and at the same time supercede in order to contact our inherent imaginative capabilities.
Learning to consciously recognize particular qualities of light and the affects that light has on form is a major component in the attempt to form a particular type of alliance with imagination and intuition. One needs to recognize the nuances of light and its affect on the psyche in order to start the internal dialogue needed to inspire the onset of creativity. One must explore form and its affect on the viewer in terms of differentiation in relation to light and its qualities, direction, intensity, color characteristics, and the ever changing nature of light itself in the course of a day. Light is a energetic that is in constant flux and it by understanding the transience of light we can focus ourselves to become more conscious of its compelling nature. Also the mood that light creates when interacting with form is a major criteria of the perception which we are affected by during the course of our day.
June 15, 2009 at 10:50 am |
CHECK OUT WHAT SOME OF THE MORE FAMOUS SCIENTIST, ARTISTS AND WRITERS SAY IN REGARDS TO CREATIVE PROCESS…
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
If you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and endeavor to live the life you have imagined, you will meet with a success unexpected In common hours. You will pass an invisible boundary new, universal and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within you and you will live with the license of a higher order of beings.
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.
Quotations:
• “The man who arrives at the doors of artistic creation with none of the madness of the Muses, would be convinced that technical ability alone was enough to make an artist . . . what that man creates by means of reason will pale before the art of inspired beings.”
Plato (c. 428/7 – 348/7 BCE), Greek philosopher, Phaedrus. See Muses.
Genius is one percent inspiration, and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), American inventor of the light bulb, the record player, motion picture and other technologies.
•PICASSO “You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait, just learn to become quiet, and still, and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
I have just published a book on Blurb.com check out the site. its work that I have been involved with for over twenty five years.. the title is FACESINMIND….the journey of PHOTO mixed media in regards to the face and its features… http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/715583
also I am at the beginning of my Photo workshop season 2009 that I teach on a regular basis here in Tuscany Italy. TUSCAN LIGHT PHOTO WORKSHOPS…CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE.. http://www.davidhoptman
i also look forward to any comments,questions or suggestions.. N
June 15, 2009 at 11:40 am |
WHAT PRECEDES AND COLORS THE ACT OF CREATIVE PROCESS
Different schools of thought have evolved through time and each have given a particular consideration to the concept of how in fact we as creative beings arrive at the moment of inception in regards to creative process. There are those who feel that emotions and intuition power the creative spirit while others feel that there is a more rationalistic or scientific approach to be adhered to. Each and every one of us knows that in order to function in our society today we need to find a balance between emotions and rationale. As individuals we all have different personas’ from one another, each unique. It is this distinctiveness that gives way to our ability to incorporate originality into our work if we so decide. This unique human quality is in part the basis for all that follows artistically. It is this ground infused with imaginative potential that we as humans use as a springboard to delve into what is most valued as artistic beings and that is expression of the self.
Kant maintained that morality and creativity do not follow causal, scientific law, they exist in a unique realm distinctive from physics: so called meta physics where the rules are written by god. More to come….. ANY THOUGHT TO SHARE?