Keith LoBue‘s work is amazing.

I was trying to find him online (couldn’t recall his name) for about two weeks.  I asked at AJ2 (Yahoo Group) and had a reply in about 30 seconds.  (Thank you, Pamela!)

http://keithlobue.blogspot.com/

http://lobue-art.com/

If you haven’t looked at Keith’s work lately, go see it now.  (Imperative.)  You’ll need a tissue nearby, because you’re likely to salivate all over your keyboard and monitor.  His work is that kind of gorgeous!

When I get distracted and need focus, artists like Keith LoBue are a form of grounding for me.  I feel an innate connection with what he’s doing, between his attraction to found objects and his innate sense of visual balance and intrigue.

I want to make more time for art shrines that include found items.  Well, I want to make more time for art shrines, period.

I also need to make more time to drink in the artwork of others… past artists and contemporary ones, particularly people whose materials and/or techniques are just a little different from mine.

It’s about the energy, and how well I can identify with it.

Frivolous links, which I’ll probably add  to my daily Tweets over the next few weeks:

Way Out Junk – Truly cheesy music, especially from the 1950s and 60s.  Seriously, who can resist “Der Wienerschnitzel Presents – Up-Up and Away in My Beautiful Balloon”?

If you’re looking for similar holiday music, don’t miss Hi-Fi Holiday.  It’ll remind you of b&w TV, and Perry Como music specials.

Music You (Possibly) Won’t Hear Anyplace Else – Even older music, often in the public domain… if you have a use for that sort of thing.

Speaking of old stuff: Testing reveals that I’m not actually “older than dirt.”  I’ll sleep better tonight with that weight off my mind! *chortle*

On that note, I’m closing this, to look at Keith LoBue’s art again, and get inspired.

Sometimes, I find myself cruising Amazon’s bargain books.  I can’t help it.  It’s an addiction.

Now and then, one book (or two or three) leaps off the page and shouts, “Buy me!”

If I ignore it, the voice drops to something very throaty and demands, “No. I mean it. BUY ME.”

Fortunately, I already own In This House.  It’s a book that’s been in my thoughts again lately.  Yes, it’s less than half the original price at Amazon, this week.  Seeing it listed at Amazon brought the house ideas back into my line of sight, kind of like a storm surge.

See, the whole “house” context for art… it’s returning as a theme in some of my work.  That may be because I am really ready for another house. The apartment thing has been fun, but I’m ready for a house again… even with issues like leaky roofs, running toilets, a lawn to mow, and chipping ice off the sidewalks in winter.

However, even with those thoughts… I think the house motif is singing to me again.  I may have to re-read this book.  It was always a visual inspiration, and I think I’m ready to do things with art — perhaps mixed media — within the structure of a two-dimensional house outline, or even a three-dimensional cardboard support.

The book that’s really singing a siren song — also “bargain priced” at Amazon — is Secrets of Rusty Things.

I’ve looked at this book in bookstores, and (at the $24.99 price) managed not to buy it.  Just barely.  I mean, it’s always a close call.

The text is good, especially when he talks about abandoning any preliminary sketches, “Sometimes you just have to hunker down and start assembling.”  He definitely speaks my language!

The things that really suck me into this book are the artwork, how-to tips and inspiration.  If you like all things vintage and steampunk, as I do, this is one of those books.  You know, the kind that follow you home and you just have to keep them.  In Amazon’s bargain books section… I think today is the day I buy this book, while they still have copies of it.

See, I keep picking up odd little bits of things in dusty parking lots, and it’s silly to have them accumulating in my studio when this book could take them that next step… to become wonderful, eerie art.

I dare you to use the “Look Inside” feature at Amazon, and not lust after this book.

Well, maybe you’re a stronger person than I am.  While writing this, I clicked and bought it.

Recently, someone asked if the art of making art is putting it together.

That’s a good question… with two different answers.

Oh, I could say, “Art is what you make it,” or “Art is where you find it.”  That’d be the flippant reply.

However, the genus — the germ of the inspiration — of the art isn’t quite that easy to find.

Process v. Product

For some people, art is in the finished product. They aren’t thrilled with what it takes to get there, but they become experts at technique just so they can see the original idea manifested as a finished work of art.

For others, art is in the process.  They find delight in every step of creating the art, or at least in the happy discoveries.

When their art is finished, maybe they keep it, maybe they don’t.  For them, the joy of the creative process was the real reward.

And, some artists enjoy both the process and the delight of seeing the completed work.

It’s a “shades of grey” kind of deal.

How I work

I’m a process person.  For me, nearly half of the creative process is how different the world looks to me, as I’m working on any related to art.

I notice more colors. I appreciate the light and shadow in the landscape.  Even if I’m watching a movie, I’ll notice how the director used color or lighting to emphasize something in the plot.

Older movies such as Dr. Zhivago and Queen of the Damned did that very deliberately.

Zhivago is quite stark and an interesting history.  Look at how the scenes favored black and white, until something emotional and/or dramatic was about to happen, and the color red is used.

Queen is over-the-top and gruesome, but the colors made it worth watching.  Notice the limited palette of colors at the beginning, and how each plot step adds another color to the scenery.  There are some exceptions to that rule, as you’d expect from the quality of the film.  I saw that movie twice, just to study the use of color in it. (If you know me in real life, I do not usually watch gruesome/vampire movies.)

As an artist, I’m less interested in the mechanics of a technique than in how that technique inspires me to try something new.

So, I might work with materials in ways that’d make a purist turn pale.  For me, it’s about the energy and inspiration, not the technical details.  I’m only interested in the technical aspects as far as they’re absolutely necessary to achieve my goals.

Generally, those goals include:

• Creative exploration,
• The expression of the initial creative vision, and
• Achieving that “in flow” experience that accompanies moments in which my entire focus is on art and beauty.

Keep going

If I pause to contrast the work in progress with some precise finished image, I’m lost.  That’s where the inner critic rages forth, ready to rip my efforts to shreds, point out my shortcomings, and convince me that I’m not really a very good artist, after all.  (That’s when I re-read The War of Art, and recover my sense of creativity.)

However, that’s me. That’s what it means to be process-oriented.

Others’ opinions

I’ve talked with other artists who always have to hold that precise, finished image in their minds, and work steadfastly towards it.  For them, the process is a sometimes-inconvenient means of achieving what they want to create.

So, for me, the art is in putting the art together.  It’s in the process.

That doesn’t make me more or less of an artist than the person whose entire focus — and joy — is in the finished work… or someone in-between those two extremes.

Vital reading if you’re an uncertain artist:
[ASA]0446691437[/ASA]

If you’re not familiar with Hugh MacLeod, go read this right away: How to Be Creative.  (Skim that page if you’re at the office.  The longer version — with hand-drawn cartoons — is not office-safe.)

Or, you can read it, free, in book form (and print it at home) at Change This :: How To Be Creative.

(However, if you give permission to that PDF viewer to go full-screen, it can be a nuisance to close it.  Tip: Flip to the last page of the book and click on the Creative Commons link.  That gets you back to a browser screen.)

And, whether you’re a fan of Hugh’s art & commentary already (or not), subscribe to his newsletter. You’ll see why, when you receive your first daily issue.

(Then again, if four-letter words offend you, don’t subscribe.  A lot of his cartoons are not office-safe and many aren’t even remotely politically correct.)

Link: Hugh’s ‘daily cartoon’