When You Have No Choice

 

I know it sounds strange, but for me, art can occur in many ways.

Sometimes, it just feels like a tap that I open and the creativity flows out through me into the artwork, something like a stream of conciousness thing...

The pieces surrounding this paragraph occurred this way... 

Sometimes, an idea occurs to me that I want to experiment with just to see how it would work out. 

After a family vacation where I drove down through Washington and Oregon, I was fascinated by the patterns in the shells I saw and wanted to see if I could incorporate them into paintings... 

I still really like that idea and I might go back to it and try again, who knows....
I saved some shells, and I think I could probably do more with it than I did...

Anyway, back to my point here.  I have some paintings that don't seem to want to be completed, and they can sometimes work out very well, or die an early death (in my eyes, anyway!).  Some of my own paintings I don't like, just like anyone else, I have favourites.  I have been known to give up on certain paintings and just paint over them and try something else.

Some pieces can change quite dramatically as they metamorphisize into something other than what they started out to be.  There are wishy washy paintings, and then there's another group that is very different.  They are images that pop into my head and just keep coming back to me like they won't be dismissed.

This is fairly rare, actually, I'll know an image wants to be created if it keeps coming back like a repeating dream.  I can count these images and they generally stand out for me.

 

In the last few days, It's happened again, and I literally had to do some research into anatomy and musculature in order to execute a rendition of the image that keeps appearing in my brain!

I've managed to do a first run at it, and I'm pretty happy with how it looks, but it's not finished.  I've reached that point where there's a freshness and power to it that I could lose if I overwork it.  Sigh.  You see what I mean, I like it the way it is (see below), but I think I'll leave it alone until I figure out whether I want to elaborate on it or not...

 

Images by Teresa Young:

1. Flight of the Humblebee - April 2002,  2. Blue Abstract - June 2002,  3. Oregon Coast - August 2002,  4. Blue Emotions- July 2002,  5. Flight of Fantastic - November 2001,  6. Queen of Thorns - August 2009,  7. Emergence - September 1998,  8. Exposing Your Inner Child - in progress.   

Art by Teresa Young Chosen For Projekt30 April 2010 Exhibition

 

I just discovered that I was selected to be one of thirty artists featured in the April 2010 Projeckt30 online exhibition.

Projekt30 is an online gallery designed to connect artists with "brick and mortar" art galleries interested in representing them, as well as art dealers and collectors currently unaware of their work. They host thirty-artist juried exhibitions each month, as well as special theme exhibitions several times a year.

These juried exhibitions showcase to a large number of galleries all over the world. Their "public jury" system provides a concentrated, quality-controlled survey of artists work. Artists appearing in their exhibitions have received thousands of favorable ratings from individuals occupying a diverse spectrum of stations in the arts community.

This particular exhibition includes beautiful digital photography, 3D art and artworks from artists Kevin Veara, Ron Swartz, Will Kurtz, Julie Lucus, Hyunju Jung, and others. A majority of the artworks are for sale and the prices for non-photos range from four or five hundred up into the thousands.



Blue Emotions by Teresa Young

I entered ten paintings into the competition and I'd like to talk a bit about some of them here before including a link to the exhibition for anyone interested in viewing it.

 

An acrylic media with glued on shells that have the shell patterns echoed in the design within the painting itself.

After a holiday along the Oregon coast I wanted to express the beauty of what I saw as I stopped and explored the beautiful seashores.




The Genesis of Intellect
 by Teresa Young

The Genesis of Intellect,  12" x 9" canvas:

This abstract piece really expresses a feeling, a kernel of self with respect to thought that I wanted to explore within a painting format. 

Really, with a lot of my artwork, it is more of a stream of consciousness process for me that allows me to express my emotions. 

In the past, I called a lot of my work 'emotional landscapes', and that's really what they are, the environment of my inner being expressed externally.



Feathered Fancy
by Teresa Young

I like this piece mainly for the colours.  It's really light-hearted and has a feathered feel to me, so of course I decided to go for a fun name that would suggest that for the audience. 

Not that I've ever seen a bird quite like this, but it really feels like some old owl or hawk sitting up in a tree looking down at me.
Anyway, the overall link to the exhibition is here:

april PROJEKT30 exhibition  and the link to my part of the exhibition is here:  Teresa Young.

Enjoy!

Images:
1.  Screenshot of Projekt30 April 2010 Exhibition screen,  2.  Blue Emotions - July 2002,  3.  The Genesis of Intellect - Feb. 2010,  4.  Feathered Fancy - Aug. 2002.