When people see me doing art in public I always hear things like "I could never do that" or "I wish I was creative." I always respond to these comments the same way: I tell people that art is not about trying to reach the skill level of someone else or trying to be what the world considers "creative". It's about making YOUR mark on the world and everyone has a mark to make. I've been preaching that gospel for many years, but have I been feeling it in my own heart? No. I admire several pop surrealists so much that it hurts! So for a long time I aimed my goals at becoming like them. That kind of desire to add to a movement and follow a tradition is fine. Many artists do that, but where it goes wrong is when you aren't really making your own mark. It should never be the case that you are slaving away at developing skills because that's what is "considered" the best at the time or because the "important" artists all do it like this.
I realized that at this point in my life I wouldn't be adding anything to the conversation if I continued to try and make pop surrealist work. I always find myself fighting my instinct towards abstract, so, I decided to stop fighting that instinct and make abstract art instead of frustrating myself searching for my voice in someone else's movement. Pair that with the goals I have set for myself to work in series, and create more work in general and we arrive at my current projects. One of these is a budding series I call Spiky Sound Machine. They are abstract watercolor/mixed media works on paper that attempt to visually capture the energy I experience when I am at a rock show. I feel amazing making these and I can't wait to see how the larger works I have going develop. Here are the first four of them. They are pretty small (6x6 and 8x8), but I'm working on some bigger ones with more textures, and some blended drawing styles.
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