Perceptual Cramp

So many times I walk around with my sketchbook in hand ready to create, but the lack of ideas or a starting point creates a black mental void. Life throws many distractions my way to assist me in staying in this creative void...kids, household responsibilities & decisions, so how do I overcome this? The easiest way is assignments in school. If there is an assignment I can converge on, a looming deadline, and a starting point, I am good to go! Sometimes, however, the assignment is so vague that I still do not have that starting point.

"Art is not a thing, it is a way", thank you Elbert Hubbard. It is a way, it is a way through that black void, not a thing to rescue me. I should not sit looking for the ladder of art to just come to me and allow me to get out of my stagnant hole, but press through the mass. For this assignment I will be presenting a couple of blogs covering my progress. I have two things I am working on: my 2D assignment and a personal challenge.

The 2D assignment is a series of "perceptual cramps" the first was my idea...I had to come up with this on my own and having Mary Stewart for my instructor will not allow me to succumb to mediocrity. I brainstormed for my "True Lies" project to find a contrasting element to design my project. I came up with "real life" celebrities and a 3D mock "Rear Window" set I would create (too ambitious, not enough time), a JFK clue game where the rooms are replaced with locations the assassination was devised at, and game characters would be the masterminds behind it (this will actually be my capstone project), and finally the choice I went with: a 3D panoramic of prohibition and speakeasies. I will blog on my progress with this as I progress with it. This does present another perceptual cramp: how do I build this lit box with a panoramic inside. The idea is cool enough, there will be a door design with a sliding "peep hole". The viewer will look into this box through the hole and see a lit panoramic of speakeasies and home-made distilleries. The outside of the box will be a facade of the enforcement and supporting propaganda for prohibition. What a metaphorical statement...the facade on the box representing the facade of prohibition. Lets face it, many of the speakeasy regulars were cops!

My personal challenge to overcome my perceptual cramp, which should also cover another assignment of a self-portraiture, I am going to attempt something I have not done before - a chiaroscuro monochromatic painting on a black canvas. I have painted several of these in the past, that I have included pics of at the top this blog, but I have never started with a black canvas and paint myself, chiaroscuro style on it in white. As I mentioned, I have completed many of these but I have always started with a white canvas, painted a black background around my subject and built my subject with black and white paint. I am going to attempt something new, something I am not quite sure I can pull off. What is a perceptual cramp for me anyway? It is not having a "safe" idea in which I know I can complete. There are many ideas out there that are way too ambitious so they are discarded out of fear and perfectionism. Today I am choosing to overcome this by taking on this project, by doing another blog assignment in an unsure manner...taking a risk that may not pan out.