Stats: 10x8x.75" oil on canvas
Playlist: Appalachian Spring, Aaron Copland
Beverage: Dark and stormy
It's funny. I had this open studio, and then I kept my own art up for my parents to see when they visited two weekends later, and a lot of people had the same comment. My floral still lifes are abstract. They're technically not - they're just painted quickly with liberal interpretation of shape. I like getting into the zone and painting what I see, but sometimes I'm not looking at the same image I started off with. I shift to the left or right. For example, in the tulips I painted in +/- I completely forgot to paint a blossom that would have been located in the upper left corner.
Those who know me will understand this as a common theme in my personal life. Oh yeah, the most basic life thing - usually washing the dishes - totally slipped my mind. I focus so much on other things I am passionate about that I sometimes miss the basic step of "which bag did I put my sunglasses in." (Three weeks later I remembered.) I blame it on the right-brainedness. In my defense, when I'm on top of a subject, I'm really, truly on top of it. That subject just does not happen to be location of sunglasses.
Painting is an outlet, after all, and when I tried to make it something else I got so frustrated that I stopped for three years. I know my limitations and I know my strengths. I try to play to my strengths by painting quickly, with energy, so that I feel as though I am expressing my soul in creativity. One of my favorite songs to listen to while painting is a French song by Mylene Farmer called "Dessines-moi un mouton" (Draw me a sheep). In the chorus it says "le monde est vide sans imagination" (the world is empty without imagination), and I feel like I am being true to my contribution to the world when I paint.
All that said, as I've grown in my appreciation for using art as a personal creative outlet, and listening to my inner creativity, I have found space to expand and develop my own technique. But let me tell you - that did not happen in a college course. It was only when I returned to the love of expressing creativity that I could apply formulas.
So, as an artist who knows her academic theory, I posit to you that no, these floral still lifes such as "Lillies" are not in fact abstract. They are rather an expression of my inner creativity - at its peak since I was painting for my mother and I tend to express personal feelings about "clients" in paintings. A true expression of how I view the flowers in actuality. I will partially cede to you and call them "abstracted." But for me these frenetic flowers are real.
