Leni Wiener

I have not posted for a few days, because, frankly I wasn’t accomplishing anything.  Often when I feel blocked it is a message that I need to evolve, need to find a new expression that excites me and makes me want to go into the studio and work.

Prior to the flamenco piece (which is still on the design wall waiting to be completed) I did two pieces that I felt marked the end of something for me.  One was “Market Day, Sarlat” (based on a photo my friend Peggy took in France).

As much as I enjoyed working on the woman, I found myself bored by having to create the environment around her.  The other was Tourist Season:

I loved working on all the people in the piece, but when I had to create the environment, I kept it very simple, in part so as not to detract from the people, but the truth is, I felt I wanted to move away from photo realism and towards abstraction–something I have always wanted to explore.

Flamenco was a piece that I wanted to make, and again, kept the background to a minimum.  I felt while I was working on it that it marked the end of something, and I needed to enter another phase.

It is important to continue to grow as an artist, or it becomes too boring, too routine.  I have found that the exploration of how to evolve and where to go is as much a function of establishing what I love to do as it is an admission of what I no longer enjoy.  In this case, much reflection has led me to understand that I am still interested in the human element, but want to move away from the buildings and and the background–towards a more abstract presentation.  As I am still influenced by (and want to work from) photography, pure abstractionism is not for me–not now, anyway.

Having said that, a photo I took of a window revealing a staircase at the Museum of Modern Art has been in my head.

This photo offered me the opportunity to focus my attention on the staircase and figures without a lot of stuff going on in the environment.

The gorgeous hand-dyed fabric I have been holding onto for some time now (I purchased it, I did not make it) becomes the perfect environment for the more stylized depiction of the photo.  This is still very rough, but I like where it is going.

Remember, if you feel blocked artistically, it may be a message from your subconscious that you aren’t challenging yourself, or growing.

I would love to hear your comments!

Tags: abstract, blocked, evolving

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 3:12 pm and is filed under art quilt progress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.