On Just Giving Something a Go

'Oh god in heaven now what are you up to?’ were Ian’s first words when he came home for lunch this afternoon.

‘I’m following the advice I read on a blog this morning’ I replied chirpily as I enthusiastically proceeded to cover not only myself, but the tablecloth and a bit of the carpet in black splattered paint.

Ignoring the mess, Ian’s only response was ‘I daren’t ask,’ which is probably just as well as by then I was getting to a really crucial part in the mess making proceedings, which required intense concentration in the wooden spoon rubbing department.

For those that are interested, the blog in question can be found here;

http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/

which I discovered this morning courtesy of Terri Windling’s terrific ‘Fridays recommendations’blog here;

http://windling.typepad.com/blog/2011/05/fridays-recommendations.html

In it, Austin Kleon discusses the process of making art, and some of the processes people go through in order to (and sometimes not) start creating. It’s a great article which I highly recommend to anybody interested in such stuff, but to précis it down a little, these are the statements that really struck a chord with me.

1. Nothing is original. This is something which has always bothered me when trying to be creative, and I think sometimes hinders my ability to even attempt to make what I consider to be a visually pleasing image. If it’s been done before, why bother? The fact that it’s never been done before by me in a manner that’s perhaps unique to me has never really come into the equation. Until my epiphany this morning.

2. The Imposter Syndrome. That horrible inhibiting feeling that everybody else knows exactly what they’re doing whilst you’re just pretending you do and hoping nobody notices. I know that one really well and have at times felt so intimidated by others perceived expertise, I’ve again put off having a go at something I’ve really wanted to do. Which leads on nicely to the next point.

3. Fake it ‘til you Make it. Like a lot of people I’m perhaps my own worst critic and can be a bit of a perfectionist at times. I’m also not the most patient being on the planet. This again has been quite inhibiting on occasion; if something doesn’t instantly turn out how I want it to, I tend to throw it away rather than accept that I perhaps need to work at it over a period of time in order to improve.

With all this rattling around in my head this morning, I decided to have a go at something I’ve always wanted to try, but have never quite had the confidence/know how to do. Lino printing, woodblock and etching. Over the last year or so I’ve found myself being continually drawn to work by artists such as Valarie Greeley of Acorn Moon;
http://acornmoon.blogspot.com/

Larry Vienneau;
http://www.etsy.com/shop/larryvienneau?ref=seller_info

A. Deegan;

http://www.etsy.com/shop/adeegan?ref=pr_shop_more

and Kay Leverton;
http://www.etsy.com/shop/KayLeverton?ref=seller_info



so armed with an old curled piece of Lino, I took a medieval image of a griffin I liked which I discovered randomly on the net;



traced and transferred the main bits of the image onto the Lino and proceeded to etch around it, rather badly with some very cheap wobbly tools,



then found some uber cheap A4 sized paper in the printer, an ordinary painting brush, a tube of black water colour paint, and a wooden spoon and proceeded to slap paint on the aforementioned curled piece of Lino, hoping for the best. This is the rather messy result at my very first attempt at Lino cutting;



As you can probably determine it's far from perfect (no, really?!), but to expect it to be so would be to miss the point. Which is rather than be fearful of failure, or waiting around until I had every piece of proper equipment I thought I needed as is my usual wont, I just got on with it, improvised when necessary and had a go at something without getting caught up in the fear of not achieving/being good enough. And I lived to tell the tale! Can't be bad really can it?