A little over two weeks ago, a character from a Canadian filmed TV show called "Queer as Folk" popped into my head. Gale Harold is the actor who plays the "antihero" in QAF and is filled with attitude and bravado. A particular look of Gale as "Brian Kinney" popped into my head like a synesthetic vision, and I knew I had to find a way to recreate it. What was happening? Was this an opening to a new series? Was it something new in my brain that wanted to be created from a mishmash of memories and sounds? Hooks from songs, movies, or TV scenes? Indeed it appeared to be! It started with Gale Harold, and the latest and perhaps the last is Julie Andrews from Victor/Victoria. I have no idea where it starts and ends, but I'd like to explain how I feel it works:
My brain moves where it wants to and how it wants to. Over the past six months or so, I have been deep into creating fractals and putting them into motion. Almost non-stop synesthesia visions of floating and moving shapes. I felt blessed to put them into action and bring my personal experience just a bit closer to the viewer. My motion art is the closest depiction to portraying what I sense and see. That was a significant breakthrough in my artistic expression! Such a breakthrough feels very validating and freeing. Unbeknownst to the viewer, the creative journey can be torturous as I fall short at portraying what I am experiencing in my synesthetic visions. I try, though, and I am getting closer all the time.
A vision comes in my mind-eye of a celebrity or musician, and I have to find a way to create it by locating a photograph akin to the primary image in my mind. There has to be a match! The photo captures one essential element of a look, a smile, a longing. Each piece has a facial aspect that seems to be the central aspect I am trying to capture--the one element that calls out to me almost in a synesthesia type of way: a stare, a particular facial expression. One big difference between my pop art and my fractal art is that there is no sound associated with them, no music playing, no TV, nothing. I am unsure what triggers these or any thematic series.
As I think back, my flowers and birds were created with the same type of inspiration as these pop art portraits. One aspect seems to come through very strongly in my mind's eye, and I build around that thing. The element and inspiration come as an intense rush of feeling and doing. The doing and creating happen very intuitively. It's all bizarre because the "accidental artist" in me has no idea where the inspiration comes from or where it will lead. Creating in this way feels like the ultimate act of trust, and for me, it is the only authentic way to begin.
I've had several requests to create certain celebrities, and it just does not seem to work that way, and I've tried. I can't force it. While I have been on a nearly two-week #PopArtBinge, perhaps this binge of creativity is winding down now. How can I tell? I can tell by the abstract shapes and ideas that are currently making themselves more visible in my field of vision. I'm unsure if both pop art and fractals or abstracts can exist at the same time? This type of creative process seems all-consuming. It's the same creative process that makes the production of my art very compulsive.
INTO THE ETHER
The final pop art piece as of 8/24/2020 is my "Victor/Victoria - Julie Andrews" portrait which is devoid of color. Up to this point in my #PopArtBinge, no visions of abstract shapes, self-similarity or fractal geometry. Just people - eyes, faces, mouths. Could this desaturation be a hint of a series on its way out? In its place seem to be coming a chaotic influx of shapes and colors - very disorderly. I have confidence that my synesthetic visions will reorder themselves in time. For the moment though, they feel a little temperamental ... almost if they are saying "Did you miss me?"
"Into the Ether"- A fractal manipulation created from 70,000 primitive shapes.
My #PopArtBinge on full display. Staring with Gale Harold and apparently ending in a desaturated Victor/Victoria.