Starting out on a new series with a mixture of paint and collage, I set some parameters for the series in terms of size, colour palette and mix of substrates etc.
And yet it felt a bit overwhelming with all I had learned in the change to working with paint and collage and the many ways of putting it all together!
While I was contemplating getting started and perhaps procrastinating a little bit! …… Daniel Pink’s book , ‘A Whole New Mind’ crossed my path. This is not a new book, it was published in 2008. It’s main premise is that the future belongs to right brain thinkers and outlines 6 fundamental elements that will be essential to professional success and personal fulfilment.
What was most interesting to me was the concept of ‘symphony’ . It is the idea of seeing the connections between diverse and seemingly separate elements and putting them together to create something new by working across boundaries, by inventing new combinations or by understanding one thing in terms of something else ie using metaphor. In other words the work of the artist!
Daniel Pink has lots of suggestions for developing this skill of symphony, for example:-
- listen to the great symphonies,
- follow the links ie “choose a topic you find interesting and type it into a search engine and follow one of the links. From this initial site select one of its links and venture on’
- keep a metaphor log writing down compelling and surprising metaphors you encounter.
He also suggested creating an inspiration or mood board “each time you see something that you find compelling - a photo, a piece of fabric, the page of a magazine - tack it to the board. Before long you will start to see connections between images that will enliven and expand your work”
So the mood board became a key resource and starting place for the new series and as it continues to develop and change so does the artwork!
Here is how the series is looking so far …
I am looking forward to seeing how it continues to develop and will definitely be building ‘symphony’ practice and mood/inspiration boards into my ongoing practice and art process.
Thanks for reading …. I appreciate your time and interest. CC