Not with the stars—dance with the shoes

Let’s dance the night electric.
Over the years as I have taken various art workshops, I have learned how to short-circuit my internal editor. You know, that peckish creature inside your head that shoots down any ideas you might have for a new piece of work.
My secret? Pick my subject matter in advance of the workshop. Doing this allows me to focus on learning a new process or technique without agonizing over the content.
The images above are from a series of monotype and collagraphs I did during a summer workshop taught by Penny Barringer of the Art League School in Alexandria, VA. A coworker had been taking dance lessons with her husband, and the design studio where I worked at the time had a book of photographs of shoes, which had been the subject of a museum exhibit.
Voilà, shoes became my focus for the duration.
Tags: Art League School, collagraph, creative process, monotype, printmaking



December 15th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I love the orange shoe… totally rocks!
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
thanks so much! sorry I didn’t thank you sooner, still figuring out the Wordpress dashboard….
chris