breakthroughs!
karen klucowicz • January 12, 2021
small or large, new steps, ideas & recognition of them are amazing
Isn’t it a great feeling when you arrive at a moment to shake things up, resolve issues or move forward?
Do you acknowledge them? When you recognize that moment, ask yourself questions like ‘How did I get to that moment?’ ‘What did I do to let the idea in?’ ‘Where did it come from?’ Answers to these questions will likely keep your positive energies flowing and you’ll find concepts, solutions and motivation will drive you to continually succeed. The answers are available to you if you look at your history, your circle of acquaintances, the way you think about things and an analysis of areas of the elements you’re considering.
how did that happen?!
Last week I wrote a post on productivity as I was hyper-productive over the ‘holiday’ period in to the first of 2021 (actually it’s still happening!). With all of the things I accomplished over that period I was so happy that I maintained a very ‘chill’ state of being. Hoping to continue that state even without my creative retreats. After all of the business side of the studio was taken care of, it led me to focus on my art again and the energy that I generated from that period has now transferred to my personal work. I sketch/journal to centre myself and stay in a creative flow. I am used to small breakthroughs when a sketch and concept come to be a finished painting, however this last week the process led me to a major breakthrough for my artistic journey!
I recognize it is a culmination of ideas, happenings and desires to reach this point. I’m sharing those with you now so you can understand how the questions above can be answered in
your own breakthroughs.
keeping it chill & letting ideas through
answer your own questions, analyze your process, go with the flow...
history
I am a figurative, abstract painter - all of my concepts feature figures, some more abstract than others but always present in my paintings. Traditionally I work on canvas or wood grounds with oil paints. I am a great believer in the importance of looking at other art, chatting with like-minded individuals whether they be artists or art enthusiasts and I am all about concept.
where have I been?
recent events
In the group exhibition in the studio k2 gallery you will see that I collaborated with another artist on a project - he’s a photographer (Jim Craigmyle) and it pushed my painting to a new medium and grew the basic concept to the piece.
The studio hosts online chats (the artists salon) every couple of weeks, where people get together to ask questions or comment on art. We’ve had some fabulous conversations about street art, graffiti, inspirational quotes and a number of other discussions.
I have had amazing conversations with a sculptor (Yas Alsabbagh) and we are in the process of coming together to do a collaborative piece.
AND
I was asked: ‘what is your word for 2021 going to be?’
My immediate answer was “experiment”.
what's happening in my little world?
the creative breakthrough
That word (experiment) has opened up a whole new direction for my art! I asked myself what it meant - was I going to change the concept of the series I work in? No. I discarded that since everything I played with had no substance and came back around to the basis for my series’, so I have to assume I still have lots to say on the matter lol. Then I questioned the medium I work in (paint) and asked myself if I wanted to abandon that - nope. Was it that I wanted to get more realistic in the traditional sense of painting the figures - again no. In fact I have been pushing the abstraction boundaries more and I love that. In essence what it boiled down to was the ground that I was working on and then how art can be in stalled in a less traditional fashion.
an idea reveals itself...
Ta-da!
that opened up an incredible amount of ideas for me. In a past life I was an interior designer and have stored a number of pieces of left-over fabric and wallcoverings and samples or unique accessories that did not get utilized. I always sought to have my clients display their art in unique ways from chains and hooks on a bookcase to ceiling mounted artwork! I also have a thing about frames and can never seem to part with them. And there were pieces of plywood left in my studio when I took the space over that I decided to keep. All of these elements are part of my new creative direction and I’m pumped!
It’s like a breeze of fresh air on a hot, humid day and has re-energized my whole being.
This is a major breakthrough for me and I do not know where it will end up or ultimately if it will be a direction I choose to explore for a very long time, however, I’m on it and in it now!
small or large ideas deserve recognition & celebration
I believe that breakthroughs of any significance to you — whether it is an idea that changes one part of a process or a major one such as I’ve encountered — should be celebrated.
I also encourage you to find a word for 2021 that pushes you and gives you a little landing point when you need it :)
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