By pac

For some of us, drawing, painting or creating things is an exploratory process. Of course, you can have a goal in view, and have a specific thing you want to accomplish– but the key is to start and to begin to explore. Sometimes we just feel like drawing something we feel, like a bird cage or someone with an umbrella standing in the rain. Whatever it is, just start. It doesn’t need to be that deep or meaningful. It can be something off the top of your head, or something you would just like to see. If you can picture it, go for it. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

I think the issue in our process is our attachment to perfectionism. We want to create something perfect, so often we start, crumble the piece of paper and restart. We may not have realized it but all those “imperfect” pieces actually contain something meaningful. They show our growth, attempts and stages; they show the earlier blueprints to the refined designs that we are working toward. Check out this funny looking phone I drew.

I am still exploring this idea of frames and placing images within them. I think, as time has gone on, I’ve actually gained some interest into the metaphorical meaning of windows. Windows – which are frames of their own kind – become something we can look through and something that is an opening into another space, scene and environment. If you want to be even more poetic, windows are openings to other realms. I often like to think that beyond this physical world we live in, there are windows to unseen places. Maybe artwork for me has always been a “window” – a way to teleport and go somewhere else, see something else and discover something new. 

Windows and frames are also just simple. And for me, that is appealing too. 

Windows can also close and open. They can allow a breeze to come into your room. They can also allow light to come in. If I may, there is something celestial, heavenly, and thus, something lofty about them. So maybe I am reaching for a variety of things as I work with these frames. I am trying to make passage ways that allow me to go to other places, and that frame my designs in simple ways.

Only exploration can allow this. And in the process new thoughts will come. Frames and windows will change and be revisited. New meanings will take shape. And in the act of exploring, I may view my pieces and creative process a little differently than how I viewed it before. 

Anyhow, I am reminded that I should not get trapped in perfectionism. If I worked on something, I should be satisfied with what I started and finished, even if it was not what I expected. The moment between start and finish was a period of exploration; and that’s what matters. 

Even if no deep or invaluable lessons were learned, surely, something happened in the process whether I can see it or not.