We know that snow men begin with a little fist of snow which is added to until it becomes something greater. It’s one of the ideas I’ve learned to leverage to get new art inspiration.
Inspiration, at least for me as it relates to new art, is expressed through an emotional attachment to it’s idea. Part of the search for new inspiration requires a new view or a new flavor of some experience. Ways that I’ve been successful at making this happen have been random character searches in google, befriending people and searching youtube for new tunes. This has led me to some of the best music I’ve ever heard, which I then buy if possible (some just are not offered on the markets I can utilize, such as the Igarot band AGI’s “Malasmas” and then there is Stefano Mocini who gives it away. See his song “Rebirth”). The music provides patterns of emotion from which I mentally create story details and particulars. When I follow the process through, I see painting worthy scenes and make them all the more real by writing just the part of the story that supports the depicted event. Then I get something I never before considered.
The Plan Was Immediately Activated and I Became Bait
That’s how this concept painting came to be.
I liked the overall story idea, so to flesh it out I wrote the details of the portrayed event to get me in that environment. Similar to the magic eye 3-D art, there is a point where the desired new art image comes. With this one, that brought me to a point where a slight tremor can be felt in the gigantic tree as the cat leaps up and clings to the trunk. The man has prepared to do the impossible, which is to stop an enormous predator. He uses himself as bait and it’s a do or die scheme. The painting depicts the first seconds after the moment his clever plan actually gets put into play. He begins running toward the trap he’s built and the cat lunges upward with lightning speed to take on the hunter. I could show both players at the start of their tussle with fate.
My family called this the “upside down trees” painting and marveled that no blue was used. It was all the more interesting to them that there is so much of a color I use only sparingly: orange. As I recall that was a tip of the hat to young Mason, a grandson who loves the color.
In all ways, it really was completely new.
Today I began rewriting it as a complete short story rather than just an excerpt for painting.
Chichiyaboo minus most of the roadways
Created as a fist of snow for future ideas is my fictitious land Chichiyaboo with its cities, rivers, geography, and many stories to tell. It’s something Leah and I had fun with.
Of the seven stories I currently want to write in their glory, all can be framed in this land. Having the map makes the stories all the more plausible and real. And who knows how many other tales could follow!
