Digital art is my favorite way of expression (aside from the written word). I took to my iPad Air like a trout to a mountain stream. It’s been three years I’ve been creating art from photos, art drawn right on the screen and using a panoply of apps to achieve certain effects. For Christmas I got an iPad Pro along with the companion pencil and gotta say, what an invention! Every digital artist, I’m sure, considers Steve Jobs a saint.
Until only recently I began taking webinars with artists like Ivy Newport, Robin Laws, Karen Bullock, Gillian Lee Smith, Annie Hamman and Misty Mawn. Working with them has forced me to focus on seeing what I can do at the easel. One of the most interesting projects was
encaustic wax and I must say, for someone who thought she couldn’t draw, I’ve come a long way and have miles to go though I’ve been a mixed media artist for years playing with collage and altered art.
Being an artist can be a lonely journey but with friends on Facebook I’ve received a lot of support and encouragement. With every piece of art, there’s a lot of trepidation–not just the blank canvas but with every stroke, with every material tried, there is the mystery ahead. There’s a lot of despair in working on a piece–similar to giving birth to a baby. Every woman wants to have a beautiful healthy child and so it is with creating a work of art. More often that not, an artist is confronted with obstacle after obstacle. We’re problem solvers, as is a poet. Knowing what to keep, what to erase. Sometimes we have to put a piece away for a while then come back to it weeks or even months later. And sometimes we just have to let a piece go and thank it for the hard lessons.
In the past years I’ve been receiving a lot of likes on social media and it feels great. I was thrilled when people started to ask if I sell my work. At first I began selling prints and now I’m making my work available on stretched canvas as well as glass. It’s thrilling to sell my art and equally wonderful when I purchase paintings from others who toil away in the dark of night dreaming of their next creation.
When people ask how long it takes to do a piece of mobile art I have to truthfully answer, “My whole life.” Just because art is created on an iPad doesn’t mean it’s easy. Hopefully the finished product LOOKS easy, but behind every piece of art is a lot of planning, sweat, tears, hoop jumping and surrender to the Muse.
In July of this year 49 West Coffeehouse, Winebar & Gallery in Annapolis will be showing my digital art. The reception will take place July 3rd. A lot of tourists will be in town so we’re hoping for a big turn out. I love 49 West where Dan Kagan hosts monthly Spiral Staircase poetry readings. It’s a fun place to read, the food is good and there’s usually a healthy turn out.