Testing, Testing…

Behind the scenes at an artist studio:

Organized (or not) chaos.
The coffee cup being confused with the paint water jar
Several projects in various (often ugly) stages of progress (please, don’t look yet!!)

Such is the nature of an artist’s studio.

What you also don’t tend to see (or even imagine) when you view those finished works of art in a museum or show, is the testing that goes on.

I think artists are, in general, a pretty curious and experimental bunch. One must be willing to try things to move one’s practice forward. It is rare, in my experience, to know an artist who starts a piece knowing exactly what it’s going to end up like… and being able to accomplish that. Maybe it happens for some folks, but in my opinion, I think that must make the art-making a rather dull affair.

Remember Bob Ross and his “happy accidents”?

Of course, there’s the flip side when one can be rather scared of the next step…in case it should totally ruin a piece you’ve already spent lots of time on.

The last time I had that fast heart-beating worrisome, “I gotta do this…I can’t delay any longer…omg” moment was last year when I had to pour a bunch of resin and concurrently place beads on a piece which, if it failed, would mean the trash bin… and it may have raised my naturally low blood pressure quite a bit.

But I succeeded (and could breathe)!

Between those two extremes there is testing…
And testing…
And more testing…

Testing processes
Testing media
Testing colors
Adhesives
Embellishments
Expensive mold-making materials

On and on…
So…I am amassing quite a collection of “Test Pieces”, including all the aforementioned things (and more).

I tend to start a new piece saying to myself “It may turn out good; it may turn out like crap”. It takes the pressure off! The “crap” (failed canvases, broken or mis-poured sculpture, etc) then  becomes my test pieces.

Maybe someday I might get purposeful with those test pieces and actually make them into something.

But maybe not. 

I enjoy looking at them from time to time - they are like journals. Memories of a time before.

Testing, testing…