Is that Crazy or What?

The subject of this blog post and the next blog post refer to an L.A. artist that I have a passing knowledge of.  "Who?" you may ask.  C'est moi!  It's me, your author, Lori Bjork.

Is it right for me to write about me?  Is it right for me to feel like I am more or less "tooting my own horn", so to speak?  (I wrote "tooting".  Tee Hee)  Am I really an artist?  Is what I created actually art?  I can't help but wonder if enquiring (purposely misspelled this as in National Enquirer) minds may be curious.

Well, part of me wants to laugh out loud at how ridiculous it is that I might even entertain such questions.  Remember when we were three, four, five (and for some of us, even older) and our drawings or attempts at art were considered the most amazing things ever.  I'd go so far as to say, "genius".   Then somewhere along the way, that changed.  Is it because we were no longer being compared to our self and we were now being compared with artists like Michelangelo?  Mysteries such as these may never be solved.

You know what I realized more than anything, that over time I have accumulated a lot of interesting points of view about what art is and who is allowed to claim and/or define that they are an artist (as if there is some sort of central group or committee that has guidelines and hands out such distinctions).  One of my interesting points of view was that if I am not going to be paid for it, I can not consider my self an artist.  So even though I had ideas for art (and actually about writing, as well) I would love to create, why bother if I am not going to be paid for it, right?

I write about these interesting points of view because having them kept me from expressing the creativity I have inside me.  It is one of the reasons I called this blog, "art 4 art's sake".  By choosing to create art simply for the sheer pleasure of it, everything else that comes from it is a bonus.

By creating art, it was also almost like therapy.  I have Jackson Pollock to thank for this.  Did I know him?  No!  Here's my interesting point of view: his art is celebrated by those who supposedly know great art.  Yet, if I am completely honest, when I saw his work before I knew it was his I was like, "that's art!  I could do that...easy!"  Now truth is, maybe I couldn't do it "easy".  His art, to me, just looks like it would be easy and wouldn't take much talent.

Here's the kicker!  Do you think he would have cared what I thought of his art?  I am thinking, "no".  And just because my interesting point of view about his art is my interesting point of view, doesn't diminish the truth that it is art and Jackson Pollock is an artist.  

This contemplation leads me to wonder, "What if I could have a generosity of spirit* about all art, including my own?"

What if it takes a lot of courage to choose to create art and be an artist simply for the sake of choosing to create art...almost as if it has to be done...almost as if there is no choice?  What if it is difficult to perceive this about art and artists unless you have allowed your self the same choice of courage to create art simply for the sake of creating art, while being okay with what the end product ends up being (here's a hint:  the end result is rarely what you expect)?

Then there is the courage to allow our art to be seen knowing that it will be judged.  I don't know about you, but there is a part of me that would secretly (and now not so secretly) love to be applauded and lauded for my art.  For my art is a unique expression of me.  So in a way, by extension to love my art is to love me.  Who doesn't want to be loved, right?

Here's the interesting counter point, to hate my art does that mean you hate me?  And if you hate my art and/or by extension hate me, do I have the courage to receive and be in total allowance of that judgment?  A year ago I didn't.  A year ago I did not have the awareness that this was keeping me from making choices and wanting to be seen, including my creative expressions.  I have the teachings and tools of Access Consciousness(TM)** to thank for this awareness.  

Sometimes I wonder "what inspired or what might the artist have been going for?" when they created a particular art piece.  By creating art of my own, I tend to wonder if what they had in mind is most likely 180 degrees from what I might perceive it to have been.

In other words, what do you think inspired me and my choices with the art I have displayed thus far in this blog post?

Now as you are perhaps playing along, imagine the Jeopardy game show theme song running through your brain.  Do you have your questions, which as you know on that show are the answers?  Okay, then!  Let's play!

So, the above photo is of my first piece.  My inspiration was my brown leather couch and chaise.  Those of you playing at home, if you guessed, "Alex, What is brown leather couch and chaise?" Ding, ding, ding!  You are a winner.

Further impact on my choices included wondering what I might create using a table top from Ikea, knowing I don't feel I can paint free-hand to save my life and desiring to use the stencils I bought at a Micheals store. 

From there it was all hit and miss...what seemed to be working and what didn't.  For instance, do you notice there seems to be an underlying pattern in the seemingly solid brown portions of the design.  That is because my first attempt at adding paint to the table top...well, the paint wouldn't stick like that.  Which then had me asking a question something like,"okay, that didn't work, what will?"  That's when I painted the whole top brown, which for some reason did stick.  And then I used painters tape for the diagonal lines and the sort of framing of this piece.  Everything under the painters tape showed up brown because once it was taped up, I painted over the entire surface with white paint.  Then using my stencil, I used a foam brush with a flat surface to randomly stencil the silver and brown patterns into the white portions of the piece.

I have to say, when I was done I was quite pleased.  And to me it truly did look art worthy.  Or at the very least, it looked like something I would hang on my fridge if I was the parent of my five year old self.

It has been said and sung that "one thing leads to another", even though physicists might argue that everything is happening simultaneously.  This piece of "art" was merely a stepping stone to something I was excited to see whether it would turn out better than I hoped or not: my own unique attempt at an entertainment center for my living room.  Did you see that coming?  

I like my TV up high, but the walls in my home are not conducive to hanging something heavy on them as I had previously found out when I sought to affix a not very heavy shelf to them.  What if I could create my own entertainment center?  So, I did.

 
 Do I love it?  Sometimes yes.  Sometimes no.  Am I glad I did it?  Yes.  Does it excite me that I created something no one else has from my own two little brain cells?  Absolutely!  Do you have to love it or appreciate it?  Not even a little bit.

When you look at the entertainment center straight on, you can't tell what art is on the surface of the Ikea table tops.  This inspired me to continue to play with the motif and see what else I might create.  I liked what I created enough to choose to hang them as art for my walls.


The photo above is of one of the pieces I creates.  The photo to the right is of another one of my creations.  When I look at it, even though it wasn't intentional, it sort of reminds me a little of the album cover art for The Who's Tommy album.  It's my favorite of all the pieces of this similar motif that I created. 

Sometimes as I watch this show or that on HGTV, I wonder what critique Vern Yip would have of my creations.  I can't help but imagine it would not be "brilliant".  Am I okay with that?  Yes!  For it is at about this point I remind myself that Mr. Yip does not live in my home, I do.  While it would be nice to have his "kudos", it isn't necessary for me to enjoy my living space the way I have created it.
 

One plus to all of my art experiments I share here is that I didn't have to break the bank to experiment with these pieces.  If you were looking to get creative while simultaneously creating the makings of an inexpensive table, this may be something you may wish to experiment with yourself.  

The table top I used for the top part of the entertainment unit is only $5.99.  It makes an excellent size canvas (as you will see in my next post) and the non-white side of the table is pre-drilled with holes if you desire to affix table legs to it.***

Finally as I draw (art pun intended, I just love being "punny") this blog posting to a close, if I had a million dollars, I would reward the money to the person who correctly guessed what was my inspiration for using green, blue, yellow and rust colors in these pieces?

Did you guess?  What, you don't care?  

And the answer is, "Alex, what are my dishes?"  I loved the color vibe from my dishes so much that I based my entire color scheme on them.  Is that crazy or what?  Or maybe, just maybe, is that a stroke (art pun intended) of genius?

end of posting fine print:  all photos are copyright 2012 Lori J. Bjork, lbjork9999@yahoo.com

 
*Generosity of spirit - "...celebrate the good fortune of others as well as your self" according to a blog post in the Access Consciousness(TM) blog by Simone Milasas.
**These are the same teaching and tools that Ricky Williams, the former NFL player, has adopted in his life and is now facilitating.  He was one of the students in my first bars class.  And if it is good enough for an former NFL player... (just a little levity there).  I can't speak for Ricky, but I use the teachings and tools because they work for me.  I am not here to tell you what to do, I only bring it up as an invitation to what else may be possible (and maybe as a little "make me seem important" name dropping 'cuz if I saw him on the street I probably wouldn't recognize him to save my life, nor would he probably recognize me either)
***Please note I am not doing any sort of commercial for Ikea with this blog post.  My mentioning them is simply about sharing information in case this blog post inspired you to try some sort of similar type art of your own.  For that matter, the three pieces I did that I have affixed to my wall were done on canvas I got at Michaels and you could probably get at any art supply store. 
****Some of you may be thinking, "the entertainment center is not art, Lori...it's design!"  How did I do that?  How did I get in your head?  I notice "art v. design" appears to be a highly debated topic.  What if it can be both?  What if right here and right now, I can declare it to be both?  What would grant me that right?  Mostly, 'cuz this blog is sort of my Queendom.  So my rules!  I get to decide "just for me, just for fun".  Of course, you are invited to play with me here in my Queendom any time.  Now, what would be better than that?