Sage Advice, Creative Spaces and Family
My uncle Jim has always been my creative role model and someone I have admired. Jim has helped me be able to tap into my creative self by offering sage advice: "To find your style, turn off your brain and just put paint to paper, see what comes out." "Stop thinking." I need to remember to do this when I begin again!
Jim is a bronze sculptor who has been mainly doing incredible, organic fountains for pretty much his whole life (he's now 79!). Although fountains are his main thing, he also does amazing, whimsical sculptures and fun little pieces just for kicks. Jim started out as an art teacher, but has been solely creating for over 30 years now - inspirational indeed.
One of the things I love most when visiting - which I just did, and which brought me to this blog post - is going into Jim's studio to see what he is working on. It is this creative space that is particularly inspirational for me - I love to see the process. It is a huge studio, and inside are all the things he's created recently, along with a running fountain, a little cool jazz, lots of renderings, materials and bits of pieces of his work. I absolutely love the energy there, and could spend hours just sitting and soaking it all up.
I hope that someday I can have a creative space reminiscent of Jim's, and although my spare bedroom studio is a long way off, I still find that peaceful, groovy feeling there as well, and I love just sitting in my space and soaking up that creative energy. There, I will tap into Jim's wise words and just stop thinking, pick up that brush and paint - let's see what comes out.