An artist’s journey through their art is manifold, rather like their life journey. In some ways, an artist’s creative adventure can be more important to them.

For myself, “cavorting” is doing all the arty things I’d love to try and having fun finding out what develops with play.

What about the crossroads?

Though my art “career” started off fairly narrow and one-eyed, it has grown to be somewhat of a monster! All-encompassing and all-consuming. Now, my interests are wide and varied, as well as overlapping and interlocking. Busy crossroads indeed.

It all leads to an exciting and fun art life, but at times, confusion reins. Often, the way to deal with that is to stick to one thing for a while, with the other things lurking impatiently in your mind. Doing that can be relaxing as you settle into a comfortable rhythm of artmaking. You’ve avoided the crossroads and can exist peacefully in your little niche. This is how some artists operate most of the time, and they’re happy doing so. Nothing wrong with that at all, but for me, at this stage, it becomes a bit boring, and my mind ceases to think outside the box. It’s too easy for things to stagnate, for imagination to go awol.

Settling into doing just one activity like that is not to be confused with lengthy periods of singular application, purposefully aimed at experimentation, expansion, and development.

On the other hand, there are artists like myself who enjoy a lot of variety in their creativity. This is where the crossroads come into play.

So, what is on the studio tables of late? Collage, mixed media, and oil painting, plus the odd weird experiment on the side. Add to that, maintaining the website, composing these newsletters, Bluethumb listings, social media posts, participating in art groups, framing, making painting boards, entering exhibitions, and the occasional workshop. There’s a bit to do! And yet, there’s more on the “going to do that one day” list. Exploring various methods of printmaking, expanding art knowledge (and the library!), doing the harder work around “putting it out there,” and the possibilities of combining processes and techniques to create exciting new art. (That shouldn’t be last on the list!) Plus, the things that haven’t surfaced yet. Phew! It’s rather endless, more like a roundabout than crossroads really.

All this requires a lot of thought, as well as action and planning. Not being a big fan of rigid planning, I’m fairly easy about when things happen.

Now we’re cavorting at the crossroads. Cavorting seems to imply happily tripping about the place having fun. Yep, that’s it! Isn’t that what it’s all about? That’s part of what people mean when they say focus on the process, not the outcome, isn’t it?

Cavorting is also a great way to come up with “what ifs,” which in turn leads to more jolly creative cavorting. ……Take a little second to visualise that!…… It also ignites the imagination, including your subconscious, and grows your enthusiasm.

Just what we need eh!

What are you waiting for? Grab your gear and get started.

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Four new collage pieces were listed on Bluethumb recently.

Please click the images for direct links.

“Solitude” 30cm square, unframed $260

“Mountain Moods” 30cm wide x 33cm, unframed  $260

“Traces” 30cm square, unframed  $260

“Place” 33cm wide x 31cm, unframed  $260

Click the artwork images for direct links to each painting, or if you’d like to see the other art I have listed for sale, please go to Bluethumb.

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The 100 Day Project is about to end, and I have quite a few collage works as a result. Many new ideas have also surfaced during the experience. Now, it’s just a matter of “what next!”

Keep up with what’s happening in the studio with Instagram and Facebook.