Creative Process Behind My Voices of Neon Collection
Hello Dear Moons,
Welcome to another Waxing Moon Session a monthly post I like to do that discusses ways in which we can learn and grow in our creativity with topics ranging from organization, inspiration, mental health and work methods.
This month I have something a bit different in that I wanted to write about my experience creating my Voices of Neon collection. A series of paintings featuring an iconic creature in my work known as the Neon Stag. I wanted to focus on the creative process behind the collection and answer some questions about the inspiration, motivation and creative challenges behind this series. Next month I will be talking about the art business side of creating a collection and how I utilize themed series in my career.
The first piece that begin this series last year.
Inspiration: Setting out to create multiple pieces of work surrounding a similar theme is not new to me and is actually a way in which I really enjoy working. Every time I paint a one-off piece, I find myself longing to explore the concept further which was the case for my Neon Stag whom I have been dying to paint again after discovering him last year. I am really bad at working within themes that do not inspire me.
I have heard the advice to follow trends within the art world and I cannot imagine how that would possibly work for someone like me because I tend to crumble from lack of inspiration when forced to work on things I do not enjoy. As such, when it comes to creating even just one piece, let alone a series, I often ask myself "What is my emotional connection to this? What meaning does it hold for me?" Finding stories and emotional connection to my work is really what I thrive off. And although I definitely enjoy creating spontaneous pieces that develop as they go, for larger works I really need to understand what they mean to me.
Luckily, this series means a whole lot to me emotionally. I have mentioned before that words are very important to me. They are my love language. I am an overly wordy person when I write because there is just so much beauty, pain, intrigue, and overall emotion in the written word. The Neon Stag's words of "wisdom" have been very helpful to me, so not only did I want to express them for myself, but I also wanted to share them with others.
The Creative Process: Once I had the idea for this series, it was time to begin the creative process. I planned out some deadlines in the app Notion and settled on late August for a release. I then begin the sketching phase which involved going to a coffee shop (for the first time in nearly two years!) and purging my brain of different pose ideas that the stag would have throughout the series. You can see many of the poses I used (and a few I did not) above!
Once I had my ideas for the different poses selected, it was time to create more refined sketches of the stags. My favourite from the series are the fawns. Something about imagining the Neon Stag as a baby was so fun to me!
After drawing this guy, I realized he looked a little familiar... Turns out I had the pose for the unicorn in my piece The Way Beyond stuck in my head and had accidentally regurgitated it. It is hilarious what our brains hold onto! I did not end up using him in the end.
I also wanted to use antique Italian frames for this series. These frames are so elegant and magical, I felt inspired just looking at them and picturing what I would paint! Let me tell you...the frames were quite the adventure!
From how many of them ended up arriving broken, leading to me needing to frequently hunt down lots on Ebay containing ones I desperately hoped would fit my paintings (antique framing sizes are a many strange and varied thing) to cleaning them, removing the old pictures that had glued themselves to the antique glass and putting down gesso on their backing boards to protect the paintings from acid, the framing process took quite awhile, but was well worth it!
Motivation: I also wanted to speak on how I kept my motivation going throughout this series. It total, with the exception of the paintings I did last year, this series took just over a month to create although I worked on it quite heavily throughout that month. I do not think that is really enough time to get sick of a project you love but of course, some pieces were still easier to finish than others.
The piece above was done somewhat near the end and I felt like I dragged it out.
It was really not due to the piece itself but more due to some declining mental health I was struggling with in late August and September I think. I know many artists struggle to finish work for one reason or another. I used to as well and have stacks and stacks of old canvases in my past that barely saw more than 2-10 hours of work before I abandoned them. At some point, I think when I began having more regular deadlines for shows, it started forcing me to finish work. With each finished piece, I think some internal confidence grew as I proved to myself that even if I was not satisfied with the finished work, it was still done. It was still finished. And the experience of finishing something has become very important to me.
In the years since, I have abandoned very few pieces. I will occasionally restart them if things have gone too far in a direction that I dislike, and I know how I could do better, but I try to always finish concepts. The piece You Are All in this series was one I had to partially restart because its initial colour washes were absolutely horrendous. I managed to lift away a lot of the original paint and combine it with the colours you see above to salvage it and now I quite like it!
Finishing work does seem to take practice and a build up of confidence. You are definitely not always going to be satisfied with everything you do, but at least for me, that seems to get easier to deal with over time.
Bring it back to the meaning: Another way I kept myself going throughout this series was to remind myself of the emotions and meaning behind the series. As I said, I am not the best at working on things that do not inspire me. I can do it, but I tend to crumble internally. Working on a piece that is challenging, but meaningful, tends to be far easier than working on something that means very little to me. If you struggle to finish something, think about what it means to you. Does it represent a story or emotion? If not, can you give it one to help you to better connect with it? Sometimes the motivation to finish can simply come from the challenge the piece is providing, and the growth you as an artist will get to benefit from if you finish it. Discipline is a huge part of creating as I am sure you know and the more we can hone our discipline, the more enjoyable I think creating becomes.
I hope you enjoy my insights on how I felt while creating this series! Honestly it was so much fun and I am already looking forward to creating my next collection (whatever it may be)
~Aria ☾
