4. When you get that urge to (re)create something, do you visualise the end product before you begin, or do you just start with a blank canvas (whatever form that might take) and see what happens?
Most generally I visualize the end product and work backward, or deconstruct it from there, especially the assemblages. I like the assemblages because of the linear sequential problem-solving that is involved. Sometimes in painting the vision may become altered and a different final product emerges, but I start anew and try to create the original vision. Occasionally in painting I will produce a purely visceral image without any planning or forethought. Most of these are not for public display and are merely a private form of expression. If I am unable to produce what I have envisioned I become very frustrated. If I am unable to think the process through I get very agitated and swear I'll never create art again! That only lasts briefly and then I'm back at it again. Why? Because I HAVE to, I have to be creating something to maintain my inner balance.
5. I once saw an art exhibition by Bispo do Rosario, a patient at St. Anne's hospital in Paris, who said God had told him to recreate the world in miniature. So, using whatever he could lay his hands on in the hospital inc. cutlery, bed sheets, paintbrushes etc, he made everything he could think of from a football stadium, to Romeo and Juliet's bed to flags from around the world to a matador's jacket. It was amazing. His art was personal and about recreating his world. I kind of get the feeling that's how it is for you - a need to record what you see/experience.
Perhaps. I guess I do create the world as I see it (experience it), or maybe my creations are of the world as I think it should be. Rosario used such a mix of items to create his work and I identify with that---anything can potentially find it's way into an artwork, especially when you attach some symbolic meaning to an ordinary object.
Take "Prosperity" for example, it's not just a pretty painting of two fish. "Prosperity" is about duality, do the fish complement or oppose each other? The media, watercolor and ink, are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Ink being permanent, an absolute fixture on the paper while the watercolor is provisional, retaining its ability to be washed away. The rice paper chosen for this work also plays an important part, as it becomes transparent once painted on. Without a pure white backing the rice paper remains transparent, the addition of the backing makes the images 'pop'. I think of this as my daily perceptions-transparent. By adding the white backing---my previous life experiences-the image becomes clear and vivid. "Prosperity" is more than just a 'pretty picture'. It's a philosophical exercise in dualism.
6. Is a piece of art ever finished?
How does the creative process compare to a 'completed' piece of work?
Is the process as important as the end result?
It is hard to say when a work of art is actually finished, at least for me. It is easier for me to know when an assemblage is finished than to know when a painting is finished. I had to 'train' myself to stop tinkering with a painting and just let it be.
I think learning, via problem-solving and higher order thinking, takes place as you work through the creative process--the end result (the finished piece) is just an added bonus! Reproducing the image you see in your mind's eye can be challenging and frustrating when the piece doesn't come out as envisioned. For the artist I think the process is more important that the final product. That is one reason artists have so many unfinished pieces or 'works in progress.'
