Some of my new experiments, which really help me. Just painting as the ideas come and not worrying about consistency. I have recently bought myself a set of lettering stencils and I'm having lots of fun playing with them.

The image below was going to be something else in my head, but I went on a tangent due to the music I was listening to. The text should read, "There is no text but that which we type."

The music I was listening to was Detox by Strapping Young Lad. I find it a very dark yet cathartic song. Full of rage yet selfaware of it'sangst. It's the self deprecating anger and the unrelenting pace of the tune I love. I wanted the work to be a mess of ideas and yet retain structure.

"Don’t confuse legibility with communication, just because something is legible doesn’t mean it communicates and more importantly doesn’t mean it communicates the right thing." - David Carson.

I have a bit more to add on top of it.

Recently I read an article debunking a few of the myths of creativity. I felt moved to add my two pence worth as I felt today illustrated it.

First off I hate the term 'creatives' it smacks of elitism to me. 'We are the elite creatives, and you must bask in our ergonomically designed glow.' I thought I'd walk and type you through a typical day in my life, and let you in on a secret.

Today was a typical one for me I spent about 1 hour and a half creating work that I either hated outright or worse still felt nothing for. I started out trying to paint an abstract that used tapered lines. The lines were organic in form. I was using a limited pallet of warm hues with a little ultramarine blue thrown in for accents. It felt leaden and clumsy and looked worse. Just because I like them, I painted some large teeth across it, with a view to having the image appear like its been eaten. A nice enough idea but I wasn't buying it today. So with building frustration I began adding white and scrapping back the image. I wrote the work off and began to just experiment and try ideas out. Some of my work uses lettering and I had some old old old poems kicking around so I took a thin brush and began transcribing the poem on to the work. The image is here.

*It's the word cloud balloons my shadow fears, 10” x 7”, oil on oil painting paper.*

Whilst finishing this work I remember the a story I heard about the Torah. That it was written by White fire falling on black fire.

'Yet, the Talmud (Menachot 29a) rules that every letter in a Torah scroll must be completely surrounded by parchment. This requirement is called mukaf gevil. In other words, the white parchment around the letters is an integral part of the Torah; without it, the Torah scroll is disqualified. In fact, the white space is a higher form of Torah. It is analogous to the white fire of Sinai — a sublime, hidden Torah that cannot be read in the usual manner.'

So running with this idea of the space around the letters being as important if not more important I used an other poem and worked for a new piece. I started of using white for the script but it was to difficult to see so I changed to grey. My focus was to make the background, the void, if you will more important than the text using colour. I don't know if I have succeeded in that but I did produce a piece of work that I like and feel has meaning.

*Landdrapery, 10” x 7”, Oil on Oil Painting paper.*

THE BIG SECRET.

This was not done by sitting around staring at a blank canvas for hours. It was done by working through a block. By getting busy doing my mind was freed from having to worry about what I should paint, and could get on with the business of smashing ideas together and riffing off the results.

Inspiration is working, working, working. If you want to be a writer, sculptor, painter or create handbags for ants, then the key is to just do it. For however long you can manage. Grab a minute here grab a minute there. The Wachowski's had to film their chase scene in Jupiter Rising in 6 minute sections. Full details in the Io9 interview.

http://io9.com/how-the-wachowskis-imagined-the-most-beautiful-chase-e-1683796063

If you've read this far congratulations you are now the proud owner of an invisible, massless, painting that I have just left outside your door. Night.