The Happy Medium

The Collective Unconscious 
Originally uploaded by patti_lorenzo-encarnacion

This was my very first "automatic" collage which was an assignment for a collage class I was taking at SAIC. It was made on fiberglass screen attached to canvas stretchers. The assignment was to create a collage that was not less than four square feet. (These are only two panels of a triptych) I decided to make a screen out of..well..screen. This is where my love affair with wild collages began. I sat in front of the screen, squeezing paint out of tubes right onto the scraps of gift tissue and slapping them from the back of the screen towards the front to achieve a "quilted" effect. I'm proud to say I didn't even use a palette so I did not waste any paint. Notice the scraps of paper towel with paint smears that I used to wipe my brushes with. I then started squeezing the paint directly on the screen and then literally slapping the gift tissue onto the globs. Looking back now, it is so stereotypical of an abstract expressionist.

Much as I enjoyed the process, I could not explain my purpose until I learned about the Jungian concept of the "collective unconscious". Until that discovery, this piece was untitled. If I could go back to the day I presented my piece, knowing what I know now, my professor would've probably had more to say about my work than "precious".  I would've probably started a new discussion, a new movement, and a new course to study. Wouldn't that have been great? I remember having those dreams and delusions of grandeur. It makes me wonder now if getting outside the boundaries of "normal" art is still a dream of mine, or is it a result of all my years of being the poster child for Murphy's Law. Is it my past or my future that helps me create these surreal images? Maybe the subconscious purpose of the triptych is to concretize the past, present, and the future.   Perhaps, I am in the center of all this organized chaos. Perhaps, I am more centered than I think. 

untitled one

untitled one
Originally uploaded by patti_lorenzo-encarnacion

Believe it or not, this illustration was made from an egg carton. The fact that eggs are a symbol of beginnings is unintentional. I just liked the way the styrofoam container looked and decided to scan it onto my computer. My plan was to create digitally marbled paper (on Photoshop CS2) for my collages. I ended up with such an interesting image that I decided to stop here...for now.

No More Sketching!

I spent the night going through all my old sketchbooks. I've spent many sleepless nights voraciously drawing all my ideas with plans of redoing them on actual canvas or whatever surface I chose. These plans, somehow, never made it to their final stages. It is ironic that the very fear of losing my creative thoughts has created a huge roadblock to my art making process. Once I have drawn them on paper, the ideas just seem to vanish and decide on their own that their destinies have been fulfilled. I am left with nothing but sketches in books that might never be seen. 

Now, my process is evolving into a more automatic nature. I'm done with thinking about things and setting them aside. I will live in the present and get down to the business of art. If my sketches were dreams, my work, from now on, will be realities. 

I will go back to my old sketches. Perhaps treat them like found images and recreate them into the smaller works of art that I have become so fascinated with. Perhaps they will make their way into a collage, or just framed as is to be admired for its raw quality. If I could have a dollar for each of these little drawings, I'd be a zillionaire!

Now, will this mind sketch of mine actually come to life? That remains to be seen.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing. Feel free to view my entire gallery on this site. For inquiries (about artwork, commissions, licensing opportunities, and art instruction and workshops) send me an email at pattile@sbcglobal.net

Thank you!

Evolution of Creativity

I describe my artistic epiphanies as "seizure-like" episodes that cannot be timed or controlled. They are usually triggered by a simple, mundane visual. Lately, I've been getting them more often. Perhaps because I have been deprived of this freedom for such a long time and have gotten into survival mode. I feel like I have fallen through the potholes of a life full of burdensome journeys. Now, as I decide to purge myself of this emotional baggage, I am starting small again, as if being reborn. Instead of staring at a huge canvas, I have taken old finished pieces I consider unsuccessful an reworking them. Old photos, watercolors, prints, handmade paper, scrap cardboard have been reduced to simply new surfaces ready to be reworked and reconsidered as valuable pieces. Instead of adding, I am subtracting by punching, cutting, slicing ala Lucio Fontana, and then reworking, reconstructing, and reconnecting. I have gone back to my primitive behavior of just feeling and working on pure instinct, devoid of all values, principles, and learned behavior. I am a child again, learning from my own children and their Naive Art. What an oxymoron!  I am beginning to enjoy art again and maybe this time I'll grow into something else.