Taken a few weeks ago, this is the view from our apartment. That's a cable car at the top and a quarry below. We just happen to be opposite the least attractive bit but I still like the view! If I had my camera, I'd take a photo today to show the difference because the trees are green now and colours are appearing in gardens. When I was house-hunting, one of the estate agents happened to mention that some people don't like living near the mountains which surprised me. I feel they add a sense of scale, they remind me of how small we are - and ant-like, busy being busy.
All this inspiration and I'm not drawing. I hope it's a short, temporary blip. It may be because I'm a little fed up with being here now. Everything in the apartment seems especially designed to be uncomfortable to sit or lie on, ugly to look at and inconvenient to use (if it's supplied at all). Housing is in short supply so we are lucky to be here but I'm looking forward to leaving - in about 6 weeks and counting.
Perhaps the problem was that I was looking at work that would normally give me inspiration. Why is it that sometimes it inspires and at others, totally deflates? If others are doing things so much better, why bother? I also found a lot of pencil artists sites and it brought up that old chestnut - what is an artist? Seems like it doesn't bother some of them as long as they can hold a pencil, get a general likeness and sell portraits of young, female celebrities. (Who are they? Does anyone care?) I bored of drawing perfectly symmetrical faces in my teens! I think the word artist is too 'one size fits all' , we need a few more more descriptive terms. I don't really understand the art versus craft debate either (labels, labels!) but at least the word 'craftsman' implies quality.
I have a rare day today as I don't need to go out and it's going to be warm and sunny. I'll sit on the balcony, the one part of the apartment I do like, and draw. Later on I'll watch the paragliders circling around the mountain. I don't like heights but I think it must be amazing to be up there just watching the world go by.
3 comments:
A whole bagful of questions for consideration! The one about why the work of others sometimes inspires and sometimes doesn't is an interesting one. At some points I cannot have enough input - and at others I just do not want to see anything by anyone else so that I can get on with what I want to produce out of myself.
Creating art work seems to involve expression and judgement in a volatile mix: if the balance is not right, the art does not 'work'. But the spooky/joyous/infuriating thing is that the balance is never necessarily the same from one time to next.
Enjoy your balcony and your view. I too love mountains for the same reason. The juxtaposition of exposed geology and bright paragliders sounds diverting.
I think your mountain is lovely and the view would be refreshing for me as well!
Paragliding would kill me too due to the heights, but the idea of just soaring on the wind currens is appealing, isn't it?
I hope your day was very peaceful and satisfying....just thinking about having a free day to draw on your balcony sounds like heaven!
Six weeks to go? Sounds like you will be moving about the same time I will be. Like you, I'm not producing anything artistic at the moment. Hopefully the creative juices will begin to flow again once we get settled in our new homes!!
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