Elements of the creative process

Running is the easiest way for me to feel most connected and in tune with my surroundings.

What is that feeling like?

Happy, content is a better word. My body and the landscape (my surroundings) are feeding off of each other. The more beautiful the environment, the better it makes me feel inside, and the more removed I feel from my body. That is the feeling of "floating" that I described earlier.

It is the beauty of my surroundings that I am remembering.

Remembering of how I felt at that time, the weather, temperature, and the characteristics of the land.

But as I recall those memories, the point of view that I am seeing, is not from my own eyes. It is more of a view from above. Like the viewer is lifted out of my head, hovering slightly over. I think this is because as I am looking around at my surroundings, I am trying to capture and take in as much of it as I can. And the memories I have are of all of them mixed into one. Therefore I am not in my head.

I said that running is the easiest way for me to feel most connected with my surroundings, but it is not the only way for that to happen. It can occur while I am walking or hiking, and even driving. I think running is the easiest because I am moving through space at a faster pace, and I am able to see more that way. I can experience a lot through a relatively short amount of time. Walking or hiking on the other hand, is more of a slower process. I am still able to experience where I am in a physical way; it is just toned down a bit. The process takes a little longer. And I mentioned driving. I only experienced that feeling once by driving. And I think that was because I had been driving by almost 20 hours, and the land that I was driving by was so peaceful. After all, while driving, you are far removed from the outside world. You are in your own bubble, behind a piece of glass. Glass that is separating you from nature.

So how am I visually creating what I am verbally explaining? Good question, I am glad that you asked.

Like I said earlier, I am remembering of how I felt at the time. So it is the culmination of it all. I take into consideration the weather, the land terrain, the lighting, the particulars found in the land-such as corn stalks, streams, hills, etc., and my physical and emotional states. I internalize these and mesh it all into one form. And what are produced are my paintings.

So I take bits and pieces of memories that I have, and piece them together into way that I think will make a solid composition.

I seem to have a desire to depict physical space (distance) in my paintings. There is something about manipulating the surface that I am interested in. Being able to show space and depth on a flat surface is an idea that I like. I think this is because when I am out running, most of the time I like to look across to the horizon line. Being able to look across vast amounts of land, up to several miles, and still be grounded in one place (almost) is fascinating. I like to pretend that I am able to spread myself across all that distance, being able to be miles away at that horizon line and still be running where my body is.

I like to show that space in my paintings. I also like to do this to emphasize the sentiment of solitude. Typically, I run by myself. I can go up to 2 hours without seeing someone or speaking a word. It is in this time of personal detachment where I am able to be alone with myself, and listen to my interior noise. ""Running silences the exterior noise, but provides a place where the interior noise can be heard. It is impossible to silence the interior noise; it must be heard." -Roger Joslin

My paintings also tend to show more sky than they do land. This is because as I enjoy looking out across the land, I also like to look up towards the sky. It helps me forget about the pounding that my legs are taking on the hard surface, and helps put me at ease. I wish I could be floating up away into the clouds. I take an interest in also showing space in the sky, opposed to showing it on land.

The points of view in the paintings seem to change in relation to the composition. Sometimes the point of view suggests that the viewer is hovering off of the ground, while other times it does not. And sometimes it might show both. It might appear that you are looking up at the sky while looking down at the land.

This can be explained by revisiting what I said earlier.

When I am out running on the roads, trails, anywhere for that matter, I am constantly taking in and observing my surroundings. When I think back to those runs, I am re imagining them from all point of views, not just one. So it makes sense for the point of view to be mixed.

The colors that I choose are ones that I want to reflect this time of calmness and tranquility. Blue happens to be my color of choice for this reason. I find blues to really allude to that feeling of floating and mindful detachment.

Why I choose to use a larger canvas rather than a smaller one is because I want the viewer to be able to feel him or herself in my space. I like to pretend that I am actually in the space that I am looking at when in front of my paintings. I find this much easier to do in front of a large canvas opposed to a small, undersized canvas.

***To be finished later***