Express Yourself!

Freedom to play, to create whatever I want, no pressure to produce a masterpiece! But then, maybe my art play turns out to be a happy accident and I like it in spite of my lack of serious intent! Isn't that what art is supposed to be? F-U-N !!!

The ink splashes above were just play, to see what would happen, and I turned the wet paper this way and that, letting the ink roll and drip, spread and seep into the next color, some of it I flung on, dropped on, brushed on. You may not be able to tell but some of the ink is metallic. The paper is from my journal, 100% recycled cotton. If you click on the picture, it will give you a closeup so you can see it in more detail.

At the very least, I can cut it up and make thank you cards out of it - a very good thing, if you ask me! And the scraps can be used to collage into something else...and so on, and so on...

Personal expression makes it unique.  Right now another page from my journal, that I created on a whim, "Flying High" is in the Pumphouse Center for the Arts with a Third Place ribbon in the Annual Pumphouse "The Hills" Competition! What fun for a piece that was made purely for the enjoyment of the moment, with not a care or thought of how others would think about it! I made it for me. Just to document the moment.

So get out some paint, your favorite colored pencils, pens, and ink, and whatever else you feel like - start playing! Then sit back and see what kind of "pictures" you can see in your freeform patterns. Try making those stand out, go back and work them in some more. 

Play - the power of free expression - is what gets the healing process of art going.

~ellen.

Illustration:  "Birthday Suite", 12 x 14.  Ink and watercolor on 100% cotton recycled paper.  Ellen Doerres © 2009.