Drawing From My Imagination

Although I find the following quote from Georgia O'Keeffe inspiring (she is one of my only favorite landscape artists, I'm not real big on landscapes usually, although it's her large flowers she is most famous for) I'm not sure I completely agree, at least for me on a personal level.

To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage. - Georgia O'keefe

I've always had an active imagination. You could say I've always been a bit of a daydreamer, and that's a good and bad thing. It's good to have a strong imagination of course, but that can also be very distracting. The point is, for better or worse, I've always loved to create and dive into my own world, or the worlds of others in the form of sci-fi and fantasy books.

Open Book, drawing by Ed T. ©

This is another sketchbook entry from a few years ago. I used to go crazy with color in my paintings and drawings, but have also experimented with using just a few colors sometimes. I like the green and blue in this one with all the pen texture. There is no real intended meaning in my doodles, they are mostly just a fun way to pass the time.

Speaking of daydreaming though, does anyone else out there remember that old Warner Bros. cartoon short where the kids are in school, methodically chanting math problems in unison, (2 + 2 = 4, 4 + 4 = 8, 8 + 8 = 16, etc.) and the one boy stares at the fish tank and drifts off into a daydream where he is saving the teacher who's in a sinking submarine? I always loved that cartoon and have never been able to find it anywhere. Maybe someone knows the title?

Georgia O'keeffe on Natural Shapes and Ideas

A trendy kind of popular image these days in photographs and decorative posters and things, are intense close-ups of flowers, you've seen them I'm sure. In case you didn't know, American artist Georgia O'keefe was the one who popularized that motif; being the first to paint flowers from that bold perspective. Let's look at a quote from this great artist:

"I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me - shapes and ideas so near to me - so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to put them down."

-Georgia O'keefe (1887 -1986)

She is also well known for her abstracted landscapes of the American Southwest, where she spent most of her later life. She found solace living in New Mexico and it obviously became part of her and her work, check out some of her paintings at this Georgia O'keefe gallery. She developed a flowing and beautiful style of painting, and is definitely one of my favorite painters.