INSPIRATION...the fuel to fire the artist's imagination into a venue of any sort--to give expression bones and life...to be seen, touched, heard--experienced in some way...to one and all...
Ever wonder what inspired your favorite painting, book, movie or creative piece?
Whenever I visit an exhibit and am drawn to an intriguing art piece...stay up all night to finish a mesmerizing book...leave a movie theater speechless --to playback the footage for days--
I try to imagine where the artist found their inspiration...
For my family and art-loving friends--here is a bit of backstory inspiration that fueled my fires...
Working as the Production Designer on a television crime series--it was par for the day to scout locales for dead body reveals...Castaic Lake, CA was geographically desirable to our studio offices. It was a blustery day when we arrived in the park--storm clouds brewed. We scouted through a flash rainstorm until the Director was satisfied with a sufficiently creepy place to find a floating high-heeled foot.
The luminous lime green in my paintings truly existed in the lake...an algae perhaps...
An afternoon swim--alone at dusk has never held an attraction for me...Seeing the movie Jaws at an impressionable age, sailing lessons, whale watching--numerous visits to SeaWorld have only added to my aquatic fears.
This painting was inspired by a late afternoon walk along a Jamaican beach swathed in sunset ...Suddenly the sky turned dark-- I glanced back to see a large squall in the distance behind my hotel destination. My body transfixed as strange green gray clouds swirled above--flashes of fiery sunset spikes--it was over in minutes. As I glanced towards the ocean on my speedy return I noticed a lone woman swimmer in a red suit- quite a distance from shore. A last hit of brilliant sun revealed her in the ebony sea...It was her imagined point of view--flecked with my fear that inspired this painting and Sunset Squall.
