Works Within Works, Art Within Art

Who needs something out of nothing when you can getting something out of something?

Ongoing is about curiosity. I’ll document my own curious journey a bit more than I have been. Explaining the processes and looking behind the scenes is massively important.

And I want to share all sorts. Instead of leaving the newsletter quiet for ages, what better way to showcase the importance of curiosity at all stages than to demonstrate what’s going on.

Everything is linked—everything is related. Curiosity brought me to a surprise route into art when I needed it more than ever. I’m just over a month and a half into a brand new creative avenue.

It’s about time I made the journey (and the curiosity) more apparent here. In essence, creating more curious work within the work I’m doing. Stepping back to see increasing layers, whilst also moving forward to see further details.

In the two parts below, a look at how one artwork can give rise to so much more.

Part 1 - Different Moods

I love how a finished piece of art can contain brand new offerings. A new canvas can appear out of a finished one.

The collage below is called "not in the mood". Ready to show the world.

That artwork would normally be the endpoint—but I could sense unfinished business.

With so much going on in the piece, I wanted to isolate some of it and create an entirely new piece out of this collage.

A bit of post-processing later, and I got this pattern, which I call "Mood":

Totally different to the original collage, but I still felt more needed to be said. The endpoint still not yet discovered.

My perspective kept shifting. Mood looked like it wanted to tell more than one story, but the piece was fixed in an unsatisfactory loop.

Having a narrative endpoint that leaves much to be considered is absolutely fine. An active audience plays a huge part in moving the conversation further.

But the creative process still had me involved at this stage. I wanted to move things on. There was more art within the art.

I turned Mood on its side and isolated a section to give a clearer idea of the narrative I was working toward. The apt title for this was "Changeable Mood":

But given that I wanted the friction and juxtaposition to feel more alive, I chose to turn the piece into a 2-frame movement, "Changeable Mood Animation":

Although I prefer the portrait aspect, it works in landscape perspective too—telling a different story, or another version of the same story. I added “(side alternative)” to separate this from the portrait version to make the point.

And this formed a satisfying endpoint for me.

Kind of.

There is still so much left for the viewer to consider, but I now feel able to move away from the work and appreciate the journey taken.

I'm also happy that several pieces came out of the process. For some, the animated works may not work as well as the still artworks. Everyone, artist and audience, has a different endpoint. Maybe the original collage is where a viewer feels everything could have been left. And perhaps there's still a lot missing for another viewer. It's all valid and part of the process.

Part 2 - Hum

Another pattern came out of my exploration from the original collage. This one wasn’t supplementary or additional to the collage. Instead, I had something standalone.

Yes, the piece was waiting to be found in the details. But this time, the origin didn’t matter in the same way. Its relationship merely coincidental.

I call the piece, Hum.

The piece moved me to the point where I wrote a poem to accompany the art.

Hum

Gathering feels right—
Belonging appears.
No noise, no rush,
Just threads and hums
Held closely;
Dizzy bursts.

Folded,
Whispered,
Fragments that continue and co-exist.
Cooperate? If only the near silence
Other than loving hum
Would overtake the gloomy bloom
Within the endless stretch.

Like folded hands
In prayer for all.
Turns out, it seems,
That hum has plans
Beyond the reach,
Yet soon within the grasp.

With all this going on, another two patterns emerged. And yet…

For the patterns below, I love how they look, but I’ve not even given them names. Patterns, not even supplementary artworks.

Because it’s all subjective. The only thing making Hum an artwork of its own accord is my personal choice.

Untitled Pattern

For this one, I keep looking at it—appreciating more and more. Almost as if it’s more than just a pattern. But I keep it locked away, in this low position.

Boundaries help make sense of things while not making much sense of anything. It's a playful friction. And there's room for change within that friction. So I could use the above pattern as an asset, or use it to find new artworks within it, or I could decide further down the line to give this piece more recognition and assign it a title and further narrative.

Sounds arrogant and pretentious, to be honest. But it's part of the creative process. In a way, the boundaries are more for the artist than the artworks.

I've already hyped up the pattern above, yet denied it a title. And I prefer it to the pattern below. A pattern I’m still very happy to see in existence, yet in even lower position to the above pattern with no name or credentials.

What do you think?

Untitled Pattern

Maybe you're looking at this final pattern and you find it the most satisfying of everything you’ve seen so far in this post. That’s entirely valid.

Context matters too. If any of these were, say, patterns on a carpet, that placement would make me choose this final pattern as the most favoured of all. The original collage, “not in the mood” would be least favoured.

A carpet, a clothing design, a gallery wall, an outdoor event, a magazine… Placement is important.

In fact, everything plays a part. Artists, audience, artwork... All of it!

There is art within art and art beyond art too. Arrogant and pretentious, but also playful and curious.

It’s all here, on show, sometimes bold and clear, other times hiding in plain sight.

Have fun, explore, and see how context matters ongoing.

Where will the next canvas take you?