If you are feeling negative about the world, and your recent experience in it, grab a computer, hop onto the Internet and start typing keywords about things that interest you. I guarantee that, if you bring a sense of expectation and openness to this exercise, it will not take long before you find incredibly innovative ideas, great generosity, and amazing artists. In fact, you can become so enthralled by what the Internet has to offer that you forget the necessities of life: eating, exercising, communicating with physically present people, working. However, if you put a governor on your curiosity (it’s called self control), that Creative Universe is available whenever you need it, for inspiration and information.
Take the work of Christine Marie O’Brien as an example. Christine describes her art as “hybrid collages” which “incorporate digital imagery with acrylics, photography and found items to create layers of texture and abstract meaning.” You can see her work at her blog, Christine Marie Art, and her Flickr Photostream.
She is using, to obvious advantage, some of the ingenious methods of Digital Atelier artist Bonnie Lhotka. I first became aware of Lhotka when I purchased the book Digital Atelier. Lhotka has a gallery that literally takes my breath away, every time I view it again. Her work is innovative, broad in scope, dazzling to the eye, and deeply thought through. And, as a true teacher, she shares many of the processes used to create that art, in PDF format that you can download and study at your leisure. If you are still hungry for more information about digital printing and creating substrates from this outstanding artist, you can purchase two fairly recent DVDs, Inkjet Transfer Techniques and Printing on Metal Inkjet Transfers.
Lhotka expresses her commitment to art and the artistic community this way:
Through life I gather memories and communicate my emotional response through the use of textural surfaces, real and implied. My art is a continuum. It is a non-identical reflection of who I am. Each day adds to and changes my past. My art is who I am. Without it I would cease to exist. It is a passionate and compelling reason to live. It is the excitement of not knowing what new image will appear that takes me to the studio. Each day is a gift. I paint for myself and hope someone else gets my message. It is like sending a message to the universe hoping someone will see.
Luckily, such messages to the universe are often disseminated via the Internet. Hop on, open yourself to finding what you need, experiment with search strings, and you will, undoubtedly, be rejuvenated artistically.
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