Reflections and Cats

In the broadest context this blog is intended to be a way of communicating about and therefore explicating my own art and perhaps the art of others.  However, to do this I've realised that it isn't just about what I'm putting on to the paper but why and what motivated me to do it in the first place.

I have never really put much emphasis on the new year.  It is a date and a start of something that has no direct bearing on my life (except the odd party and a day off work).  I have long felt that I should enjoy life every day and make improvements when needed, rather than wait for the motivation to change everything on one predetermined day.  On this terribly cold day, sat inside in one of my favourite places, sipping on my favourite drink I decided that I would try instead to look back on 2011 just to see how life and the world has changed.  There were many things to be written and reflected upon, in terms of art though 2011 has been a year of metamorphosis.  At the beginning of the year I was in the midst of a complete separation from art, I had forsaken it; the reasons for which are best left to the past.  I waited and waited until I absolutely needed to put something on paper.  In doing this I was finally able to reunite myself with art, now I am sketching and illustrating almost everyday, my relationship with this part of myself is better than ever.

The point of this is to say that there are times that a complete break from something, even something as inherent as creativity, is healthy, progressive and ultimately creative in itself.

So here are two of my most recent sketches, the first (on the wrong paper with the wrong pencil) is of a tiger displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum, and the other is of an animal that has become dear to me, the Clouded Leopard.  Happy new year!