Battlefield Ghosts: Documenting raw, unfiltered creative energy
Here’s the second drawing in what is becoming a series of time-lapse photography experiments. Drawing Battlefield Ghosts was 25% preplanned, 75% spontaneous creative outpouring. As I worked on this drawing, I kept a loose hand for much of the time, allowing the channel from mind to hand to flow unheeded.
While working on this, I wrote down all kinds of words (as you can see on the paper hand rest in the video) that flooded my mind. Here is a list of the unedited stream of consciousness I jotted down between pencil strokes. These are unedited and reflect what I was feeling at the moment and not how I necessarily feel all of the time.
To be courageous in art, one should not censor the psyche
Don’t be afraid to expose the unseen
Art is part logic, part insanity
Some art requires courage to execute
Art reveals pain
Art speaks without verbalizing
Art is the unadorned soul
Art is menacing
Art reveals that which is not obvious
Art exposes the ineffable
It’s courageous to draw that which you fear
Art can be ugly
Art is 2% creativity, 98% intuitive impulse
Courage + Art= Penetrating
***
Thank you for watching.
~Lisa
Thank you, Mickie. Art encompasses so many emotions. But regardless of what that emotion is, it assuages the soul–quenching a core desire for self expression…at least until the next piece!
Arwen, I appreciate your support. Honestly, painting it felt kind of eerie, so I’m glad the photo lapse animation captured the anxious nature of the subject matter. It wasn’t a difficult piece to tackle from a technical standpoint, but it was penetrating from an emotional one. I felt positively drained, but very much alive following its completion. Even Connor said: “Mommy, you seem happier after finishing that piece”. I wasn’t happy that I finished, but I was relieved to have released so much concentrated internal energy in a productively creative way.
I love this video, I also love ehat you have to say here about it! Sometimes art is menacing!
This was fascinating to watch. The music was perfection! And I loved the eerie way things moved around as you drew. Gave it a very surreal effect.