New work in mixed media

For my upcoming solo exhibit titled, Creative Wanderings: 2005 - 2011, I've created some new pieces in mixed-media (two posted below). The work will be on display in the Chittenango School District, where I taught art for 11 years. Talk about pressure! The show will include 15 works created from 2005, the year I resigned from teaching, through today.

I taught digital media, film/digital photography, and studio art. As a professional artist, I've worked in several medias -- I began as a portrait illustrator (which I hated), moved to more expressive and experimental works in painting and assemblage, embraced digital illustration for a while, worked with video and web design, and have ended up in the land of mixed-media --- where I've been experimenting (and indulging in) combining illustrations, doodles, and digital images with painting and found objects.

Images from top to bottom:   
Nectar, mixed-media, 2011
Destiny, mixed-media, 2011

My entry-point to creative wanderings

A fellow artist posted a question on her blog today. 

She asked all artists, musicians, dancers -- all creative types -- to share what they see as their "muse" or inspiration for doing what they do.

I realized my muse is doodling. 

It has been my great escape since childhood. When I doodle, I'm in a flow-of-consciousness mode, channeling or allowing images to surface in my minds-eye.

I've called myself a  "doodle-artist" in the past but I've never considered it my "muse" until today. Doodling is the entry-point for most -- if not all-- of my create wanderings. Many of my doodle-images get recreated or incorporated into completed art pieces.

I am working on two solo art shows right now so I have a new commitment to my muse in order to meet my much-needed self-inflicted deadline-inspired productivity!  

It's a love-hate-love relationship.

So... what's your muse?

Sheri