Sheri Larsen | Art’s Inner Workings
Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, and Pablo Picasso are a few of my favourite artists. Though not many would place these three beside each other, I see three artists whose artwork is created from something deep within them.
Their acts of creation are not a manner of putting paint to canvas or plaster to a mold. There is a mood in their art that surfaces from their subconscious, from their personal lives, and from their perspectives on the immediate and modern world around them. It is a mood that I recognize in my own work.
I begin a piece by drawing it out in chalk. I may start with an initial thought or idea, but the artwork always takes over. In the end, the art may be unrecognizable. By allowing the art process to have control, underlying messages within the finished work may surface. I might have been influenced by a post I read online, or an experience with a family member. My subconscious feelings towards these events come through the paper or canvas.
Years ago, I completed a painting roughly one year before a major overhaul in my personal life. Revisiting the painting after everything took place, I almost fell over from the shock of what I saw. The painting had not been planned, yet its imagery was clearly influenced by that traumatic time in my life, which hadn’t occurred until after the painting’s creation. This memory reminds me that it is ok to not always understand parts of a work at the beginning. As days go by, or years even, I’ll look more closely at the image to try and make sense of it.
At an art opening event, a fellow artist asked if a certain piece of mine was a reflection on abuse. I wasn't completely sure. We've all experienced abuse from living on this planet in several different ways. If not from a person close to us or people in general, then in how this world functions: socially and politically. It's not always about personal abuse from another human being. For these reasons, I often question what I’m doing with my work. What is my creation saying to me? What am I trying to show others through my work? It's not always evident, but interactions with others viewing the works can help me come to an understanding. Still, the most important thing is to allow the artwork to be.
Because of this experience, I desire my work to not be over-planned. Without controlling every detail, I too am left questioning the intent of the work, just like the viewer. I want my artwork to have meaning or to connect personally to the viewer or collector, but it's always a personal creation on a level I do not comprehend to this day.