Starling: Residual Imagery
All Art Is Haunted...
It's October...So....
I love this time of year...as the veil thins and we contemplate ghost stories and other spooky experiences. So I wanted to consider what ghosts inhabit our art and influence our creative practice. In the links below you will find information on all that the things I discussed and more. Including the weekly playlist and the link to my interview on Homespun Haints, where I share some of my ghost stories.
Click the link below to hear this week's episode:
This week's Quote by Philip Guston
“Studio Ghosts: When you’re in the studio painting, there are a lot of people in there with you – your teachers, friends, painters from history, critics… and one by one if you’re really painting, they walk out. And if you’re really painting YOU walk out.”
The Dead Mother
So this is the painting by Edvard Munch that is supposedly haunted. I can see why, as it brings up a lot of emotion. Click the links below to learn about Munch's work and other haunted paintings.
Haunted Museums
Here is the photo taken by a worker that may be the ghost of Monet. What do you think? Explore the links below to learn more about hauntings in art museums.
Is MoMA haunted? | GHOST STORIES
Artists Who Died Before They Were Famous
Remember we are talking to future generations with our art. These artists died before they were ever recognized for their work.
My Ghost Stories:
If you are interested in hearing some of my personal ghost stories, check out this episode of Homespun Haints. And check out some of the others stories if you8 are looking for some spooky goodness.
Suggested Practices
- Do a little introspection around that idea of the ghosts of influence that possess you work. Can you see or hear their voices in what you create. Did you mean for that to happen? Were you aware they were there?
- Then create something to honor those who have come before you. What can you do as a way to honor the lessons you have learned from others? It could be anything from a portrait to a poem. A mixed media piece that starts with a thank you letter you write to those who have influenced you and live on in your creative process.
- Think about your artistic legacy and if you are communicating what you want. I think this one is very important as often we become an echo of what is around us not what wants to move through us. Don’t let the fact that the work that may want to come through you is not the current aesthetic to stop you from making it. As your work may be for future generations. Personally, I am kinda banking on that.
- Move out of your way…in the quote by Philip Guston he ends it by saying…and if you are really paining, you walk out. So walk out. We get in our own way a lot and don’t let art itself speak through us. It sounds weird, but if we can consciously let go and allow the art to be made through us…not by us…something transcendent happens. Suspend judgement and leave all your motivations to the side. See what ghosts appear in that process.
- Visit a museum and see if any artists speak to you from the beyond. Stand in front of the work and let it actually communicate to you. Don’t judge it or look at it as an object…look at it as communication.
- Play music by musicians who are no longer in this dimension. Read poetry by poets who who have passed. Take in art by the dearly departed and try to let it speak to you differently…allow it to be experienced and check your emotional response. There may be things you have missed.
- Maybe write a scary story, or draw some ghosts. Illustrate an experience you have had that may be unexplainable. Rememeber being scared as a child and what that felt like. Let yourself have that very human experience of being afraid of what you cannot understand or explain. Sit with it and let it help you create something.
Find Starling on Social Media:
Be Part of The Flock...
Show your Starling support with some Starling merchandise. Help this little blackbird get a larger voice.
This Week's Playlist: Residual Imagery
Songs to considered how you are haunted and how you might want to haunt others.