I haven't painted for over a year, save a few minor sit-downs in front of a portrait that i have owed someone for 2 years. (It's terrible, really, I need to get that finished. I feel really bad about it.)
The following is a brainstorm: A list of possible subject matter or inspirations for painting. Anyway here is the list:
Booby trapped painting: Like nuts and bolts, it looks like a nice painting until you get close then oooh, what is that...wait... WTF?! Why is she wearing that? Wait is that blood? Is that a FLY in the blood? Ew! That kind of booby trap.
Beauty in common or ugly things (Garbage paintings)
Astronomy, astrophysics
Time: The passage of time, geologic or astronomic time, the experience of time to a person, the clash between human time and geologic time, time passes, things change, get better, get worse, this too shall pass, we all are born, live, die. Evolution, both actual and symbolic.
Color and emotional meaning, mental response, social symbology, etc. Interactions of color visually, the science of color, prismatic color, rainbows, subtractive vs additive color mixing. The subconsious effect of color and form. The mushroom trip and the colors involved with each feeling and part of the experience.
Earth, geology, connected to time, also just beautiful in general, landscapes and what is going on underneath them, human interaction with geology, catastrophe, volcanoes, weather, earthquakes, etc., the motion of plates, mountains, change, age of rocks, eons, fossils, trilobytes, dinosaurs, what earth will look like in 25 million years, in 1 billion years
Stuffed Animals, toys, and the meaning to children and self as a child.
Children, what they are, philosophy, understanding, autonomy, the innate intelligence and wisdom of a young mind. Children's dreams, the child in everyone, memory of childhood, childhood mythology, children's dreams,
Dreams: meaning, representation, subconscious, symbolism, surreal interpretations, illogic, dissonance, flying, other worlds/places only seen in dreams, dream architecture, maps, fears and hopes, mental processing, spiritual meaning, tapping into the collective consciousness, meditation, understanding of the world through dreams, psychic, intuition, past life or memory of things not lived, mythology, gods and goddesses.
Surrealism Symbolic, subconscious, mind-play, lack of real meaning or means something not understood by artist, contrasting, paradoxical, dissonant, ironic, controversial, clashing ideas. Surprising, sometimes amusing, sometimes dark relationships of subjects in the painting.
Politics: Feminism, mid east, personal effect, health care, economic concerns and the human effect, what life is actually like, emotional response to political reality, quality of life, actual personal needs, death from political realities, need for change, forming a future, what would be ideal, what will happen if we don't learn from history.
Apocalyptic stuff: Climate, war, politics, clean slate, change, humanity, overpopulation, nature, back to nature, hypnotized by modern technology, attachment to modern tech., the tension and personal
Emotional expression
Manipulation of viewer emotion
Philosophy: Life, depression, joy, the flow of the mind, philosophy of living, coping, changing, loss, gain, wishes, zen, magical thinking, energy, interactions of people, love, family, relationships, heartbreak, complexity, aging, time passage, humanity, zen, buddhism, tao, aging, attitude, gratitude, addiction, understanding. The definition of art and of philosophy are basically the same: Both are about the human condition. Art is philosophy, in visual form. Even if it is a simple expression of aesthetics.
Beauty, refreshment of the soul, simplicity, decoration, cheering the home, feng shui, controlling the environment. Home, or where you live, work etc. Creating a space, color, exterior as expression of interior. Beauty and technical finesse in art, understanding the basics of design and the aesthetic understanding of all the elements and principles of design and making a piece of work. All of this can be part of a work that is about something else. Or it can stand alone.
Breaking "rules" of art, design, etc, but knowing you are doing it and why. Working against the common principles of design, color theory etc.
Flow, interaction, cellular, atomic, microscopic, macroscopic cause, effect, physics, symbolic of human interaction, time, movement, change, relations of microscopic and macroscopic, the size of the universe, the size of an atom, the proportions of both, patterns of physics, nature, etc. Science, quantum physics, metaphysics.
Psychology, ADD, distraction, differences of mind, personality, people, humanity, processing, therapy, regression, childhood, family, memory, etc.
Well, that should get me started. I think I also need to be mindful of my reactions to visual things, and the choices I make in even the simplest actions, like what I wear, what color background I chose on my blog, the font that I use, etc. It is all connected. Anything I respond visually to, either positively or negatively, I should ask myself why, and perhaps start a little journal and start a few drawings.
