Fiddler on the Roots

If you're like me, you have files and files of reference photos that you have never used. Something about them is just not quite right and wouldn't translate well to a painting. Many times I've thought, "Gee, I just want to draw that one thing in the photo that really moves me..." or "I'd love to draw this, if only I could see both of the subject's feet in the photo"... I think that is a beginner's dilemma: that we must have the perfect reference photo. We aren't comfortable painting from our own experience and imagination. Yet. 

The other day at Open Gallery Night, these musicians were playing in the hallway. They were deeply engrossed in their music and just played and played as though they were somewhere else, rather than sitting amidst noisy bustling people who barely gave them a glance as they chatted and browsed the artwork. We artists sometimes feel slighted when a visitor walks by our wall without even looking... but these musicians must be so used to that, and they don't care. They are playing that music because it moves inside them and needs to be expressed. It makes them whole and restores their balance and conjures dreams of worlds beyond. The music transports the musician and whoever else wants to come along, on a magical fantasy. With music, more so than art, it is especially moving that this song they are playing is only here for this brief instant, and then it will be gone. It can never be replayed in exactly the same way. Each playing is unique and has a message and mood all it's own. 

THAT'S what I wanted to draw. That mystical, momentary passage of time that these musicians were offering. But my reference photos didn't show it. So I made it up myself. 

I did look at several trees in my own backyard at different times of day to see how the light and shadow played on them. And I did go outside and snap a few photos of my rocks in the landscaping. And I do have a little pile of rocks and a Converse shoe on my drawing table with me (doesn't everybody?). But there is no reference photo for the forest. And there shouldn't be. This fiddler created the place for us with his music, and I wanted to portray THAT place, the one that exists only in our imaginations.  It's very challenging, but also very exciting, to create art that way! (And it's a darn good thing I'm using a forgiving medium!)

How about you, have you ever created a piece from your own imagination? Did you like the experience?

PS-Although it's tempting, that's not the title that I'm going to use...