Barrier Tension
Art is a process. It is in fact, everything you’ve experienced focused into one moment of expression. You may be using just one medium, one concept, one vision - but you as the artist are the culmination of years of conscious and unconscious sensory and cognitive experience. So what seemingly comes out of nowhere as inspiration, may just be an open moment to feel what you already have inside.
Not everything can be condensed into words. Some things are better felt, and art has a way of moving you without justification or reason. It just does. You feel it, you understand it, and connect with it. It is this inner language of form that goes beyond context and moves into interpretation and emotion. This is why art is such a good vehicle for processing emotions and concepts beyond our immediate understandings.
This is also why I like to work with ink and water. I can use control when needed, but also allow things to flow. For me, there is a connection between my philosophy on life and ink and water as an art medium. There is a barrier created by water tension and the dry paper. This tension is what gives the ink a place to flow. It is always a surprise to me watching the ink flow, where it moves, how it settles, and where it intensifies.
For my life, understanding the purpose of tension, and knowing you’re allowed to change the direction of flow and create something different or increase the capacity of what you can hold is a similar dynamic to the ink and water balance of tension and fluidity.
Giving yourself the freedom in art to allow flow, is like a knock on the door to your unconscious. An invitation for it to speak without the confines of words. What comes out, doesn’t need to make sense, often it doesn’t. But you can feel it. Intrinsically, the language of form speaks to a unified understanding and emotion.
