Here is a fun little blast from the past.  Talk about never knowing where the inspiration is going to come from here are some fun pieces that are made from junk mail.  That's right!  Junk mail!  I always felt badly about how many trees had to die for all that useless junk mail I would get.  Then one day the old innovation bulb went off and I decided to make art out of it.  

I would pulverize the mail down in the blender until it was a fine pulpy sludge.  It was a great molding material.  Great for sculpting relief artwork and in this case frames for some pastel paintings.    I built a frame and included a sheet of glass and then mold it on screen so the water would drain out. Once it was dry I would gesso the raw piece and then paint them with acrylic paint.  The frame actually became a part of the artwork.  That junk mail is not so useless anymore!!!!

What caused your innovation bulb to go off today!!!!

Be Innovative!!!

So excited!!!! This painting just sold to a wonderful couple that saw it at the Malibu Arts Festival.  This one has been almost sold a couple of times.  People just love the whimsy and playfulness of this painting.  It's one of my cookie cutter paintings.  There I go again mixing elements to create something new and original.  LOL.  I added the quote about innovation to it because I thought it was perfect to put on one of these paintings.

It all started when I was playing around with abstract painting and I thought it would be fun to introduce very graphic elements into the painting as a contrast.  This thought was pin balling around in my head when I was at the amazing cooking store, "Sur La Table", and I spotted the cookie cutters (light bulb!).  I knew at that moment I had to incorporate them into my paintings.  Not only did I get the contract between the organic abstract painting but I also got dimension.  The paintings have a wonderful relief quality to them.  It was a marriage made in heaven.

Since this innovation I have sold many of these composition.  People love them.  I just started adding quotes to my artwork in Photoshop to post on Facebook and other social media sites.  I have to say that this has been one of my all time favorite unexpected mashup of elements.  To see more of these innovative works of art please go to my website:  http://www.scottlindnerart.com and click on albums.

You never know where inspiration will come from and where it will hit you!

Well, I am finally ready to start blogging about art and myself as an artist.  "Innovation" is what I stand for as an artist.  It's taken me a while to really figure out what inspires me as an artist and motivates me to keep creating art.  You may think it's easy to sit down and discover what motivates and inspires you to create.  I sat down, more times than I could count, over the years to pinpoint what that "thing" is about me that motivates and inspires me.  What materialized was all these preconceived ideas of what I thought or what other people thought or what I had convinced myself to be the reason I do and what I do.  There was something that was relentlessly pushing and pulling me but what the hell was it!

It was not until yesterday, when I was watching a video on youtube by Evan Carmichael did "it" hit me.  Thank you Evan!  I don't know if it was the way he presented it or if it was just the right time and place but it all made sense.  I always say that you never know where or when inspiration will come.  I realized, at that moment, what I stand for (innovation) and what motivates me (boredom).  I get bored very quickly as I think many artist do.  That is my motivation!  Boredom leads to, "Innovation" for me.

I naturally resist having to do something more than once.   I almost never draw detailed sketches of paintings because once I have done it in the sketch book I don't feel the need to create the painting. My brain wants to move on at that point so you won't fine detailed sketches of but one or two paintings.  You will only find very quick sketches, if anything.  This is how my mind works.

I'm not the kind of artist that can sit around and mimic exactly what I see for the rest of my life.  That was amazing the first couple of times I did it and it made me realize I had a natural artistic ability.  Now that I know I can do this, I'm bored!  Been there and done that!  It actually becomes tedious and painful for me.  That is not to say that every once in a while I get the urge to go back to the basics.  I always find that something new after a hiatus.  I find my approach has been fine tuned or has changed due to other avenues I have been exploring.

I constantly experiment to keep myself motivated and interested.  This is how I came up with my own painting medium that I call Xpaint.  I became infatuated with pure mineral pigments and their use in my artwork.  I started off by actually applying the powder directly to an acrylic polymer applied to a canvas.  The pigment would adhere to the acrylic polymer and the canvas.  The results were beautiful and organic but the powder got into everything!

I discovered epoxy resin at about the same time and was learning how to use and master it.  If you haven't used it, it is very temperamental.  It is very sensitive to temperature.  One day when I was frustrated with being covered in pigment powder I had the idea to combine the two items.  That is taking resin, that is not thought of as a traditional painting medium, and traditional powdered mineral pigment and mixing them together to create a new medium.  The results have been amazing!  There is a natural organic effect that takes place during the painting and setting process producing a truly unique end result.  This stimulates and motivates me as an artist.

This is my "Ah, ha", moment.  The bulb finally went off.  I have been doing this all my life.  Combining different elements together out of boredom.  Innovation is what I am all about.
I look forward to continuing my artistic journey of innovation and sharing my finding with you.
Scott