So I’ve found myself endlessly drawn to Aboriginal art and I’m trying to understand why. As I search through Tumblr to find inspiration, I’m consistently reblogging the same types of work: abstract landscapes, mainly of Aboriginal dream art. I just love the imperfect repetition. I love how organic every shape is, and how it doesn’t all make sense as to how the artist chose where to place each one. I feel like the artists produced these works based on intuition, and what belonged to their subconscious, dreamlike state of mind. To me the art feels natural and unstructured, flowing through the artist. I can relate to this style because I rely heavily on my intuition to decide where to make the next mark.
But Aboriginal art, as abstract as it can get, generally tells a story. Many pieces include people, fish, animals, and sometimes weapons all included within a landscape type background. Their use of earthy tones and then strikingly bright color gives the art a more mythical feeling, especially that of the dream art category.
So what then, is the story I am trying to portray? Why do I enjoy the process of subtracting clay away from a slab and then re-adding it to make something new? Why am I drawn to the earthy red terra cotta clay? Why am I making wall relief sculpture panels that all relate to one another?
When answering these questions I think of certain influential parts of my life:
-my love for and need to be immersed in nature
-Uncle Mike and Australian Aboriginal art
-my lifelong reliance on my intuition and trusting my instincts