Creative Flux Article.

I have been doing more articles than I usually do just recently. Thoroughly enjoying writing a little non-fiction for a change. My latest article on Being Prepared to Be Wrong appeared on the Creative Flux website yesterday. Here’s a taster for you:

One of the first things anyone working in any creative field discovers is just how diverse opinion is (and, following on quickly from this, just how willing the majority of people are—whether qualified or not—to share that opinion). Generally, this is a positive. Ideas, opinions, suggestions, these are the things that can, with the right attitude, spark creativity. They can also, however, utterly and completely stifle it.

Read more…

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Hotel by a Railroad.

I occasionally like to reference paintings and other pieces of artwork in my writing. I like the idea of the reader going away from the novel (temporarily, I hope), finding a copy of the picture online or in a book and studying it, nodding as they think of the scene within the book, hopefully picking up on the emotions I feel it evokes.

Quite often I will describe the painting in detail, from the way the light falls to the thickness of oil on canvas. But sometimes it’s nice just to keep it vague — to entice the reader into taking that extra step and, if they aren’t already familiar with the work, Googling it or picking up a book from the library. I’m not sure how successfully I do this, but it’s nice to imagine that the reader is so involved that he/she feels the need to find and study the piece in question.

Whilst outlining my next novel, I found I needed a way to express a husband’s longing and his distance from his wife. Naturally, I have the usual tools in my toolbox. Words. Human behaviour. The simple mannerism that say so much. On top of all this, though, I wanted something more — something that would frame it in a way that another character within the novel, a child, could more easily grasp, on an emotional if not intellectual level.

My first port of call — and, in fact, my only port of call — was my favourite artist, Edward Hopper.

I’ve never exactly been what you might call an art aficionado. I’m by no means an expert. Yes, I can tell a da Vinci from a Dali, and I like to think I can appreciate and understand each equally. But, as the old cliche goes, I do know what I like.

And I like Hopper. I like his use of light. I like the simplicity of his compositions. I like the cinematic quality. But, more than anything, I like the emotions that he manages to evoke — the sense of longing and isolation, boredom, regret, alienation… it’s all there in such dependably understated treatments.

So which painting have I chosen to add a little thematic texture to the novel I’m about to write? Well, there were a number that touched upon the emotions I wanted to communicate, but none quite so successfully as Hotel by a Railroad.

All text © 2009 Gary William Murning

Steel Blue Jewellery.

Today I’d like to introduce you to the work of my friend Julian Adams.

Among other talents too innumerable to list, Julian is an armourer — and when he isn’t creating incredible helms, sabatons, gauntlets and horse armour (you really need to take a look at that!), Ju also makes a beautiful range of jewellery “inspired by the techniques and aesthetics of mediaeval armour.”

Using an ancient technique, the bangles, bracelets and various other objects that he crafts in steel are often “blued”. Julian has refined this technique somewhat and… well, the end results are stunning. Each piece is also unique.

Below I’ve included a few of my favourite pieces, but don’t forget — if this kind of thing appeals to you — pop over to Steel Blue Jewellery and take a look at the full range.

A trio of wave bowls.

A variation on the “dangles” theme.

© 2008 Gary William Murning (Except for images.)

Art to Itch By…

Following up my Death in the Gallery, I bring you Head Lice in an Israeli Museum.

Death in the Gallery.

Now, call me sick, but this really had me chuckling:

“Everything will be done in consultation with the relatives, and the public will watch the death in an appropriately private atmosphere.”

How on earth can you achieve a private atmosphere in a public art gallery? Is that the artisic bit? Because I certainly don’t see anything else in what he’s doing that qualifies as art.

I’ll give it a miss — as a visitor to the “exhibition” and, more to the point, a participant.