INTENT

Last week I wrote about definition in art...prompted by a question posted on the blog Scoutie Girl.  Reading another artist's answer to that question prompted the following thoughts on "intent."

Penelope Bridge wrote about "designing with intention" - making some insightful points about the importance of "moving with intent" in both dance and art (I should warn you that her post contains some nude pictures of dancers...so consider who's watching in the background before clicking to read post). 

I've always been one to consider the exception, and so naturally my mind jumped to the idea of the unintended. 

Some of the medium and forms of art that I like best are those that are not totally under my control.  I like the randomness of water colors.  My favorite water color painting method is to create a shape from colorless water then dab colors into it.  The result is extremely imprecise and the final artwork is often far from the original intent.

My scribbleprints are similar.  They start as scribbles, created by moving the pencil or pen quickly and loosly.    Whether I scribble with an intent for a particular shape (a tree or a cross, for example), or just scribble to create something random, the pens movement is not precisely controlled.  Then I take those scribbles and add precision to them...meticulously fill them in with a deliberate controlled hand, scan them and change their colors online, use the patterns to fill new shapes.  In the process I often find shapes and patterns that were not originally intended...this scribble resemples hair, these linen meet in the same way that the vein of a leaf does, ect.   In what originally was random or intended for something else, I discover something new.   So there is a dance between the intended and unintended in my work.