The Messy Studio with Rebecca Crowell
The podcast at the intersection of art, travel, business, philosophy, and life in general.
We found 10 episodes of The Messy Studio with Rebecca Crowell with the tag “abstraction”.
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Episode 192: Your Life & Your Abstract Voice
October 16th, 2021 | 33 mins 18 secs
abstraction, art, creativity, experience, life, personal voice, rebecca crowell
How do abstract artists focus on specific ideas in their work? How can personal voice be discovered and followed given the endless possibilities of abstraction? Today we will talk about one path that has proven to be a rich vein of ideas for many abstract artists—that of pulling from their own experiences in life to create a meaningful, personal visual language. Today we’ll talk about ways to access ideas for abstraction from what you know best, your own life.
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Episode 177: Searching for Stories
May 8th, 2021 | 35 mins 1 sec
abstraction, art, communication, connection, creativity, process, rebecca crowell, story
Since the beginning of time, artists have told stories with their work. Sometimes the messages are straightforward and other times open to interpretation. Stories can be told with recognizable imagery, with symbols, and even with purely abstract elements. At the heart of telling stories is our desire to communicate and the human love of narrative. Do you think of your work as telling stories? In today’s discussion, we hope to open your mind to the narrative aspects of your work and perhaps enable you to mine your stories for new ideas.
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Episode 172: Building A Connection
April 3rd, 2021 | 31 mins 51 secs
abstraction, art, communication, connection, creativity, process, rebecca crowell, story
Creating art is a way to share our thoughts, the ways we see the world, and experience life. This communication is vital-- even when we’re immersed in our process, thinking only of the next step ahead--our unseen, largely unknown audience is with us. Very few artists work in total isolation, with no desire to connect or communicate with viewers. Yet artists are also encouraged to follow their own vision, to not let other people’s reactions pull them off track. Today we’ll toss around some thoughts about the desire to connect with our viewers, and what this means in the studio.
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Episode 164: Abstraction and Your Inner Child
February 7th, 2021 | 37 mins 42 secs
abstraction, art, children's art, creativity, mark making, rebecca crowell, symbols
We all drew, painted, and made things out of playdough and construction paper as little children, in spontaneous and unselfconscious ways. Some of us retain those memories, and we may also have children or grandchildren whose artwork we love. The art of children affords an intriguing view of a very different way of seeing and thinking than we have as adults, and many abstract artists have found it a source of inspiration. Today we look at some special qualities of child art and how it may feed our abstract ideas.
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Episode 163: Abstracting With Symbols
January 31st, 2021 | 33 mins 12 secs
abstraction, art, creativity, fundamentals, rebecca crowell, symbolism, symbols
Abstract artists find many ways to bring meaning to their work. For some, this may be purely an investigation of color, line, or other elements. For others—it is the expression of emotion or evoking aspects of the visual world. Today we’re going to look at another powerful way that artists can bring meaning to abstraction—through the use of symbols, whether personal in origin or more universally recognized.
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Episode 158: Abstracting with Emotion
December 26th, 2020 | 39 mins 25 secs
abstraction, art, color, creativity, emotion, fundamentals, line, rebecca crowell
Abstract artists are sometimes stereotyped as uninhibited people who slap paint down in direct response to strong emotion. But this idea is far from true and accurate. While many abstract painters do aim to express emotion and mood, their approaches vary widely --from spontaneous to highly controlled. And even the most intuitive artists need to thoughtfully consider their use of the visual elements and design principles. Today we will look at painting abstractly as an expression of emotion, mood, remembrance, or other states of mind.
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Episode 152: Abstracting Our Visual Experience
November 21st, 2020 | 36 mins 45 secs
abstraction, art, creativity, rebecca crowell
Abstraction takes many forms for artists—from working with the visual elements for their own sakes to using emotion and mood as a starting point, to interpreting what they see in the world around them. Many artists combine these approaches to find their own personal voice in abstraction. Today we are going to examine the path favored by many artists who are inspired by the figure, the landscape, or other subjects in the visual world while avoiding literal depiction. What are some things to consider if this is your own direction, or intrigues you with its possibilities?
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Episode 138: My Kid Could Do That!
August 15th, 2020 | 37 mins 44 secs
abstraction, art, child art, creativity, rebecca crowell
Saying that an abstract painting is something a preschooler could do sounds like the ultimate putdown for abstract art. It implies that abstraction is a scam, meant to fool the viewer into thinking it has actual importance and ridiculing the fact that it is sold for thousands of dollars. It also denies that it takes effort, skill, or seriousness to make the work. But can that same remark be viewed in a positive light instead? What do we lose as adult artists that children have naturally, before becoming self-conscious about their work? And is child art really the equivalent of adult work? Today discuss the relationship between abstraction and child art.
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Episode 121: Working with Place...While Sheltering in Place
April 18th, 2020 | 35 mins 22 secs
abstraction, art, places, quarantine, rebecca crowell
Many artists working in both realism and abstraction explore ideas or emotions through the lens of unique or moving aspects of a particular place. This place may be as close as the artist’s own backyard, but it is often more distant. At this time we are encountering many challenges in our daily lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including being unable to visit the places that motivate our creative practices. In this episode, we talk about how to continue accessing special places through memory and other references.
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Episode 104: Questions And The Creative Process
December 28th, 2019 | 30 mins 59 secs
abstraction, art, creative process, questions, rebecca crowell
The questions we ask ourselves as artists are at the root of the creative process. As artists, we are driven by the unknown. Contemplating various possibilities brings energy and change to our work. It keeps our work dynamic, and exciting, and it keeps us engaged in the creative process.