My piece for All Decked Out at the Polk Museum of Art.
After a brief hiatus from art shows, Kick Start My Art is back with another event. This time it is at the Polk Museum of Art, running from 4.26.14 through July. The event is scheduled in conjunction with Go Skateboarding Day and Innoskate. All artwork in the event is either on a skateboard or has skateboarding related subject matter in it. My piece for the event is titled, Allegory for Innovation: The Convergence of Vision, Creativity and Growth. The images tell the story of the process of innovation, with vision, creativity and growth being catalysts for the process. The skull represents the seat of thought and creativity, but the eyes remain for vision. The seeds at the bottom of the piece are being taken in through the base of the skull. These represent the beginning of the process, the initial thought, the spark of a dream. As the seeds enter the skull, the cultivation of ideas and the fostering growth begins, wherein innovation occurs, in the end producing something bigger (the foliage) than what existed at the start (the seeds). Woodpeckers are symbolic of the idea using one’s “head” to think of new solutions, in essence, they are symbolic of innovation itself. The two are aiding in releasing the creative, innovative thoughts from the skull. For this piece, I decided to break away from my normal approach. Typically, I use natural colors, shading and black outlines to finish off images. This time, I omitted shading all together and used solid, bright colors. I steered away from black and went with lighter shades for the outlines. Neon signs were my initial inspiration for the bold colors and light outlines, but as I began working, I was inspired by medieval cloisonné. With the arch of the deck, my choice of subject matter, and medieval inspiration, I aimed at creating something of a shrine to the process of innovation.
