Art Expresso - my creative quick fix.

Sometimes it's a really great feeling to shock the body a little. I have heard athletes talking about this and when they do, they are normally referring to 'a binge', 'a pig out', 'ordering that large helping of pudding' the one that six days a week they would abstain from. I am NO athlete and so I choose to 'shock the body' in a different kind of way. Normally, it's when I have a rare day to myself and I go to a cafe and drink mocha's and sometimes if I'm feeling really crazy I hit the expresso's! On these occasions I simply love the buzz of the caffeine 'jitters'!!! I often feel the same way when I haven't been very creative and then suddenly come across an amazing inspirational pool of artists and artwork. Well, that's just what occurred this week and the 'jitters' kicked in big time.

I have featured Julia Pott here a number of times because she is fabulous. Her work is sensitive, humourous, quirky, beautiful and a true craft. I love checking out her blog or website from time to time to see what she's been up to and whilst looking around I found a couple of interviews with her. I'm also loving hearing other Artists describing their process and what inspires them, being confident and open enough to share techniques and vision and a little bit of their creative journey.

On my wanders I also discovered am amazing body of work by Marina Grechanik. Her flickr streamfeatures many of her sketchbooks, with her extensive collection of daily life captured in her slightly frenzied yet detailed drawing style - stunning! I'm particularly taken by her pencil and ink drawings on found paper or mixed media backgrounds, so multi-dimensional. Not dissimilar to Marina Grechanik's style is Marcel Dzama, who aside from having a great name produces what I call 'beautiful ugly' watercolour portraits. Here's his artist interview, this one perfectly demonstrates how a person's artistic style can translate into a variety of media outcomes, in this case a journey from watercolour portraiture to music video.

Last on my list (I don't want to overwhelm you!) is Monica Canilao whose work I am the most excited about at the moment, particularly because it has re-sparked my tired ambitions around spoken word, installation, costume and performance. A great reminder of all those plans from years back that haven't quite made it from ideas on paper into reality. One day world, one day .... I'll finally do it!

So, in conclusion this week has not seen me create any new work but I have checked out a lot of new blogs, found links to artists I didn't know about, discovered some fantastic flickr streams, fed my Pinterest addiction and I am feeling very inspired, re-booted and a little 'jittery'. Yep, cheesy as that I'm calling it my Art Expresso!!! It's felt like a double hit, I'm feeling really energized today. Of course, we all know about the caffeine come down and come down I will, I'll probably crash infact. But who cares, I'm feeling chipper for now and for some of you who have hung out with me this week, that will come as a great relief even if I do crash soon!!!