Final Destination, Following the Creative Path of Least Resistance

May 30, 2024

Finding personal creativity comes at its best when you are not looking. Surrounding yourself with creativity, experiencing new things and having fun discovering what you like is the golden ticket to living creatively.

It doesn't matter which way you turn, every experience is valuable!

My story…call it destiny, bizarre coincidence or just limited options. Still, my artistic career has followed a path that seemed almost mapped out in hindsight

Like with most artists, art has always been part of my life. At the end of high school, you go into a small room and are given a careers book and told: “go through it and find out what you want to do with your life”. Now, this is a big fat book, yet the art career section gave me a total of two options.

Yes, the very moment that helps hold our lives and our sanity together, makes us feel alive, keeps it interesting and documents the love, hate and drama in our lives, is only worthy of a glance. The choices are Commercial artist or Inbetweener.

Drawing cartoons all day every day….. I’m not five! No way!

My first serious step into the art world was through commissioned portraits (in chalk pastel) from the age of 17 to support my BA in Graphic Design course at Charles Sturt University.

Yep, 17, on my own, and ready for nothing. Uni was exciting, eye-opening, and a giant step into life.

I remember B&S Balls, hot hikes over the hill for classes, and so many people going in different directions.

However, presentation, composition, photography, and the art of connotations were the winners of my takeaway.

I didn’t have an epiphany or a grand idea…. I had Mum. Noticing how I bounced around dead-end jobs, she had her eye out, because that’s what mums do. I received a letter in the mail, expecting the usual talk of the weather and whats had for dinner in scriptwriting that always needs deciphering. But there, as I opened the neatly folded pieces of paper, was a roughly ripped newspaper article from the Sydney Morning Herald. “Inbetweeners wanted, training included, Walt Disney TV Animation Australia!”

Yes, ended up there after all.

Dodging the graduation ceremony to head straight for the big smoke, city lights, fun town, land of unlimited possibilities….Sydney. I was actually born in Sydney, so it kind of felt like coming home. I just wish the city was as happy to see me; graphic design jobs were scarce; now what?

My drawings became darker, and a tangled mix of fantasy and passion in rich oil pastels. It was a time of experimentation and a search for self with no guide but my thoughts, and the city environment. Something had to change.

Inbetweening came easy, and the light-hearted characters lifted my subject focus to humorous, and quirky creatures of a much softer spirit in pencil. Having no formal training in visual art, I was able to refine my drawing skills through my 6 years of drawing for Walt Disney Australia. The production line and repetitive work were great for developing strength in my drawing stroke.

From here, my drawing style virtually exploded into an exploration of the imagination and how mood and emotion can be expressed more freely without being confined to structured reality. Fantasy

As life rolled on, kids were born, and art became a background memory. We moved to Brisbane, where I said I would never go…too hot, but it somehow felt right. As the kids and managerie grew together, so did my itch to create again. I floundered around a bit, selling my photography and some fantasy artworks but nothing really took with me. Everything I drew seemed to have an involuntary cartoon feel, and the small country town I resided in was not grasping the fantasy world ….I know.

Looking for some inspiration, I went through my old art folder from university and found some ink sketches I had done for a graphics project. I purchased a lot of books over the years, usually pretty, but I found two artists books that have always stuck with me thought. The crazy ink splatter of Ralf Steadman in “The Big I Am” and the simplicity of Mary McQueen’s simplistic animal drawings. While at uni, I played with ink and developed a sweeping style, I suppose almost by accident, as I experimented with simplicity and splashes of ink.

It was these drawings that I took to the next market, and that was that. They all sold on the first day…so I did up some more…and they sold straight away….

With the influence of our hobby farm and young kids, my works are cute, whimsical and sometimes even comical. Seven years on and over a thousand sales later, I can finally relax and enjoy my art for art itself.

So, what does all this mean???.

1. I avoided In-betweening because I didn’t want to draw cartoons.

2. I created my unique ink style while at uni, inspired by books I collected from cheap shops because I was too poor of a student to entertain myself.

3. I ended up doing the inbetweening that I conciously decided not to do earlier and improved my drawing style while doing so.

4. The distraction of family life took me away from what I love doing, but in doing so, helped me develop a softness or emotional treatment of the subjects I now draw.

5. The Cartoon feel from Disney days has added a playful, warm feel to my drawings.

6. Finally, the graphic design course, though it did not give me the career I thought it would, allowed me to market myself and present my work professionally and efficiently.

The point is…you don't know where life will lead, and even if you try to control the direction, you will always find a path that works for you if you are open to let it. Any turn you take shapes your destination. So relax and enjoy the ride.