*Jerome-K-Moore

With this online art community, we have a unique opportunity to connect with our kindred. We must avail ourselves of this experience, for it may never come again.

Greetings, Fellow Creatives!

2007! Another year to get things wrong. LOL! Unless, of course, you'd rather just keep growing and improving. That can be fun, too, I suppose. Well, January's over half gone as I look up at the calendar. I'm sure we all have big plans.

I've grown reflective once again. It sometimes seems my mind can't contain all the ideas I have, nor can I possibly express them all in my art, but I hope to give it my best shot. Let's see what happens.

STYLE and INSPIRATION.

I tend to let the project dictate which STYLE I use, along with my mood. STYLE, from my point of view, is a two-sided thing, positive AND negative. It can be a positive way of identification, an artist's unique fingerprint distinguishing him/her from others. It can be a comfy blanket to get wrapped up in, with a familiar warmth. But STYLE can also become a straitjacket if we permit it. Growth can be constricted when STYLE succumbs to ease and complacency. We can become marked by STYLE, and stereotyped by ourselves and others. We may begin to fear experimentation.

I never want to let others decide what my STYLE is. I want to be as adaptable as possible, learning from Life's diversity and reflecting it. Versatility is the broader STYLE I wish to embrace, accepting each new artistic challenge, and hopefully adding something to my repertoire. Draw it all. Simplistic, or complex. Comic, or darkly tragic. Dynamically active, or latently powerful. Realistic. Cartoon. Bright. Gothic. Abstract. Pensive. Silly. And everything in-between. No boundaries, whether by media, subject, or execution. I've taken steps in this direction. Now, I want to run, and leap new hurdles! Sure, I'll fall. But, so what? I'll get up and run again.

It can only bring a smile to my face to hear someone's surprise as they discover my signature on an illustration they didn't recognize as being done in my "style," or featuring a different type of subject, rendered in a new medium. I never want to become complacent, drawing in a formulaic manner just to churn the work out, and collect a paycheck. I hope I can always find something fresh to bring to a project, and at the sacrifice of my own intentional "style," I can let the artwork live and breathe with its own intrinsic individuality.

INSPIRATION is the "fire," the fuel that generates the necessary energy for the artist, and it can be found anywhere. A turn of a phrase, a piece of music, a great novel, an entertaining film. I'm a bit of a film buff. My ever-growing DVD collection is a testament to my love of cinema. I'm sure many of us have found INSPIRATION in the images we've seen on the silver screen. The exhilaration I felt the very first time I saw STAR WARS, or SUPERMAN was enough to make me feel as if I could fly! LOL! It's fair to say that the films I've seen have helped shape the artist that I am. I love when my imagination is sparked by the wonderful vision of a clever filmmaker. I'm inspired to imagine even grander things within the limitless realm of my mind's eye.

The films of director Ridley Scott are an ideal way for me to tie this all together. His career is a study in artistic versatility. From the film-noir brilliance of BLADERUNNER, the lush fantasy of LEGEND, the dark terror of ALIEN, the panoramic scope of THELMA AND LOUISE, to the epic glory of GLADIATOR, this director most typifies what I mean by diversity, allowing the material to influence the style he uses to direct a film.

How do you feel about the STYLE you use? How are you refining it?
And what INSPIRES you most? Any favorite films?