The course of creativity never did run smooth…

Back again! Life appears to be settling down a bit now, so I’m renewing the resolution of a layout a week. We’ll see….

Layout Eighteen was sparked off by this picture in a magazine:

I  loved the look and colour combination of the jade and amethyst necklace (slightly to right of centre) and since I don’t have a spare $600, I decided to channel it into a layout. I’d had these summer pics on my desk for a while (waiting for inspiration to strike) and thought they’d combine well with some sea-toned sparkle. Went with my Old-Faithful-for-multi-photos, the trusty grid, and then filled in the gaps:

I was actually pretty happy with the result – it all seemed to blend nicely with the photos and suggest summery things, like sunlight on water, etc.

And then we hit a wall.

All the bits and pieces of paper and extras I’d dug out to go with the layout just looked wrong. Really, really wrong. Everything I tried just looked faded, dull or insignificant. The layout had become a bling sample, with some photos attached.

Had to face it. It was time to start again. Telling myself sternly, “if it’s not working, it’s not working,” (to balance out the other side of my brain that was bleating, “but it took so looooong!!”), I pulled off the photos and began afresh.

On the plus side, I still liked the arrangement of the photos, so it wasn’t really starting from scratch. And being able to use the little tree badge (which I really, really liked) cheered me up no end. I’m finding I’m really drawn to that style of artwork at the moment – sort of folksy, simple and graphic; the kind of thing Kikki K does so well.

So here ‘tis; Layout Eighteen, Take Two:

Less innovative, yes, but I’m much happier with this one. My favourite layouts are always those ones where everything’s blending harmoniously into a whole, and you only notice individual elements gradually; to me, this fits the bill. And the aqua/spring green combination is a definite new favourite. Oh, and I’ve kept and stored the first background – couldn’t bear to take it apart! Will probably use it for a collection of pool photos or similar eventually.  

The whole process this time around reminded me of a quote from a book by one of my favourite authors, Susan Howatch. It’s part of a passage I’m intending to paint on to a canvas someday for the study. (That to-do list of “some day” projects is getting lengthy…)

“ ‘And when the work’s finally finished,’ I said, ‘does every step of the creation make sense? All the pain and slog and waste and mess – how do you reconcile yourself to that? Is every disaster finally justified?’

‘Every step I take – every bit of clay I touch – they’re all there in the final work. If they hadn’t happened, then this –‘ She gestured to the sculpture ‘-wouldn’t exist. In fact they had to happen for the work to emerge as it is. So in the end every major disaster, every tiny error, every wrong turning, every fragment of discarded clay, all the blood, sweat and tears – everything has meaning. I give it meaning. I reuse, reshape, recast all that goes wrong so that in the end nothing is wasted and nothing is without significance and nothing ceases to be precious to me.’ “

                                                                                   

Have a wonderful weekend J