Planting Seeds of Creativity

Patricia Russotti

My work has always been about what is invisible or often missed by the world. My own space (house, yard, parks, studio), nature, and the “World Wood Web” are constant sources of inspiration. I watch the light change, pass over objects, and transform them into something else. I see magic in the juxtaposition of shapes and in composition. I move around objects to change and shift perspective. This noticing is my daily practice to inform what I see, and how I feel the world to be.

I do not need to travel afar to find magic (although I LOVE travel). Truth be told, when I travel I often do not photograph any diferently than when at home, looking for the walked over, the silent beauty, the alchemical magic, and the invisible pieces of a culture. You may not know where I was in some of my travel images; I like that timeless and ubiquitous quality.

Joy – Once you experience it, that sensation occurs over and over again. When I don’t feel it, I find myself actively looking for and noticing it: an incredibly simple complex moment.

A simplicity of form and shape found in the decaying aspects of nature continually intrigues and inspires and draws me in.

While tempted to draw, paint, and make marks around an object, I often sit back and just admire the form within the, what I refer to as, the Elvis-velvet-black field that I create when making a scanogram or photograph an object.

Textures, forms, and shapes build my compositions.

Dancers Dance, pigment print on Murakumo Kozo paper, cold wax, 24 x 24 in

I have always loved the notion of taking a found object and creating something else by placing it on a flatbed scanner. I feel as if I’m working with a large format view camera. The image is reversed and upside down. The challenge is to examine the object, position it on the scanner bed, and tweak (via prescans) until I feel it is correct. A majority of times, I do not alter the original composition; I simply remove the imperfections that the scanner makes, recognizing that objects can metaphorically hold their meaning and beauty.

My early imaging life focused on portraits, dancers, and theater. In the last two decades, my work shifted to found objects in nature. I view them as portrait subjects, captured movement, gestures of life, and examples of the beauty of aging, disintegration, transformation, decay, and what may become joyous marks.

It is akin to a conversation, where the work becomes the lived experience: the continuum – digital to analog to digital to analog and round and round.

There are the pieces that are printed, charcoal, paint, other lines, and marks added to the substrate. Then I photograph this piece and bring it into the digital world of layers, color, marks, and masks. I often extract the image further into patterns, outlines, and color fields that can be applied to the piece or used in another. These layers can be continually morphed, warped, or skewed into another form and blended with the original object via masks and layers.

When satisfied I print to a substrate. My go to surfaces are Awagami inkjet papers, primarily Murakumo Kozo or Bamboo or inkjet ready silk, linen, or cotton.

Depending on the purpose, installation, or destination for the image, I either add cold or hot wax to the surface and frequently add hand embroidery.

Finished pieces are then prepped for hanging by making pockets at the top and bottom of the piece with selected paper or fabric (often hot waxed to add texture and stability). Then rods are added to both ends for hanging.

Marking Matters in Time

Marking Matters in Time is a collaboratively written piece (myself and my friend, Dr. Timothy Engstrom) for a solo exhibition in 2017, which continues to drive my process.

Perhaps creating something is nothing but an act of profound remembrance.

R. M. Rilke

It is also an act of possibility. I come to see things through stories. A work asks how I remember, but also how I produce these recollections: what senses, what materials, what acts of gathering, cutting, lifting, and collecting that anchor memories or stage their decaying beauty into a transition for new ones.

The object or the memory, which came first? I embed memory in physical remnants of my life in the hope that I never forget, or might be allowed a selective and elemental remembering, or in the hope that if I do forget, but from an imagined future that isn’t yet made, for an imagined person who hasn’t yet noticed.

Found and represented objects symbolize our engagement with nature as I navigate living, loss, aging, and grief, and I imagine what can yet become of them. Like the elements of nature, beings and their oferings are vulnerable to invisibility, to the melancholy beauties of decay, which are here afrmed and ritualistically intoned.

What’s unseen are the flows of time; the walks that made their way to these things; the hands that grasped them; the curious intimacy of the iPhone that helped recollect them; the tonal and digital processing that made its way back to the hand made and vulnerable. Things in transition have a beauty in their decomposition. They aren’t done becoming something else.

Pigment print on

From the series Marking Matters in Time

Which ones do we keep and nurture and which ones do we discard?

Hmmmm… I know that I collect images just like I collect found objects. I create them when it feels right or because they are fragile and their life span is brief in the current state. Doing this allows me to “sit with” the objects and elements. Through the process of photographing or scanning, I realize that either they need to be worked on immediately, fit within an on-going project, or need to remain in a folder until I am ready to make them into something more.

Anthea Revealed Pigment print, cold wax 30 x 24 in

Sometimes I start with a sense of how I want an image to look. Other times, I play and discover, based on experiments, letting things linger, marinate to be used later. At other times I shop my folders and discover really cool stuf that I had made and stored! For me, discard occurs as a step within the bigger process of building the image. I play with the object to see what it can become and use it or not. I might add to the original and realize that impulse did not work, and then I discard that piece and repeat the process again and again.

In general, I think it depends on the space you are taking up, residing in, and recognizing that what may have worked in the past will regularly change.

BUT, I do believe in maintaining, practicing, and setting priorities as described below.

• A daily practice – Regardless of what is going on, I have some kind of daily ritual with making. It is very important for me. Keeps me aligned and helps me to remember that no matter what, I am a maker, artist, and explorer. I may not even be aware that I am doing it. It becomes second nature and almost requires no thought. Just happens, and then I say, “Oh yeah, now I remember.”

• Quieting the internal critic – It can be very hard to keep moving and not want to discard anything because of that internal dialogue.

• Creating an open mind and heart – This works in every way and keeps possibilities open.

• Allowing time to nurture the work, shift into what it is meant to be. At times, I find this frustrating, but a critical part of my process.

• Accepting that it is all information – Choose to use it or go through the same discomfort again.

Is dormancy also part of the creative process?

Yes, dormancy is a necessary component that is difcult to allow the time to happen. Our culture does not encourage or support the “art of doing nothing” or even doing something diferent to change the energy flow. This is a skill set each person needs to develop to stay energized.

Sometimes busy work and play are required before anything of “true value” appears.

I know I am a maker. The process of making is significant for me. Making is a process and requires many aspects that allow me to be me.

Projects remain unfinished until they are ready to be completed, or not. Some projects are akin to “friends of the road.” They serve a wonderful purpose, and then just like that, they have moved on.

Over the years I have read (and experienced) a lot about the energy of ideas. Where do they come from, how do they ride the ether of the world? Why do (and historically have) similar things occur at the same time in diferent venues around the globe? My take away is that ideas float and move and travel until someone picks them up and acts on them. This allows ideas to morph into yet another realm to be picked up by the next person bringing them to life and worked out in their style.

Consequences

Books, podcasts, Ted Talks. There are so many venues ofering advice (dogmas, rules, breathing techniques, how to be, etc.) and thoughts on being creative. The books listed here are some of my favorites that illustrate examples of discovering and maintaining creativity and energy for the muse.

• The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

• The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp

• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

• The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield

• Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland

• The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker

Pigment print on Murakumo Kozo paper, cold wax, 36 x 21 in From the series Marking Matters in Time Also featured on the back cover

What is a teacher’s role in planting seeds of creativity?

• Listen. By really paying attention, being present with an open mind and heart.

• Document what is being said and return their words in a written form. No interpretations, just their words. I have found this to be a powerful tool when people get into the flow of expressing themselves. They are almost always surprised at their own eloquence and expression.

• Recognize and speak to their subject matter or content. Help them recognize their own content by looking at what they create. Point to their content, which they might not even realize themselves but becomes clearer as they work and trust the process.

• Unearth and make visible the things alluded to, but are not immediately forthright. This works with the two items above –listen and document. Give them an opportunity to tweak, restate, make more work, and reflect again. Then go through the process until it is time to move on. This also provides an opportunity for the teacher to make suggestions, to engage in a meaningful dialogue, and hopefully assist the artist in culling the most important parts of their intentions, thoughts, and work.

• Sometimes it is important to say, “This is just not working, switch it up, or try a diferent approach. What you say and think is out of sync with the work I am seeing.”

• Suggest a diferent approach with media and style, or suggest taking a break and do nothing for a while.

• Discuss what the artist is reading, watching, and listening to.

• Support is such a simple word, but it is often difcult to find true support. Depending on the artist, the teacher may simply sit back and hear what is said and view what is made. Other times, it becomes necessary to ask questions and pull out the rationale, intention, motivation for the work. Often, a round of questions can yield a context for the work.

• Encourage and change, not only in their work, but also push through the blocks. Encourage them to learn from the world and diferent teachers or mentors. The needs of an artist evolve, which may suggest a change in teacher or mentor at that time. This can create another way to look at what is known, or hearing the same thing in a diferent set of words can be impactful.

Here is a personal example to share. I do boxing classes. I have taken classes at the same gym from three diferent teachers. I learn so much, as well as diferent techniques from each one. All are good, but the voice and individual emphasis is diferent. A huge impact can happen to one’s performance and subsequent results from hearing the same information slightly diferently.

• Find a way to help students discover their own fascination, how to render it, and how to create the work.

• Whether you are an educator, teacher, instructor, or student, it all requires an open mind and heart. Perhaps creativity cannot be taught; however, resources and tools can be ofered to build a reserve of ideas and concepts, a repertoire of techniques, and a platform to play safely in without judgment.

Life cycle of an image

My goal is to build an image in hopes of it becoming “the world of this thing I noticed.” The digital to analog to digital to analog to digital continuum begins.

I am and have been a huge believer in using technology to help experiment, tweak, and express my work. I use technology to grow and expand concepts, artwork, and general processes.

Digital photographic processes have provided so many options and desires possible for artists like me. Each upgrade, advancement with input and output choices happily expands my repertoire. I consider the digital to analog continuum to test ideas and use digital tools a collaborative process.

The image may begin as an iPhone shot, a DSLR shot, or (as in the example below) a scanogram (using a flatbed scanner as camera). Frequently, I combine all of the above in the process and then add more analog and digital marks.

The following example started as a scanogram.

Then I edit the image in Adobe Camera Raw© to process, followed by opening the file in Adobe Photoshop©.

Work proof

Early in the process, I make a working print on paper that I find interesting. For me, seeing the image printed to a substrate, begins to bring it to life. Then I can decide how I want to proceed and what I want to play with.

I simply tape the working print to a board, photograph the print, and then play.

For this piece, I used colored charcoal to mark all over the print. This marked and drawn print is photographed again. I decided it was too much, then wiped and rubbed the marks on the print, and for the third time, I photographed the print.

The cycle of marking, drawing, altering, photographing may continue a few times until I feel something is working as a base.

When ready to continue playing digitally, I follow these steps.

• I export the image from Photos at full size;

• Return it to Adobe Camera Raw© to process the image;

• Then I open it in Adobe Photoshop©;

• I make multiple layers to create background efects, color, marks, edge efects, texture, etc.;

• Then I make a pigment-based (inkjet) print of this new digital file, on which I mark and draw with paint;

• With my phone I photograph and reopen the image in Adobe Camera Raw© and Adobe Photoshop© to experiment with additional mark making, color, and texture;

• Sometimes I take one of the layers I made in Adobe Photoshop© and print that image onto a film transfer, which I transfer on to a waxed piece.

Sound confusing? Everything feels like that until you actually go through the process several times, and the process becomes part of your practice.

This kind of process feels like being in a conversation. The work can be an answer to the process, the collaboration between concept, analog, and digital and then a lived experience.

Adobe Photoshop© allows me to easily make selections, change a specific area’s color or tone, and move image elements and marks around the image to make compositional decisions.

The images below show how I changed the background as well as the indigo pods themselves by adding layers, selections, and changing blending modes of each layer. Curious results, but I know how I want the image to feel and read.

The next group of images show the addition of individual layers, making shapes, and altering those shapes by moving them around the image until I feel the image works.

Each component is on a separate layer, which allows me to make the smallest of movements or use tools like warp and skew to change the shapes, as well as the transparency of each mark.

I change and shift colors and tones to see what I think works best, as well as the substrate I plan to work on, or if I make a film transfer to a favorite surface or substrate or make it part of a larger image.

A file may look like the illustration below. There may be individual layers or notes attached to the file reminding me of what I want to do to the next iteration or to the final print — perhaps sew, embroider, or add some hand coloring.

Another test print is made to see if the composition and colors work for the selected substrate. In this case, I made a print on Awagami inkjet Bamboo paper, inkjet prepped linen and cotton percale. Based on the tests, I altered the image and labeled and grouped the layers for the final prints.

This process is so much fun! Once you get over the feeling of awkwardness, as one usually does with anything new, the possibilities and streams of energy are amazing. Experimenting with the digital to analog to digital to analog continuum opens the door to finding magic and to the invisible pieces of culture in your world.

About the Author

Artist, explorer, maker and educator, Patricia Russotti’s current work is focused on entropy, negentropy, nature, and the small things she stumbles upon within the existing world. She is passionate about the examinations of nature and the alchemical magic that occurs within natural phenomena and the creative process.

Patti’s work has been consistently showcased in solo, group, and juried exhibitions, as well as in international private and corporate collections. Her practice reflects a breadth and depth of experience and skill in image-making (including analog, digital, alternative, and historic processes) and workflow, as well as digital output to a variety of substrates, such as fabric and washi.

She has been training and presenting on Adobe Photoshop© and Adobe Lightroom© since the first versions of the applications and employs these tools in the creation of her work.

Bevier Gallery, Rochester, NY

Encaustic monoprint, pigment print with encaustic monoprint and thread, three totems — gourds, found objects, and film transfers on gourds

Currently, she is creating and ofering workshops online and in-person to provide emerging and established artists with acquiring digital tools to expand their art practice and to clarify their intent. Patti believes in creating a continuum of working digital to analog to digital to analog and the impact that has on one’s practice.

Her evolving methodology is continually featured at national and international imaging and education conferences, and she has been a regular presenter since the 1980s.

She is the co-author of Digital Photography Best Practices and Workflow Handbook; A Guide to Staying Ahead of the Workflow Curve © 2010, published by Focal Press.

Patti holds M.S. and Ed.S. degrees from Indiana University and spent four decades as a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology – most recently in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences.

You can view Patti’s work at www.pattirussotti.com www.instagram.com/patti.russotti patti-invisiblematter.blogspot.com

You can view Marking Matters in Time at www.pattirussotti.com/marking-matters-in-time