Art by Gordon: The Multiple Palettes of a Creative Mind

A palette is a range of hues for an artist to paint with, also a board in which those colors are mixed on. Even when we are painting within a limited palette or see our palette of subject matter as a range of interests, there are other palettes we use everyday.

I believe creation is formed from multiple feelings and emotions; there are raw nerves that the creative uses to create something on a blank canvas, a poised shutter or the story that highlights an opera or ballet.

There are hidden secrets embedded in artwork that the viewer usually can't see but can magically feel. This is how I believe art moves people.

Memories Like the Corners of Our Canvas: Memories stir emotions. The most subtle feeling awoken by memory can haunt a piece of work and give to the viewer something they've never experienced before. The secondary response is when a piece of work evokes the viewer's own memories and suddenly the artist gives up his creation to be owned by the viewers' perception of it.

Inside the memory palette there are multiple sensual aspects. Smells bring back emotions and feeling that can be relived in the viewer. The transferal of those sensual feelings from an image and the evoking of memories is the magic that is creation.

Silence of Stars: A Father and Son Camping Trip © Artbygordon 2015

Sensual Beasts We Are: We are constantly using the senses we have and unfortunately we often experience them on autopilot. For my intentions, I want the viewer of my art to stop and perhaps reignite how a child feels things. I want the excitement of the first snow of the season or the amazing colors of a sunset, I want the viewer to experience them again and touch nerves in their own pasts they might have forgotten.

One painting that captured this and has recently defined a direction in my artwork is a painting called the Silence of Stars. If you really stop long enough to experience a sky full of stars, there is a silence, an awe you feel as if you are realizing how quietly awesome the universe is.

My son, only 10 at the time asked me to watch the stars, we must have looked crazy laying down on the rocks and watching the stars-it is a memory I will never forget and his favorite painting.

More Than the Sum of Its' Parts: Have you ever listened to a song in another language and yet you feel the sadness and couldn't explain why. There is obviously sad music and yet there is also music that is not so sad as it is beautiful. There are certain songs that I can barely listen to because they evoke a hidden emotion that I can feel. Often beauty is poignant or it's something that brain interprets that is not necessarily obvious.

I have done paintings to me were not sad or frightening and yet somehow the viewer experienced feelings from something they took from the painting, whether that is a memory or just the colors. Again the viewer takes the creation and makes it theirs-it no longer matters what the artist intended and that is beautifully intangible much like the sadness in a song.