INSPIRATION AND IMAGINATION

Artwork by Parker Kaufman

 

 

Throughout my life I've studied under some ardent and wonderfully talented art teachers.  I was always encouraged to create works that were truly reflective of the world as seen through my eyes and experience, regardless of what the popular definition of "art" was at the time.

Having a visual challenge, I never saw the world as it "really is".  Color, texture, and perspective, wasn't the same for me as it was for  a person with 20/20 sight.  In my youth, I didn't comprehend  that I had quite a unique view of things.  I eventually came to realize I was blessed with the ability to see something that "isn't"  there, in something that "is" there.

I first worked in colored card stock, creating landscapes and celestial scenes.  I soon added computer generated figures and forms printed on white card stock, cutting and gluing them into the weave of the piece.  I advanced to working with textured stock which gave things a slight dimensional quality.  I followed this with layering several sheets of stock together to gain even more depth.

Not long ago I discovered papers with printed patterns, which ignited my imagination and heightened my sense for seeing "what isn't there".

Featured above are two of my works; the top one depicting geese in flight in semi-realism and the bottom portraying the same in the "what isn't there" manner.

What I hope that you take away from this is, your creativity is only limited by what you allow yourself to see and the boundaries you set for you imagination.