By Jocelyn Fine
Art photo credit: Roman Dean
Name: Jocelyn Fine
The Importance of Arts, Culture & The Creative Process
The creative process is important because it allows us time to look, take in, distill; and ingest the visual world. As an artist and art educator, above all, I want to inspire my students to understand what it means to notice and wonder. Whether I am sharing images of the magic of the sunset, or asking my students to notice the subtle bend of a flower’s stem, or the gentle spirals in a seashell, I am constantly taking the time to encourage my students to pause and take notice. Exploration is essential to art making and allows us to express ourselves and our individuality. I also believe that these skills are easily transferable to other aspects of life. By encouraging risk taking and exploration, we gain confidence and learn how to solve problems. Through the creative process we learn how to work through obstacles and find alternative solutions, and we can begin to understand that there is not one way to make art, just as there is not one way to approach a challenge
What was the inspiration for your creative work? (optional)
Embedded in all of my work is my distinctive vocabulary of biomorphic shapes that I continue to explore and develop. Painting with the aspiration that my marks will guide me to discovery and significance, dreamlike imagery of mysterious environments and landscapes emerge; often suggestive of fantasy realms. I approach each canvas with this same curiosity—the sense of the unknown: What is going to happen? What will surface? The conscious and the unconscious are at play, striving to reach new thresholds of untapped and perhaps even unimagined creative expression. My work is grounded in the belief that there is a pulse in nature that unifies and connects everything. Guided by the energy around me, I exclusively work from memory, allowing my gestures to turn into marks on canvas. As I paint, my landscapes reveal themselves, and a story begins to emerge; often centering on the grandeur of the natural world; the power and strength of the earth, and the transience of human experience.
