Tools of the Trade

Say NO to Autopilot

by Joanne Beaule Ruggles

Over my long teaching career, I noticed that too often my university students produced marks that were not particularly expressive. There was a sameness about them. Perhaps the artist has been thinking of something else and just moving along without really being connected to what they are drawing or painting. Perhaps the artist was fond of or felt safe with a particular tool and used it to make the same mark again, again, again, and again. My observations made me quite sensitive to that kind of mark-making. For me it is the visual equivalent to “elevator music”. It is non-offensive, it is bland, it does not distract – BUT keep in mind – it also does not engage.

Knowing that, I make real effort to pay attention to my marks.  I want them to shriek and howl, to whisper and sigh, to march along, to waltz, and to stumble. My visual responses must be varied. My goal is creating an A-to-Z range of marks…does that make sense to you as well?

These are all employed in an effort to add unique expression to your artwork, I learned to change tools as I made my marks. I began to acquire non-traditional tools that innately knew how to make uncommon marks. Once at Home Depot I asked an employee to get down something I found visually appealing from a top rack in the outdoor tool section. He asked me what model of lawnmower I had? I said I had no lawnmower, but I thought the tool would make nice paint mark!

When I am making lines, I consider their width and length. Are they staccato or languid? Are my lines the thickness of a single hair or do they appear to be a belly-slide smear across the page? To assist in exploring those linear properties, years ago I crafted primitive dowel pens and utilized a system of deep ink immersion to fully load my pens. This highly unorthodox drawing system gives me wildly expressive marks and helps to produce an original creative voice for my artwork.

Joanne Beaule Ruggles, Gestural sketch of Guitarist, India ink and dowel pens, 26 in. x 40 in.

When working with collage, I search for collage materials that fall out of the normal materials artists might use. I have been known to remove wrapping materials from public toilet paper rolls, asked to purchase wrapping paper at Starbucks but no coffee, picked up orphan materials on the street, and used plastic FedEx shipping envelope skins. To unify the artwork, I think about repeating certain forms with variations in size, color, or value change.  I consider mark-making as if I am making visual music.

Joanne Beaule Ruggles, Dreamy, 2018, Collage & India Ink on paper, 26 in. x 20 in.

Because my students often had difficulty putting their first marks on their chosen substrate, I had them pre-mark their sheets before coming to my class. They would often worry about whether they were doing it “correctly”. I would assure them there was no such thing as CORRECT. I suggested they simply play like a child in a sandbox and explore using a wide range of color combinations, crazy mark-making tools, improvise how things might be done. Just spend time playing and see what gifts might arrive without any planning. We would make many of these prepared sheets without any idea or concern for where they were going to end up. I began to label them as environments and told the students to bring many of them to each class.

A Colorado wildflower bouquet with a non-objective abstraction – environment

Finding my floral subject within the abstract – environment – I created.

“Environments” provided many wonderful creative opportunities for the students – and me. It was no longer difficult to allow colorful marks to exist inside the figure as well as break through the edges of the figure. The interplay of linear figurative information and the non-objective abstraction that co-existed on the surface was surprising, provocative, brave, interesting, and it was not “elevator music”.

Joanne Beaule Ruggles, Sneezeweed Sideshow, 2008, Collage, acrylic, and India ink on paper, 40 in. x 26 in.

Elevator music is boring. It fills space, but no one really pays attention to it. I choose not to operate on autopilot, so I weave in a period of play as part of my creative process and accept the magical “gifts” that are presented to me. I seek non-traditional mark-making tools to cultivate an A-to-Z of marks. I’d like my artwork to express courage and boldness in what I am willing to do. All these actions work to provide an original voice for my art.

I hope you’ll consider trying some of these things.