How to use spreadsheets in art...

Just recently I hit a bit of a low in my creative energy. I started to feel that my drawing and painting were restricted and tight, and that I was striving (in the not-so-good sense of the word) to be far too literal and faithful to my source material and references.  I felt stifled, and made a string of works that felt like they had made it to completion alright, but weren't fresh or inspired.

So, I enrolled on a drawing programme that was specifically catered to encourage artists and makers to experiment, and from the very first session I understood how much I had needed this mindset.  

One of the things that it reminded me is how freeing and enjoyable working in mixed media can be.  Not necessarily for a finished artwork that would be presented to the world (although why not), but for the joy of trying different combinations of materials and marvelling at how they interact.  For the opportunity to see what definitely doesn’t work, and what combos of materials and approaches make magic happen.

Now aside from being a creative person, I am, perhaps bizarrely (I don’t know?) also a lover of spreadsheets.  I keep finding ways that they can be used in my creative practice - and believe me, there are lots.  So, I recently made myself a Media Picker.  It’s a super-simple tool that uses a list of most of the materials I own, and generates random numbers to pick a bunch for me.  The game is for me to strictly use the six that it picks (no fewer and no more), and to make experiments with those.  

I have a new piece in mind, and I intend to use this home-made wonder of a Media Picker to do all the preparatory studies and sketches for it.  Stay tuned…  I’ll likely post my experiments on Instagram when I get to them.