[Today’s featured artwork for Day 27 of the 365 Days Project is by Serena Kovalosky.]
There is a romanticized notion that an artist must “wait for the muse” in order to create. Most artists know better.
#27 – The Artist’s Muse is most often one that is in the subject being explored rather than an outside force that visits the studio.
I don’t wait for the arrival of a Muse in order to create. I simply get to work.
But I did actually encounter one once.
I had a studio in Montreal, in a building with over three hundred artists. Marie was a model who regularly posed for many of the artists’ paintings and sculptures. I worked with her as well for an installation of bodycast sculptures in plaster. I didn’t have any preconceived ideas when she arrived – we simply worked intuitively to find the right pose.
After a few weeks of continuing work on the piece following our session I started feeling drawn to portraying her as a mermaid. It was a rather odd subject that I would not have normally considered but I went with it. The sculpture became part of an installation titled, “A Siren’s Cry.” Once Marie saw it at the exhibition, she was practically in tears. “Out of all the artists I’ve modeled for over the years, you are the only one who portrayed me as a mermaid. I always wanted to be a mermaid.”
When you have the right model, the right landscape, the right block of stone, that’s when the Muse speaks. All you have to do is listen.
”I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best.”
Frida Kahlo
“Greece was a muse. It inspired creativity in magical ways that I can’t even begin to understand or explain.”
Joe Bonamassa
“Most people wait for the must to turn up. That’s terribly unreliable. I have to sit down and pursue the muse by attempting to work.”
Nick Cave
Serena Kovalosky’s artwork can be viewed at: Serena Kovalosky
The 365 Days Project
In 2012, Serena Kovalosky committed to writing an article a day for 365 days as an exploration into the lives of artists and the value of creative thinking in our society.
Experience the full evolution of the project! Click below to read the entire collection of articles.
Descriptions of the images included in this post:
A Siren’s Cry
Serena Kovalosky, New York, USA
Plaster, silver alloy gilding, mixed media
Through the Studio Door
Serena Kovalosky, New York, USA
Plaster, mixed media
Leave a Reply