The Ω Curve?

Lampo Leong, a professor of art in painting and drawing at the University of Missouri, Columbia, visited UC Davis last Thursday to give a lecture on his theory on the visual forces of the Ω (Omega) Curve. For those who may not know, Lampo Leong is an internationally acclaimed painter, calligrapher, and multimedia artist. He received his BFA in brush painting from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in China, his MFA in painting from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and his Ph.D. in Art Theory and Practice at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.

Lampo Leong’s theory focuses on the shape of the omega curve and how it exists in architecture and the composition of many artworks tracing back to early history from both eastern and western art. He points out similarities such as the omega shape appearing in ancient Chinese calligraphy, also reappearing in early European paintings. The specific shape of the omega curve create tension and energy versus a straight line. This is why many artists have intentional compositions with hidden omega curves. Relating the idea to Chinese calligraphy, he explains how omega curves create flow and movement where our eyes can travel and follow and that is what makes calligraphy so appealing to people.

After the lecture, Lampo Leong gave a quick calligraphy demonstration. Calligraphy is a combination of visual and performance art, where the shape and curves reflect movement and feeling. It is the coordination of the mind, heart and hand to create a line that carries strength, energy, and the spirit of the artist.

Credits:

http://web.missouri.edu/~leongl/Biography%20file/bio%20text/EnglishBiography/BiographicalSum.html
http://www.flickr.com/groups/worldtrekker/discuss/72157603516527143/

http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/AX050876.html

Creativity from Without

Where’s the creativity? Where’s the inspiration?

Believe it or not, artists don’t get inspiration by staring at a blank wall all day. They go out and see the world. Experience things. Artists can get inspired everywhere and by anything. Contemporary artist, Lisa Hoke is inspired by the colors of everyday objects. Sculptor and photographer, Andy Goldsworthy is inspired by the environment. These are only a few examples, but all artists get their own inspiration from somewhere or something. Where do I get my inspiration?

I get my inspiration from various things. Sometimes it can be from my favorite hobbies or interests, or even everyday experiences. Even little observations from everyday happenings can spark a whole new fascination. For example, one day after playing guitar, I set my guitar pick down onto the desk and couldn’t help but notice how the shape resembled a tooth. I imagined it as a monster’s tooth. So I took all of my picks and laid them out on to the desk and moved all the pieces around, and then it turned into a guitar PICK MONSTER!

Sometimes when looking for inspiration, I like to listen to music. Though I may not always understand the lyrics or what the song is about, I listen for the feeling and tone of the song. I usually create stories and scenes imagining what it could be about. Every time I listen to the song there is a different story playing in my mind, so if get inspired by an idea, I sketch it out on paper. This is the most effective way for me to find creativity.

Usually whenever I find something that interests me, I think to myself “What if it was like this?” or “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?” My mind wanders and daydreams of all the possibilities. I love being inspired because you may never know where the creativity will lead you.

Stone Soup

A soup made of stones? Not exactly.

 Stone Soup is a book illustrated by Marcia Brown. The idea of stone soup is that everyone is contributing a little bit of something that they have into something much greater. So we recreated this idea of stone soup within our design groups. Everyone brought in various items and our objective was to all collaborate to create and build something using what we had.

The first question that came to mind was, “What are we going to make?” Though we may have not realized it, but we went through something called the creative process, which involves activities such as thinking, looking and doing. “These three procedures can stimulate the artistic problem solving process.” as stated in Design Basics by Lauer and Pentak.

First we looked at the items that every group member had brought. Then we started to think, “What could we make with these?” We looked through the items again and brainstormed a bit, sketching out a plan and discussing amongst ourselves. The most difficult part was trying to decide on what to create as a group because many of us had different ideas and opinions, but once we decided on an idea, we started the building (or doing) process.

As we continued, we would run into problems, “What can we do next?” Then we would turn to this creative process again by looking and assessing, then thinking and solving, then doing. Not necessarily following in the exact sequence of looking, thinking, and doing, but jumping around and sometimes almost doing them simultaneously. The creative process is continuous process, whenever there is a problem the creative process is a way to solve it. 

In the end, this is what we created. The idea was based off of replicating a deck of cards, specifically the king card.

After finishing our project, I had a walk around to see what other people had created. It was pretty amazing to see what other groups had created. Here are some of the other design groups work.