Skip to main content

The Murky depths of my Woolly Head?

I'm not the kind of artist that can just churn out artwork after artwork. I'm not inspired to paint the landscape, still life or portraits. You know, the kind of things that you can just go out and find. External inspiration I guess you could call it. See it. Like it. Paint it. That's not what I'm about.

I do take inspiration from external sources. No doubt about that. The things I see, experience and participate in all influence my art. My brain soaks it all in like a sponge and then starts to make connections. Ideas begin to form. Concepts start to evolve. Possibilities for artworks begin to emerge.

Where once there was a blank page, visuals start to form. Visuals based on my thinking, not my external environment. Teasing out ideas onto the page from the inner recesses of my mind. The murky depths of my woolly head. (perhaps 'woolly head' is taking the adjectives too far?).

My point, if I have one, is that I'm not a constant stream of ideas. Often the water runs dry. Often I just get tired of trying to force yet another artwork from the barest of threads.

I think, sometimes it is good to take a break. Try a different creative pursuit, like writing. If only for a while.

I'm starting to feel more enthusiastic about painting again. Even though I don't yet have any ideas. However I've wanted to paint some larger works for a while and I've finally discovered how to do that without having to use a large canvas. This has helped to light the fire. To want to create art again.

I'm looking forward to painting. To creating some new art.

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022. While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time. Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day. When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible. However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas  (see vi...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art  image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls.  The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

Are Ion Thrusters the Future of Flying Cars? Spoiler - Probably Not But... Hover Boards... Maybe?

Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space.  Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation .  Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their  space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ).  While they sound highly soph...

Embarrassing Yourself with Doof Doof Music

Ever since Spinal Tap popularized the notion of turning an amp up to eleven audio systems have been rising to the challenge of louder, more awesome sound. In particular, car audio systems have embraced the notion of the bigger the noise the better the sound must surely be. What I'd like to know is, if these sound systems are so good, why do they make all music sound the same... Doof, Doof, Doof? You've all heard them. Pimped up cars, with audio systems seemingly worth more than gold, volume blasting way past eleven. Sound waves booming long before you make a positive visual on the car... Doof, Doof, Doof. It has to be the audio system right? Surely all these people can't be playing the same tune? Doof, Doof, Doof. Could it be that the more money spent on a car sound system the less musical range it will actually play? Maybe these people can't afford to buy music after purchasing the audio system so they all play the same demo track? Doof, doof, doof. In my own car I hav...

Movie Review: Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) *No Spoilers*

I 've previously written about why I didn't see Fantastic Four in cinemas , essentially the movie being released too close to Superman  (2025), to which I gave priority. Since I have a Disney+ subscription for this exact reason (to watch Marvel movies), I've finally seen Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). I'm not disappointed I chose Superman to see in cinemas. Set during the 1960s, Fantastic Four is a cliff notes origin story for Marvel's first family before they are thrust into solving world ending events at the hands of a god-like alien, Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who is heralded in by his assistant (I guess?), the Silver Surfer a.k.a. Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner).  While this movie is definitely a step up from previous Marvel films of late (though I'll maintain Thunderbolts  (2025) is a better film than this on a character level), it's kind of a return to the Marvel Phase One Superhero formula too. That is, set up who the heroes are, bring in the threat, ha...