Sunday Sept. 13, 2026:
This residency week was a bit shortened due to Ottawa Comiccon during the weekend. Including the packing and travel, it took about 6 days out of my week. I traveled about 17 hours both ways to make it out there, and back. I nevertheless focused on what I could get done during the remaining days which included Monday, Tuesday, and travel times. I traveled by bus so as to focus on work, and see the landscape changing throughout the provinces. Sketchbook in hand, and an Ipad to transcribe my thoughts, and plenty of road snacks got me safely to the show, and back to the ocean afterwards.
Forillon National Park
This week’s residency work is still theoretical and abstract. Most of the creative work, in truth, happens this way. We’ve always loved to romanticize the artist’s creative impulse. Some dark and twisted urge to create, at the cost of the creator’s sanity. Leaving in its wake, destruction, chaos, and a masterpiece that leeched life and joy from everything around it. It’s a lovely gothic romance story. I’m a sucker for dark romanticism. However, it’s not a sustainable way to create. Nor do I want to give up everything I love for the sake of just one artwork. I want to create loads of beautiful work, a long career, and a happy life. So I stick to my not so romantic methods and cartesian mind space. I used to feel like an inept artist, not being driven by some random dark creative impulse. However, I read this book, The Creative Habit, and it really helped me rationalize my artistic practice. Turns out, my natural way of working is totally legitimate!
This week, I’m analyzing what I am choosing to keep from my past works, what I am discarding, and why. I may even introduce elements that logically follow suit in the exploration that has been ongoing throughout my last bodies of work, as well as elements pertaining to this very specific residency.
Italian Baroque & The unapologetic female gaze of Artemisia Gentileschi.
Going over last week's notes, I realize that my work has a lot more of an Italian essence than I had previously estimated. Somehow, Artemisia’s influence has evaded my attention, despite having had such a dramatic impact on my work. I also notice that as my work progresses, there is an ever-increasing influence of Baroque and its offspring; Rococo in my work.
Work in progress on Blue Zones Cyberpunk print (upcoming release)
This digital painting I am working on is an example of this. The leaves, and the prominence of nature. The accent on the marble idols near the sanctuary doors. There is something luscious about this image. It retains a lot of the Baroque elements, as the massive bas-relief door does have mirroring statues. You feel the sense of weight and scale in the image. It’s distinctly cyber-punk. However, as I had done with my Neo India artwork, this painting explores how different traditional architectures would exist in a cyberpunk future.
Please note that the photography used in the sketch are placeholders. I usually put those in my sketches to help me remember all my ideas on my more complex pieces. As I mentioned in my last post, an image is worth 10 000 words, so keeping all of those in mind while working on a 4-month long artwork implies that I need to make the best of helpful tricks like placeholder images. These will be entirely painted by the end of the creative process.
Hoping to bring a touch of optimism, and following the Jungle Monster body of work, I carried a lot of the themes of nature, and culture into the next collection of prints that I am developing. I want to show my ideas in a positive light, and ensure that my message is conveyed through the work rather than text. I’m still working on this specific piece. I want to lean into the dark grittiness of my traditional style, but I do want to convey a sense of optimism through this piece. It's kind of an antagonistic objective, but that is usually how I breakthrough to new aesthetics. Keep an eye out for this next piece soon.
Focus on the human experience, raw emotions & ambiguity.
Another aspect that stood out to me, while going over last week's text, is creating work that is faithful to my human experience. Something raw, with uncensored human emotions. I think everyone feels it, when my work is honest. This is something that was most present in my Chiaroscuro collection.
Clear, simple Shape-y design.
Looking back, another element that I have worked away from, and with which I wish to rekindle, is simplicity and shape-y, graphic design. The likes of Metric, the monochrome artwork of the two people having a very tense conversion. I love good shape design. I love simplicity when it’s well done. Minimal design can really show your strengths when you wield it skillfully.
Symbolism, mysticism, vibes.
The works of the pre-raphaelites are of such an influence on my creation as well. J.W. Waterhouse is someone whose work I refer to often. A lot of the Orientalist themes are present in his work, but he works in an overtly symbolic way. His Ophelia works have stirred visions of evocative paintings in my mind, which I cannot wait to create.
Balancing areas of intentional and controlled paintbrush strokes & wild unrestricted brushstrokes and paint application methods.
Something I really leaned into during the creation of the Two Tigers piece, is loose & broad brushstrokes. Prior to the artworks released during the June launch week, in the context of my separating my fine arts practice under my real name Olivia Hamza, I would try to conceal my brushstrokes as much as possible. I find a lot of the older works from the Classical Baroque era had unnoticeable brush work. However, I am also a huge fan of the impressionist’s study of light. Consequently, I experimented with thick impasto, and smaller brushwork to see how I could yield different reads on light. My renditions of gold, and materials really do hinge on the use of impressionist technique. Surprisingly though, I feel like I capture light in a more dramatic way with the Baroque techniques, rather than the Impressionist.
Human interactions vs. the inner world of individuals
Another thing I am considering strongly is Human interactions vs. the inner world of individuals. This one is harder to explain. I think both depictions are really important to me. It would be hard to depict one without the other, or the whole of the human experience without them both. You don’t need complex multifigure paintings to convey emotion and depth. They can be the right move depending on what you are trying to convey, but as I have previously mentioned, I think I would prefer a less is more approach. I may also return to a focus on human figures and portraits as they truly are my favorite subject.
Keeping Garamon Collection as an exploration field.
The Garamon collection is one that I am not sure how I could, would, or want to integrate into the rest of the body of work. I like that it is different. I like that it isn’t marketed, or sold. I like that it stands alone, as a kind of creative wildcard.
So for week two of the Residency here are the notes I’ve taken.
Looking at my notes from my last blog post, what aspects of the works am I choosing?
- Italian Baroque & The unapologetic female gaze of Artemisia Gentileschi.
- Focus on the human experience, raw emotions & ambiguity.
- Clear, simple Shape-y design.
- Minimal detail, good design, focus on areas of interest.
- Balancing areas of intentional and controlled paintbrush strokes, and wild unrestricted brushstrokes and paint application methods.
- Symmetry & asymmetry
- Symbolism, mysticism, vibes
- More contemporary themes & representations
- Human interactions vs. the inner world of individuals
- Keeping Garamon Collection as an exploration field.
Why am I choosing them?
The aspects that I am choosing to keep in my future works are either things that are meaningful to me, currently, and in an absolute way. Some of these themes have always been an area of fascination for me, and I assume, will always be. The other reason why these aspects are staying, is because I haven’t finished exploring them. This last aspect applies to themes, but mostly techniques. I feel like I haven’t quite mastered some of the techniques that I love to employ, and so I will keep refining those techniques until I achieve the level I dream of.
Which aspects am I discarding?
- All-over detail like Rococo heaviness
- Forced Optimism - focusing on raw emotions instead and leaning into the full spectrum of things
This is week two of the residency.
Next week will be all about creation.
Through sketches, and small, loose paintings, I’ll be attempting to blend together into coherent works the elements form this week. I will also explore how the residency’s physical aspect impacts my work. Being on the ocean’s shores, the wildlife, the nature, trekking, and all these aspects. I’ll share more of what nature and the residency itself bring to my work, and why I would recommend every artist take some time to do this kind of creative research about their own work.
See you next Sunday, for Part 3!