About Creativity

Image created for Tiffany & Co.
by Tobie Giddio, reproduced
courtesy of the artist.

Can you describe your background?

Well, I started out in fashion illustration. I studied with a number of teachers at F.I.T. [the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York – ed.]. And one of my main mentors was a teacher who was very rooted in fine art, so I was getting taught both principles at the same time. I was learning about drawing, and drawing the figure, and drawing the fashion figure, and then at the same time I was learning how to abstract the figure and learning about color and fine art and especially the modern art folks. To this day, I work in the fashion industry, and I spend a lot of time abstracting fashion and beauty and nature.

How does fashion illustration work — when you’re working on an ad, for example, what are you working from?

Well, I studied drawing from life…. And then, as time went on, I left drawing from life and now I mostly draw from memory. The figures just keep sort of coming. I draw them from my mind.

If it’s a job, I’ll often have specific clothing to draw. Most of the things on my site — a lot of the things that I do for myself in my studio — they’re just sort of memories and little vignettes of things that I’ve seen, and I’ve really loved.

I love to look at the couture in Paris and very beautiful, extravagant runway shows. I’m not that interested in regular fashion — American fashion. I look at those European shows, and then a lot of the details might show up in my work.

You seem to be very productive. Was that always the case or did something kick in along the way that helped ramp things up?

Well, I don’t know if I’m really that productive. I mean, it looks like a lot of work — when I look at my website, I think, “Oh geez, I have done stuff.” But I don’t draw every day. To me, productive people are people who draw every day or paint or are sitting at the piano every day. I don’t. But I do work. I’ll work when I really feel inspired to work. And I’m capable of producing a lot of work in a small amount of time. But I don’t necessarily work every day.

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Photo credit: Lisa M. Hamilton.

Recently I realized I’m trying to make work that freezes a moment in time that I would otherwise discard (or refine to make look like other images already in the world). In a text piece, that means writing something down that I’d otherwise pass by and then making a drawing of it later where it’s totally out of context. Or coming up with something slogan-like on the spot and painting it across a storefront window…. Planning a drawing is tempting, but I’ve found it rarely works for me.

With my abstract drawings, it’s more of a puzzle where I make up the rules as I go — like, what would it look like if everything’s being pulled to the edge on the left and there can only be two things and they have to be really different. I’m always trying to stop short of a completed thought because once it’s fully formed, it tends to lose some of its juice for me. Early thoughts have so many different possible outcomes; I prefer thinking about where other people might take them.

And then sometimes I have to draw a glove or a ketchup bottle or a branch because it feels like the right thing to do, and to not draw it would be adhering to some arbitrary rule about what kinds of things I am supposed to draw and what kinds of things I am definitely NOT supposed to draw. The early parts of thoughts don’t obey rules very well.

Are there particular tools that you rely on to gather and develop new ideas?

Absolutely. I go through about fifteen small orange Rhodia pads a year. There’s no set order to the pages, I just fill them up with thoughts or road signs or overheard phrases I’d otherwise forget completely. Then when I’m in the studio I can leaf through them and see what’s worth pursuing — and a lot of it is definitely not worth pursuing. I try to be quick when I take down a note because usually I’m quoting something someone I know just said, and that can be kind of awkward.

I just bought a digital recorder for the car, which was great for a drive on 99 recently but is a bit harder to take ideas off of. Fun to speak into though. Sometimes I feel like I could talk into my thumb and it would be just as useful.

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Sanctuary #3, 42″ x 72″ acrylic on canvas,
private collection. Reproduced courtesy of the artist.

Travel is a wonderful way to feed your creativity. You’re taken out of your normal context and can assess things in your daily life from a different point of view. I paint all over the world. When I’m off in Southeast Asia and then come back to Northern California, the shapes that seem very familiar to me on a day-to-day basis somehow seem quite exotic.

Do you have any day-to-day habits that you rely on?

I’m really glad that you used that word — “habit.” Honestly, most artists that I know who have had sustained periods of productivity — people who have made careers of it — are very regular in their working habits. They just get up in the morning and they do it. Getting in the habit, that’s the thing that will sustain you much more than the stereotype of the artist who’s in the throes of creativity.

If you look at how artists have been portrayed in films, most of it’s not great. [laughter] I always think of Kirk Douglas in Lust for Life. He’s in the throes of madness. Most people I know that are pretty darn good artists, they’re just somehow regular people. They just get up in the morning and work.

On your website you talk about the importance of quieting your mind and giving focused attention. Are there any techniques in particular that you use to accomplish that?

I’m a lousy meditator. Or, let’s say I’m a very undisciplined meditator. But on the other hand my painting is very meditative. If I’m out on location, I’ll find something that really speaks to me. And I’ll set up and just take a big deep breath before I get going. And I’ll meditate.

I’ll also give thanks. I have a ritual: I paint with water-based paints, and every time I clean out my bucket, I always drop a little bit of water on the ground. It’s just my way of giving back and saying thank you and being very present about what it is that I’m going to receive. Even the most mundane moments can be very special, if we choose to be conscious.

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