The musings of a journey of visual artist Dominique Vargo. Creatively exploring the highs and lows of achieving a dream into visual tranquility and imagination.
I’ve always love looking at things in nature and anything natural, flowers, trees, fungi, blades of grass, fish, birds, rabbits, deer, ocean waves, clouds, the movement of wind through the trees. And especially the moon and stars in the night sky. A lot of my artwork are based on what’s in my surrounding environment, mostly things that are chaotic in nature, such as clouds or waves. Exploring nature and my surrounding is very much a part of my art process. I take pictures of nature everywhere I go.
I want to share photos I took that inspire me in a series of articles for a peak at “behind the scenes” in my art process. This first article is all about the clouds. I love looking at clouds, whether it is a nice sunny day or a dark sky full of rage just before a storm hit. I’m always seeing images and things I want to draw. Some of these images have already ended up in some of my artwork, but they never look like the original photos.
I don’t think I’ve published this piece yet. It is called “Follow the Light … Through the Dark”. It is one of my art pieces that will be exhibiting at the Overlea Arts Fest this year, at the Holt Park and Center for the Arts, 34 Elmont Ave, Baltimore MD, from 12 to 14 August. I also have 2 other pieces in the show, “The Shape of Things To Come” and “I Am Me”. If you’re in the area, come by and see all the beautiful artwork in the setting of this beautiful park in Baltimore, MD.
There will be an art show and sale preview party Friday night from 5 - 8pm, and a short film screening from 8 - 9:30 pm.
(I made a mistake and actually never publish this back in April.)
The second video featuring more tiny ink doodles on the third page in my Legendeer sketchbook. I’m still enjoying the process. Now I’m starting to think of ideas and sketching them in these ink doodles. Some of these ideas have been in my head for sometime, and have previously been scribbles but never full blown flesh out like they are here.
The third video with more ink doodle drawing on the fourth page in my Legendeer sketchbook. I really like the smoothness of the pages of this sketchbook, and the pages are a bit heavier than a cheaper sketchbook. I have not been working in this sketchbook lately. I need to get back into it soon so I can have more pages to show you.
This is my first time exhibiting at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. I was hoping to find a new audience and meet new collectors. I was pleasantly surprised it actually happened. It was not overwhelming but my audience is out there and I’m so happy to make many new connections with those who enjoy viewing the same chaotic and emotional images that I love to create.
Several of my originals found a new home, to include “As the Pendulum Swings”. This image captures an emotional state I feel I am constantly in, of swinging back and forth from darkness to light, in perpetual motion and never reaching a resting state. I found out that many of my audience connect with this piece.
I had some great conversations with a variety of convention attendees. I talked to an abstract art admirer who commented on how misunderstood and under-appreciated abstract art is as an art form. A common misconception is that abstract art is created without thought and just laid in a random manner on paper or canvas. My process for creating my semi-abstract art may start with chaotic randomness but each mark in my creations are guided by my subconscious thoughts and feelings. This particular admirer noted that their love for abstract art comes from having the freedom to look at a creation and interpret the images for themselves, rather than being confined to just what the artist may have intended to convey. It felt great to talk to someone who admires art and to hear their thoughts.
A topic I discussed with many visitors to my gallery was my thoughts on capturing light and darkness in some of my lesser abstracted images. One particular visitor commented that many of my images are dark or about darkness. Although my images at a glance may appear to be about just darkness, they are actually equally about the light, about being uplifted, and coming out of the darkness. In my piece titled “Awaiting Dawn”, the darkness is shrinking from the lone figure who is slowly being enveloped in a sunrise as darkness fades. It is a commentary on how we all have moments of darkness, but the sun always rises and the light shines through. In my creation titled “Broken”, there is an image of an angel holding her broken wing. Again at first glance the situation looks hopeless, but if you look closer at the image you will notice there are spirits all around the angel that represent the angel is being uplifted. This is such a personal image for me because there are times in life we feel broken, but we can all be uplifted with hope.
I met so many fascinating people at the convention it is hard to remember all the great conversations. I enjoy and valued tremendously the positive feeling I get from all my interactions and I appreciate all who collect my art.
During conventions I attended over the years, I always get interesting questions and comments about my art, my art process and my creative inspiration, either in general or for a specific piece of artwork. I want to start sharing these questions, comments, insights, the interactions and stories with my patrons, followers and casual readers, beginning with my most recent event in Washington, D.C..
The recent convention I attended was Awesome Con, a pop-culture comic book convention at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, located in Washington, D.C..
A young artist asked me what art genre do I categorized myself under. I’ve thought about this very topic over the years, since I got back into creating art about eight years ago. I can’t say that I fit under any currently established art genre, that I know and are aware of. Even though I have figures in my art, they’re not completely figurative. I have abstracted elements in my creation but the entire piece is not completely abstract. Surreal? I certainly see myself as a surrealist, but I heard that surrealism covers an era rather than the artistic style. I could be wrong about that. My art, my thought process for the art, is so chaotic and so abstracted that I feel like Chaotic Abstraction should be its own genre and I would fall under that.
Another young artist purchased the print “Where the Wind Blows” and asked what was my inspiration for creating this particular piece. To me, this piece represent a release of an inner self, so to speak. Release your inner self and let “the wind” takes you where it may, or just flow with the wind and allow it to take you on an adventure, a journey to some far off place that you might not have thought of going. The white ghost-like birds flowing from the figure into the wind and maybe to as far away as the moon.
It’s also very satisfying when someone identify with a piece the same way I identify with a piece. Over the years, many individuals have identified with the piece Broken and relating to how they feel internally. The idea of feeling like you’re so broken and trying to mend yourself at every turn in life is a general feeling that I think most people have. To capture that feeling is very cathartic for me and I’m glad that people can have a sense of peace when they view this artwork.
My next convention is Heroes Con, in Charlotte, NC. This will be my first time attending Heroes Con and it is also their 40th anniversary. I can’t wait to go. If you’re in the area and are also attending Heroes Con, I am in Booth 769. I would love it if you come by and say Hello.
In a previous Blog article, I mentioned how each name in my full name represents a segment of my life. My art shifted in the same manner. I started out being obsessed with drawing an image exactly like a photo or magazine image, from the facial expression to each strand of hair. I lost the original magazine page or I would have credit the photographer for the images in Phase I of the video.
My art shifted completely from exact reference to surreal and unreal images, shown in Phase II of the video. Some artists compared my work to Escher and Dali. At the time (this was a long time ago and yes, I am ancient) I didn’t know who the 2 famous artists were and had to look them up. I was stunned by their work but, in the same instance, I was crippled by their work. Anything I created after that felt like a copy of their style. I was devastated. At the same time, some different circumstances in life effected me and I stopped drawing for 15 years.
A job offer in Germany changed my life. While in Germany, I discovered and attended the Strokes Art Fair, in Munich. For those who do not know what this event is, it is a place where urban artists get together to showcase their work. A lot of artists are graffiti artist. The artistic side of my brain awaken and the urge to create began to flare. Phase III of the video show images of these artists.
I was afraid that I would not be able to draw again, but maybe starting again at the beginning would help. I again clipped magazine images and started drawing faces. I really enjoy drawing faces, especially the eyes and mouths. Phase IV of the video show some of these drawings, none of which are for sale, but mostly drawn as studies.
I wanted to draw more than just faces. I wanted to create something surreal, maybe even unreal, in the fantastical realm. My art shifted yet again, as in Phase V of the video, with images of faeries and butterfly metamorphosis.
I find that I really just love laying marks on paper, or board. With anything: pen, pencil, ink pen, paint. It occur to me that I like the idea of laying down a mark and letting that mark show me where the next mark should/must go. The marks essentially guide the image. That’s how the ink wash and ink pen stipplings in Phase VI of the video are created. The initial marks are done with India ink and then many tiny dots are added with ink pen. It’s mostly this process that I used to create the Inktobers in 2020, just following the marks from the ink wash and see where it gets me.
I’m not sure if I’m ready to be totally abstract. I still like a figure or a recognizable shape in my images. My pencil work is the same, with each pencil mark guiding the next mark, with minimal planning and sketching.
When it comes to creating art, I kept hearing the words, “Be yourself”, “Be authentic”. What if being authentic means it’s all about the process, rather than the image. I kept trying to sketch an image, but in the end, the marks always guide me to a different image, maybe one I hadn’t thought about.
Links to artists (in order of appearance) in Phase III
