Meet Artist & Surface Designer Denise Chavez
Welcome back! This week’s blog is exciting because it’s all about challenging your creativity. Come meet Denise Chavez, a multi-passionate creative who took my Doodles mini-course and went on to take my Pattern Design Academy program.
Denise creates both repeating patterns and placement prints that she sells on products like tote bags and tunic tops. She also does fabulous collage work, and she shows us her outside-the-box method of coming up with pieces for collage.
The video of my interview with Denise is over on my YouTube channel HERE. Please subscribe to my channel when you pop over there to watch it.
If you’re ready to challenge your creativity, here are a few pointers you can take away from this interview:
#1 – Let go and have fun!
Denise tells us about her creative process, and I really love when she says, “it allows me to be messy and loose, as opposed to trying to paint with more structure.” She finds more fun in letting go, and she doesn’t force her art to fit a certain standard.
It’s very easy to think that your art needs to look a specific way in order to be good. Denise is such a great reminder that art is what you make it. There is no “right” way to create, except the way that feels right and fun for you!
If you ever experience creative blocks when trying to come up with new patterns and designs, it might be because you’re trying to make your art look a certain way, and it may help to consider letting go and exploring what comes to you instead.
#2 – Try something new.
We get to see some of Denise’s beautiful collage work, and these were inspired by another artist’s suggestions. Instead of throwing away her leftover paint after working with it, Denise mops up the paint with some pieces of paper and creates a collage that she can later develop into another art piece.
I think this is so great because Denise got a simple suggestion and dared to try something new. Now, she is also able to maximize her art supplies by creating amazing pieces from leftover paint. It’s like a continuous chain of creativity where one piece of art leaves inspiration for the next.
If you’re a seasoned creative with a signature style and process, I challenge you to try something new and see where the journey takes you. Leave a comment under the YouTube video here to let me know what you’re giving a try.
#3 – Combine different art media.
In the video, you’ll see that a lot of Denise’s creations have more than one medium. When she does collage work with paper, she paints over it. And when she paints, she may use a pen to draw over the colors.
Combining different media is an interesting way to challenge your creativity because it gets you to step out of the comfort zone of using one medium. The process may not be as straightforward, but this is where you get to have fun and see what you can create.
What are two or three different media you could use in one piece? Again, I would love to know what you come up with, so share with me in the comments under the video here.
If you would like to see more of what Denise is up to, you can find her on Instagram, @chavezartanddesign, or on her Society6 shop, and her Le Galeriste shop.
Want to learn more about surface pattern design? Grab my free ebook here.
Bye for now, and I’ll see you next week!
xo,
Anne
P.S. Watch the video interview with Denise by clicking HERE. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel when you pop over there to watch it.
xo,
Anne
It’s Never Too Late to Create®
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MEET ANNE
Hi…I’m Anne!
My creative inspiration comes from a lifetime of observation. I grew up in Paris on the Place St. Sulpice and walked to school through the Luxembourg gardens. And that was only the beginning… Learn more by watching the video on my About page.
