Colorful times create colorful work. (Free artwork to use as you will)

In the stress free environment of university life, it is easy to be creative. Creative energy flows like a river because there are no rocks blocking the way.
Meaning; the creative blockages we call "fear of failure" and "client rejection"

Here are two illustrations I did 30 years ago.
I have recently been sorting out my old work,
and had forgotten about these.

I can see that I was still in the learning process, but what surprised me was to see the free flowing energy in the work.
An energy that I feel I have somewhat lost in my work today.

After years of working for clients, I have learned and adapted to become more controlled.
Dont get me wrong, my work is high quality. Art collectors and art directors know their world
and do not pay thousands of dollars for shit work. Indeed, I have no problem getting such prices for my work.

What I am talking about is the shear lack of fear in the brush stroke.
In those days I was into colored inks and liked the way it would create friendly accidents and thus effects I could not control. It was exciting and was like a thrilling roller coaster ride. Sometimes they worked, sometimes the didnt.
But what the hell. I had no bills to pay, right?

The above illustration was inspired by a great night out I had with student friends. We went to a see an opera first and then after we went to this great bar that had a jazz band playing.
I was sketching the whole time, and then the next day the result of this experience was the illustration above.

The one below has a different story.

Still using colored inks, I began experimenting with cutting out parts of images and then re-arranging them together to create a montage of my own drawings.
I also like the idea that an image did not have fixed borders, such as a square or a rectangle, and so I would cut them out to make the image a strange shape.

The inspiration for the above illustration was based on a day when an old student, who had previously attended my UNI, gave a talk about his job hunting experiences.
He made it sound like he had to perform like a circus performer with the other interviewees all wondering how he had done and trying to listen to what was being said behind the door.
I wanted to make the image read like a story but without words.
I did a few in this style and then tried something new.

When I left UNI I did not have the luxury or time to experiment.
As the German art critic, Jan Verowert, recently said:
"When we are at art school we create art. When we come out into the real world, we start trying to be professional artists"

I will never use these images so they are free to use copyright free if anyone wishes to. Thanks for visiting.