art inspiration sources...maybe not what i thought!

​Throughout my career in the art and design world, I have given numerous talks and presentations about my artwork and my journey as a creative entrepreneur.  I have been questioned by participants and quoted in the press regarding my process, but particularly, about the source of my inspiration.  I’m a very curious person with very eclectic interests so my inspo follows along that same path.  I can visualize a Zen abstract landscape in the middle of a busy New York City street as well as mentally seeing more energetic abstractions from what appears to be serene nature settings.  My first creative love is photography and I’ve been carrying my trusted Nikon since I was in my teens. Over time, I have documented, captured and, of course, missed a lot of good shots - thousands of images all the way from urban candids to Hamptons beaches and even chicken shots in PA I found fascinating. Yep, the feathers are beautiful!
Other artists plan or sketch out their paintings ahead of putting paint to surface.  I have done the same while working on a commission for a specific project that requires meeting color, feel, and size parameters but for the most part, my work is intuitive and comes through me – or so I thought. It doesn’t just come from the ether, much of it is an accumulation of images my brain and my camera have captured along the way.
Recently, while preparing for a solo exhibition in Montauk at The Lucore Art gallery (April 27th – May 16th, Reception on Saturday May 6th), I explored the relationship between what scenes catch my attention well enough to compel me to photograph it and how it might eventually show up in my abstracts.  I started pairing images of my abstract paintings with photographs from different genres and time spans.  The results were fascinating and surprising. In many cases, the same painting could have a relationship with a field of wild flowers or Times Square at its busiest. This exercise has generated additional future creative projects I’ll share soon. In the meantime, I’ll post some more on the topic as well as some of the images that resonated the most. 
 
I have already received some interesting feedback from posts on other social media. Some viewers look at the painting from an entirely different perspective once they see a collection of images that might have inspired it. I wonder what original photo images you will relate to the most when you look at the painting…

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Anahi DeCanio artwork inspiration from different sources for her abstract NYC Love Letters

and oh yeah...
Artists and creative entrepreneurs have a much a wider skill set than usually assumed. We serve as space planners, art advisors, design contributors and make living and working spaces livelier or calmer and hopefully more beautiful. Besides the actual physical painting process, activities include: framing, installing, finding exhibit opportunities, curating, designing flyers, writing press releases, speaking to the press, organizing events, social media management, trying to keep at least one set of clothes NOT covered in paint...and then - yes all in one very caffeinated run on sentence -  we need to market ourselves so the art will finally be seen and hopefully sell so we can do it all over again!
​Hence...invite below. "

Anahi DeCanio Just Abstracts Solo Exhibition" - April 27th through May 16th. Reception - Saturday May 6th from 4 to 7 at The Lucore Art. *87 S. Euclid Avenue, Montauk, NY.
Just wrote an article about some of the discoveries I made preparing for the show and posted it on LinkedIn.  #montauk #hamptons #latinaartist #latinxart #abstractartist #creativeentrepreneur #artbusiness #curator #longisland #nyartist #pintoraabstracta #charrua #womanartist
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Anahi DeCanio exhibits new abstract work at The Lucore Art Gallery in Montauk, New York