When you look at a piece of art, what instantly enters your mind? Do you think that the artist came up with the idea of their work randomly? Perhaps they put so much thought of it?
In most cases, it’s always a product of their imagination. Artists are very gifted individuals that can find inspiration in almost anything around them. It doesn’t even have to be grand. Even in the smallest areas of abstraction here and there, you can expect that an artist will have something beautiful to make out of it.

Imagination is only one of the constant amazement when it comes to art. Talented people from all around the world get inspired by their surroundings and create mind-bending masterpieces. When you think of artists, naturally there’s going to be so many of them that will cross your mind. From big-name artists to smaller and local ones, there’s always that person that inspires you just by looking at their work of art. With that, it’s impossible to get to know them all but it gives us great pleasure to discover some of them. Garrett Plummer is one of the artist who has submitted his artwork on our blog and we got to discover one of his latest project.

Introduction About The Artist

To give you a short introduction, we asked Garrett to tell us a few things about himself. Here’s what we got:

I was born and raised in Peace River Alberta. I had done art my entire life, growing up I always knew I had a gift for drawing. I got a passion for drawing graffiti in high school. My mother did beautiful calligraphy work, I think that’s where my love for beautiful letters comes from. We had such horrible supplies in high school art class that I never got to realize the joy of painting. I never even painted on a real canvas until years after I graduated. I moved to Edmonton when I was 24 and got a job at an art store. Pretty much ever since the first day I started working there I found my passion for painting, my obsession for colors and pigments, and the knowledge of materials to be able to do whatever I wanted. I’ve since moved on and now I paint full time, whether it’s in my studio, at home or at several locations throughout Edmonton Hosting Paint Nite 🙂

Now that you know a little background about the artist, let’s move on to his project. For this feature, his project we’ll come to know is: “Project Highlight: Beyond Abstraction.”. In this short interview, Garrett gave us the main highlights of his project. Read through the answers of the personal interview below to learn more.

What’s the name of your latest project? Tell us a few words to describe it.

First, we asked Garret to give us a little background about this project. For non-artists, it would be easier to understand where the work started and what the artist had in mind when creating the piece when you get to have a piece of his mind.

My latest project is called “Beyond Abstraction”.
This collection of pieces are very special to me. They are so unique and unmistakably me. Parts of them have been inspired by so many different things. I like the idea of stacking as many concepts as you can into a piece. They look like super textured surreal frozen landscapes covered in impossible architecture and a splash of unique color. Oh! Did I mention that marbles roll down them!? 🙂 Each piece has a small ladder on it with two miniature people looking out into our world, just as we look into theirs. This is why its called beyond abstraction. It’s a surreal world beyond just the abstract.

Where was it launched?

They made their debut at Cafe Mosaics in Edmonton AB.

How was it received by the public?

They have been received really well. Not much art you get to interact with. Kids obviously love dropping the marbles down them and adults too.

Which were your greatest accomplishments with this project?

The average time spent looking at the Mona Lisa is 15 seconds. This is one of the concepts behind the marble track, other than the interactivity of it. It sort of hypnotizes you as it rolls down the painting, it’s hard to take your eyes away until it stops. In this way it forces the viewer to look at the painting for a time I’m now happy with. Time is the most precious thing, I want everyone to spend it looking at something I’ve created for as long as possible.

Also my signature was a breakthrough in this project. It came to me in a dream one night. I always hated signatures on the front of abstract work. Mine are so thick with texture that I can have them visible only from the side. From the front they just look like one of the hundreds of sticks that build up the architecture, but from the side they are nicely carved initials made from wood.

I also use many unique materials in all my paintings. In this series I’ve used materials such as 23k gold flake, Diamond dust, antique diamonds, hand blown glass marbles, pieces of wedding dresses and other gifted fabrics. The diamonds and gold get mixed into the color portions of the pieces and the materials are soaked in fabric medium and sculpted. The marbles obviously roll down the track.

You can marvel at this project and discover other projects created by Garrett Plummer on his website. After a day of going through his works, and maybe even that of other artists, surely, you’re going to get a little inspired yourself. Even if you may not exactly be an artist, there are many ways for you to get started with your creativity. For instance, with this, you can learn how to diamond paint. From there, you can enjoy making so many more beautiful works of art.

Final Thoughts

From Garrett Plumber’s Project Highlight: Beyond Abstraction, here’s to hoping that all of you artists reading this will have more inspiration for your next projects. When talking about art, inspiration need not be grand. This can be found anywhere, and you’ll only need to play with your imagination. For whatever purpose your artwork will serve, when you put your heart into it, rest assured that it’ll capture the heart and the attention both of avid art fanatics, and those that may simply have chanced upon your work.
Art is beautiful, you’ve only got to see the beauty in it to make abstract a well-endearing piece of art.