Works Speak Louder Than Words

Originality and unique forms of art or ideas are the keys to be a well-known artist. Unfortunately, not all artists are capable of forming new ideas, so sometimes they create ideas based on their inspirations and experiences this is especially true for some Multimedia Arts students wherein creating something new is a must.

Jenny Gernale, a 20 year old alumna of Malayan Colleges Laguna with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Communication - Multimedia Arts, has a different way of creating new ideas in terms of creativity. Jenny focuses more on portraiture with a collision between symbolism and minimalism. In coming up with new ideas, what she does is that she looks for inspirations and observe their works on how they create their outputs. Her art is her voice in expressing her thoughts. That is something that all artists can be good at, because you don’t have to be a good speaker to deliver your message to people. Sometimes, you just need pen and paper plus a bit of colors to bring life to something you want to express.

One of her methods of getting inspiration is by looking at the work of fellow artists. Most influential to her are Kei Meguro, Austin Kleon, Louis Pomeroy, and Aki Miyajima. There are also people beyond the art scene; the social influencers whose voices implemented change in the face of societal issues, such as feminism. A few include Simone de Beauvoir, Germaine Greer, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Other mediums of visual arts like music and films have done a great impact in her work, however, nothing else can be compared to the inevitable lessons given by time and experiences. What motivated her in doing art are mostly deadlines, and the constant uproar from these relentless ideas in her head. What leads her in doing art is because she was never good in communication. Well, works speak louder than words in her case.

“I've never been good in communication, and so I let my art be my voice. I want to be heard. I want to be heard by the means of paper and graphite. Once I've been heard, I'm eager to get the feedback— from its detailed technicalities to what's beyond its face value. Because this seems more of a sincere way of grasping the communication I'm after. I won't have to come up with sentence structures and precise adjectives to take me there. Because, on paper, it's close. And I want to let this be the imprint instead.” - Jenny Gernale

Jenny enhances her skills by self-teaching. Another method would be when she makes mistakes that turn out to be beautiful accidents, which delivers art through capturing the exact the idea resting in her head. From the scale, the angle, the amount of graphite, the reference… You name it. As a Multimedia Arts graduate she comes up with fresh new ideas by drawing what she feels and trying to be as honest as possible. Her way and process of creating ideas just bursts and comes out randomly out of her mind.

“It feels like a spur of the moment. And they come out random, it's so weird. Sometimes when I'm not even thinking of a new art idea, sometimes when I'm in the midst of finishing a portrait, BUT MOSTLY when I'm about to go to bed and my mind won't shut up. There are times I have to write my ideas down, but mostly there are times wherein I don't write them down (because I'm lazy) and I literally keep repeating the idea in my head so I won't forget. I think I've lost track of the ideas stacked in line too... I guess it doesn't feel like a process, really. It's more of a series of nagging voices echoing all at once. Like my mom.” - Jenny Gernale

“Originality is the key to be a well known artist” Well, that sounds true, but for Jenny there is no such thing as original. Everything is just a mash up or remixes of ideas coming from different artists.

“Ha! Nothing is original. As Austin Kleon puts it, "Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas." If you look back at the streak of long influencers that I've mentioned, they're responsible of how my art came to be. There are no originals, only influencers. Now it may sound like imitating but it's our choice to become an imitation. We would avoid that by becoming an emulation instead. "Imitation is about copying. Emulation is when imitation goes one step further, breaking through into your own thing" (Kleon, 2012). There's no point in investing as someone that you're not, because if you do, then you're merely just the same influencer/artist placed in another body. In the end, you're taking away all the parts that make you "You".” - Jenny Gernale

Her only advice for other aspiring artists out there is to “Trust your process”, because all you have to do is to believe in yourself that you can do it. Inspirations are easy to find but translating them to a more visual representation is a bit tricky for an artist. Creativity is also a way of interacting with people who sees your art and make them feel something that once they look at your art they’ll be able to get curious and make them feel that they also want to make one. When you do art it always has a story behind, it’s not just a blank canvas but you are painting your own canvas with your ideas.

If you want to be an artist just be yourself in creating art. Exploring what you want with your work and visualizing them to create something new is a way of expressing yourself as an artist as ”You” that you want to be known for. Like what Jenny said, you just need to be honest with what you are creating because it creates interaction with the people who sees your art. Getting inspirations from different artist and mixing it all up together creating something you want to discover are the process of creating your own kind of art that will inspire others to do the same thing. Copying someone's work has never become right, it’s plagiarism. Think as an professional artist, think about these local and famous artists who worked hard for their creations having troubles on how to work everything out as what they have planned, get inspired by these artists like Pablo Picasso, Kei Meguro, Austin Kleon, Louis Pomeroy, and Aki Miyajima. These artists had also been in your position like Pablo Picasso whose works was once disliked by many and having troubles on how he would create something new but look at Picasso now He is now considered as one of the famous artists. All of us are like Jenny who aspires to be a professional artist one day that keeps on trying to be the better version of herself and her works. She keeps on enhancing her skills and trying to be consistent with her abilities because this is her ticket to her success in her chosen path. If Jenny had the dreams and motivation then what is your excuse? none, because all of us are obliged to chase our dreams.