Again I like how you write about making art and the difference between a formuliac approach and letting the piece reveal itself. Attending a reasonably large art fair recently I left feeling underwhelmed and I think what you have said explains why. Almost universally the work looked intended and like other similar pieces both within the individual stands and also by and large when comparing with other similar styles stands. As though before beginning the artist decided how they wanted the piece to end up looking. So there was no mystery and nothing unusual that caught the eye. Too much balance and nothing odd or unexpected. As though the artist were trying to create a certain ‘look’ to which each piece was required to conform. I made a mental note not to put any of my own work into such an environment and I also felt a bit guilty at not being able to find anything more positive to feel about the work I had seen. For me the process is always to start without a plan, to make a few marks or stick down the first piece of painted paper and then to proceed one step at a time to see what comes out and suggests itself as I/we proceed. I expect what is revealed to be different to anything else I have previously made.
I feel like a creeper in this little box. But you've shared your essay here so methinks I'm at least partially welcomed in it.
I'm compelled not just because I follow you, but with this essay you've plucked from all of the stars in the universe of ideas that we can have one that I am consumed with these days. Your articulation of how words and the ideas they can communicate can play out in our lives is provocative.
Whatever the origins of the stimuli, our responses have only one. Whether the inputs are digital or analog how we take them and live with them, or create from them, is our agency. IMHO this is our aliveness.
Prophets and sages have told stories, these being repeated through generations, which have become philosophies and religions, and controlling. The ultimate beneficiaries of that is debatable. But one hopes that what we do with this information will always be up to us.
There has been times when I have had dreams pertaining to either pieces in a 'half way' point of being made or ones that are just in the idea stage of creation and even ones being created in the dream itself without any conscious thought at all by the wakeful 'me'. Some of these pieces were made, others were too ridiculous to my conscious mind to even think of making. But I welcome all the various stages and see the ones that come through dreams as gifts, not from me but from somewhere else. Great essay with much to think about and a re-read that's necessary. Thanks.
Again I like how you write about making art and the difference between a formuliac approach and letting the piece reveal itself. Attending a reasonably large art fair recently I left feeling underwhelmed and I think what you have said explains why. Almost universally the work looked intended and like other similar pieces both within the individual stands and also by and large when comparing with other similar styles stands. As though before beginning the artist decided how they wanted the piece to end up looking. So there was no mystery and nothing unusual that caught the eye. Too much balance and nothing odd or unexpected. As though the artist were trying to create a certain ‘look’ to which each piece was required to conform. I made a mental note not to put any of my own work into such an environment and I also felt a bit guilty at not being able to find anything more positive to feel about the work I had seen. For me the process is always to start without a plan, to make a few marks or stick down the first piece of painted paper and then to proceed one step at a time to see what comes out and suggests itself as I/we proceed. I expect what is revealed to be different to anything else I have previously made.
I feel like a creeper in this little box. But you've shared your essay here so methinks I'm at least partially welcomed in it.
I'm compelled not just because I follow you, but with this essay you've plucked from all of the stars in the universe of ideas that we can have one that I am consumed with these days. Your articulation of how words and the ideas they can communicate can play out in our lives is provocative.
Whatever the origins of the stimuli, our responses have only one. Whether the inputs are digital or analog how we take them and live with them, or create from them, is our agency. IMHO this is our aliveness.
Prophets and sages have told stories, these being repeated through generations, which have become philosophies and religions, and controlling. The ultimate beneficiaries of that is debatable. But one hopes that what we do with this information will always be up to us.
This is our most fundamental human freedom.
“Wild light” is a lovely, complex metaphor. It’s a two-word poem. Sounds like it came from the Imaginal world.
There has been times when I have had dreams pertaining to either pieces in a 'half way' point of being made or ones that are just in the idea stage of creation and even ones being created in the dream itself without any conscious thought at all by the wakeful 'me'. Some of these pieces were made, others were too ridiculous to my conscious mind to even think of making. But I welcome all the various stages and see the ones that come through dreams as gifts, not from me but from somewhere else. Great essay with much to think about and a re-read that's necessary. Thanks.