What a wild and crazy life we (Wilma and I) live. It is the season when there seem to be certain things that just have to be done, because it is...November and there is this thing to prepare for called Christmas...all good but is very involving, socially, shopping, and practical stuff like decorating....the business monthly and year end stuff, my very important "other's" business and year end stuff...You understand, and so I refuse to go on as this is not what this blog is about.
What I am saying in a round about way is that I've had precious little time to get into my studio and it pains me greatly. So yesterday when my "very very significant other" had a very important meeting at our house, I was able to take a few hours out of the always enjoyable supportive husbandly role of preparations for this, that and the other things, go into my basement "MAN CAVE" and do my own thing, all by myself, alone, with no one around, solo, while this meeting was going on! What a gem of an opportunity.
Let me just also say that the meeting was very important, necessary and an essential part of both of our lives. (Speaking here of my wife and myself.) It was the amazing fund raising team "debrief meeting" of the Nov. 30 event, ending in a celebratory supper that evening. (I fired up the BBQ in the -18 degrees outside presenting them with my own numbed fingers plus BBQ'd chicken and Winkler Mennonite farmer's sausage....yum) It was a fantastic evening and I have to say again how appreciative I am of these amazing folk, their skills and dedication to the job. We had a good time celebrating.
Back to my "man cave", so while they had their meeting I grabbed several "Art" magazines I'd purchased recently and those I subscribe too and just had a good relaxing time reading about art. I want to share some of these thoughts with you...if you don't mind. Here they are in no particular order.
Here's the first: Lauren Gallaspy in "Ceramics, Art and Perception" 2012, pg. 56
"...moments that I feel most like myself are not moments where I am thinking the most. They are moments when I feel..."
I loved this, as it is a perfect reference to moving from the left brain, where we do all our math, remembering names and practical stuff, to our right brains where it works more like a dream world. We lose track of time, we lose consciousness of where we are, we begin to think and create intuitively. Our feelings become images, textures, colors shapes and we create things we would never make if it were not for this amazing capability our minds have. I love going there.
The fact is my left brain argues with me, not wanting to give up control and says things like, "Why go to your right brain, you will be wasting your time, I can do what you want done anyways so why risk going into such a "other worldly" state, it's crazy, out of control, no, no, you don't want to go there, I can do this for you a lot easier, more controlled and better, you'll see..." On and on my left brain goes. I have to get pretty stern sometimes and kind of even trick him into shutting down and letting me go "to the other side" woooooo.
Dr. Julie Bartholomew, Ceramics, Art and Perception 2012, pg. 73
"Rather than employ anti-form, stock clashing colour or unrefined surface...artists engage with the aesthetic traditions of ceramics and embrace technical competence, time-consuming processes and attention to the formal components of art."
I would say I'm trying to make art that has a story, a feeling, and a message, from which comes a work of art depicting all of that. It may or may not be something that stops people in their tracks but I hope it is because they see something beyond only surface treatments. Surface and form and subject matter is important but must match and evoke a message and emotion the artist had in mind. Just that fact will trigger that and other messages in the mind of the viewer.
Judy Seckler, Ceramics, Art and Perception, 2012, pg. 84
"Many artists find clay the perfect medium to expound on the human condition. Clay, a tactile link to the past, is used...as an anchor to explore art and spirituality."
I like that a lot. Feels right for what I'm doing.
Martin Kinnear, "The Artist," Nov. 2012 pg. 23
"Why not paint the colours you see?...after all you can't go far wrong if you paint the sky blue, clouds white and grass green can you? At the risk of incurring the wrath of the realists throughout the world I'd like to stick my neck out and say that no, it's not wrong, but it is conceptually weak and generally boring. If the point of painting is to capture an accurate image of something, then I believe there's a range of other tools available to achieve that end."
"Unedited colour taken straight from the scene will always convey a more mixed message than colour selected to convey what the artist wants the viewer to feel."
"It's important to look beyond colour families to subdivisions of colour...further divided by temperature, saturation and value..."
Dealing with colour is my new frontier. This is my goal as a growing, learning artist, to work on an understanding of colour during this coming year. I loved this article and will be referring back to it again and again. Love his courage to say "no" to reality painting and "yes" to the expressive use of the colour pallet and it's application.
"Drawing From Your Soul." article in "The Artist" by Max Hale
"The creation of art should be an emotive, soulful and whole-body experience."
"Art, for me, is 80 per cent inspiration, confidence and bravery, with the remaining 20 per cent split between application and much less emphasis on technique and material choices. These last come well down the list for creating work that is part of you. Too much is made of 'how to' and not enough of 'why'."
It's just good to read this. Gives one confidence. I have over time learned this to be true and it's good to see it in print. Sometimes, I've begun a piece and it goes no-where. What happened? I discovered I had to go back to it's purpose in the first place. Somewhere that was not clear or got derailed in the process.
Love the "bravery" thing. So often I've been held back by, "What will people think? Do artists do this?" and so on. The doubts still arise, but I now know that they will come and I understand why and can move on more easily. For me they are a necessary evil. I must answer that question and then I can go on. It's like every group has the "shit disturbers" in it. Why do we have to have "shit disturbers" in our group everyone asks? The simple reason is to keep us sharp, challenged and growing. If it's a good idea it will survive the "shit disturbers" sandpaper observations and comments. It may change some ideas, even destroy them, but we must have a clear bases for our work, so they have an important place.
I also loved the name of the article, it applies so well to all creative endeavours, they must be from the soul to be authentic to the human artist and the human condition. After all, we are the only ones in all creation with a "soul." Wow, let us respect it and speak from it in all we do and create.
"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Matthew 16:26
No comments:
Post a Comment