So.. thinking about the Roberta Smith article in the NYT and Iris' awesome post about Richard Tuttle
I find myself wondering why it can be so hard for some of us to permit ourselves to make work from a place of indulgence and delight.. trusting our ideas enough to spend time working them out as opposed to editing ideas before the conceptual process has even begun- never mind the physical act of making.
This quote from Roberta Smith's article struck me:
What’s missing is art that seems made by one person out of intense personal necessity, often by hand.
Maybe part of this angst is symptomatic of the fast pace of daily life or the need to multi-task. I'm not sure..
thoughts???
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JM
ReplyDeleteI think the answer lies in something you wrote, "..trusting our ideas..". I think it takes some artists a long time to really trust what they are doing and believe in it. I think this happens especially if you are in grad school - lol! Before grad school I made work without worrying so much about the viewer response or my peers response. Don't get me wrong, I value that part of the art process. And I am now beginning to think that some of the intense analytical discourses in grad school have made me a bit uptight about my work. Thus leading me to hesistate with an idea or to bottom out before I even take a work all the way through. I'm not dismissing the value of my grad school experience. Are we spending so much time on critical theory and art history that there is no room in our heads for our own ideas? Is there a balance to be found?
I think there is so much truth in this.. sometimes I envy my students' ability to get really excited about their ideas.. even when they are not so great.. and the vigor with which they work on those things... I remember feeling like that at the beginning of my academic career and making some really terrible paintings that I loved. Maybe it all settles out with time and practice.. fingers crossed???
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