From Whence It Comes
Three ATCs I made for the people (left to right: Barbara, Beverly, Keri) who sent me bottles in the TreasureArtTrends Message in a Bottle Swap, using items from their bottles. LOVED that swap, even if it was my idea!
Someone in one of my Yahoo groups said this in response to another person's post and a discussion in which I was taking part, "It can only be 'art' when its ripped your heart out and therefore part of you." I need to take issue with that. I think it would be more accurate to say that might be so for some personality types. Don't you just love it when people are so intensely into themselves and their own processes that they assume everyone is just like they are? Actually, I read somewhere (who knows where, I read all sorts of things, pretty much everything that stands still long enough to be read!) that everyone assumes that they are the norm.
Interesting.I don't want to be the norm. I just want to be me. And I would appreciate it if everyone else would not lump me in with them. So do not assume that my processes are like yours. The art I make isn't wrenched from my gut or torn from my heart. Sheesh, the intensity of that is exhausting to contemplate. I don't need to be that busy or that intense. I don't need to focus in on my internal issues. In fact, I need to not do that. If I don't focus in on myself and what I'm thinking and feeling, I can enjoy thinking and feeling it more and anguish about it less. I've learned that the resulting art will be less forced and more genuine and better in ways that others can see as well as I can see it.
I'm not saying that I won't look at a piece of work and analyze it to figure out what it needs. I'm just saying that making art is not a brutal, gut-wrenching, soul-searching conscious process for me. I assimilate what I learn into what I do. Making art cannot be a conscious process for me. It isn't deliberate. I'm not even sure how I end up with the desired results, but I know I cannot force it.
Please, people! Don't try to fit my polygonal shape into your round or square holes. Let's just agree to all be ourselves and try to appreciate where each of us is coming from and going to.
posted by Wabbit at
9:11 AM
5 Comments:
I agree with you, Marilyn. My art is not wrenched from my gut. Sometimes it is alot of hard work, other times it grows calmly and smoothly but I know other people have different experiences. Who wants to be like everyone else anyway? :o)
I want to say AMEN, SISTAH-FRIEND!
Some of my work really is that intense to me. I used to belong to an "edgy" art group on Yahoo which became a joke to a few of us because the "edginess" WAS forced and LAME in so many ways.
Some of my work will mess with your head and piss other people off which I kind of like, why? Well, for me, I love when art makes people do, say, or at least FEEL something - and if that feeling is anger, all the better. Perhaps there is also something there for the viewer to really delve into. Is that to say that everyone likes or even appreciates that kind of art? Hell NO! My baby brother writes the most gut wrenching poetry, but its 100% True Blue, Mike. Our Mom wants him to write "something not depressing" well, that would be BS because his feelings are dark in a lot of ways... he's never going to add dunce caps and wings to his work. I do... I put messed up words next to those things and then send them off into cyberspace...
I LOVE being "outside of norm" but only because that's me! :)
I LOVE the internet, because it allows me to connect deeply with lovely people like you!
YOU ROCK, Marilyn!
Happy Holidays, pretty lady!
xoxo
jul
Yes. Twice. I mean, sure, sometimes my art erupts out of such a place & I have to hold onto my heart with both hands and twelve bungee cords, but not every time or I'd never go near my studio for crying out loud! Art is just like me, whatever mood that may be, not stagnant, not always rooted (or EVER rooted) in the same source because the source never holds still. Nor do I want it to. I'm more inclined toward a Cyndee Lauper art approach -- I JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN!!!
Now your talking girl. Of course we should not be cookie cutter, we should not try to be matchy matchy... which if you can see that then you are one of the few ppl who can get the joke of my blogs title. Because most ppl just assume it means I think I'm just average when indeed I am anything but. Most of us are, if you take the time to figure it out. And no, my art is not some gut wrenching soul burning thing... if it was I would be scared cause I'm really not sure what that might look like LOL, love this post! Welcome to SJ by the way.
I so agree. Pleeease don't tell me all my art has an inner meaning, came from my soul, whatever. It's my art. It's not going to talk to everybody, and that's OK. I think it's hard physical work, sometimes brain work, but let's not take ourselves soooo serious. At the most, I'd like to think mine made you smile. ~PJ
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