These questions are for everyone. Not just those who are artists. I think these are important questions we all should ask ourselves.
From a personal level, what is the ultimate goal of your work? Or why do you do whay you do?
What is the one thing that holds you back? What is that proverbial thorn in your side?
When you are stuck what do you do to "start again" or move toward your work again?
5 comments:
Good questions Tracey!
Ultimate goal of my work?
Artistically & professionally, I'm a servant & helper. My gifts are exhortation, visionary, communication, education. So, I'm always looking to push people up, help them be better according to the potential I see in them. A whole and open-hearted individual/community is my ultimate goal. We're broken & need each other and God to heal us and this planet!
Thorn? Impatience for the process. Frustration at not knowing whether I'm really ever making an impact.
Start again? Cry, pray, talk about it, and get moving.
Yikes!! The very questions I've been asking myself over and over again. The ultimate goal of my work. gulp. to open my awareness and convey love. I feel I mostly miss the mark because I'm often stuck in my critical head and self-doubt. So, those two hold me back. self-doubt, bouts of inertia and feelings of exhaustion lately hold me back. I try to set it all aside and just paint with no expectation to sales or of it being anything grand. just paint. even if it doesn't turn out. I pray the many restarts will move me toward something ultimately honest and heartfelt.
These are tough questions Tracey. I've been pondering them most of the day.
I do what I do because I feel driven to create the works. It's as if I have to do something in glass or metal...like breathing....it has to be done. They are natural extensions of myself and I hope they convey positive, comforting feelings within 'the people/person' who views or wears them...depending on the piece.
The thing that holds me back from time to time is 'fear'...fear of failure...fear that someone won't like my work. When I recognize that, I stop and stomp that feeling down to overcome it and not let it rule me. Fear is the worst motivator in any of our decisions and I will not let it control me...that's easy once you can recognize it.
Being stuck. How I address that varies. Sometimes I have to just close the door to the studio and walk away. I play with the dogs, walk outside and take in the sights, sounds, and smells...this allows my mind to relax and they I feel that motivation to go back to what I was doing and get started again. Sometimes I need to just sleep on it and let my subconscious work it out. When I go back in the studio, I may stand there and look around if I still am unsure about where to start...I'll pick up a few things...pieces of glass, a fused cab waiting for a setting...see if anything 'speaks' to me about needing work. I may have to walk out of the studio again, but if I'm truly bothered by it, I go back in and start looking around, touching things until I have the feeling that tells me ... this is what you must work on next. Then I move forward and I'm in the zone.
I'm interested in your answers to these questions.
Tracey!
I agree with Kathleen! I'd like to hear your own answers as well!
The ultimate goal of my work depends on each situation.
Some days I want to create something really meaningful to me, other days I just want to paint something really colorful just because I'm craving color.
The thing that ALWAYS holds me back is depression. It kills my drive, energy, focus, and determination. It is the number one thing I still struggle with to this day.
Sometimes the best way to move forward is to stop and do nothing for a little while. To take in the restless calm until you're overtaken with the urge of creating again!
The desire to create is much like depression. It comes in cycles of activity and inactivity.
Just my thoughts!
-Dean
Wow. This is such a profound series of questions that I may have to do a comment for each one so I can think in between.
1) The goal is to find a way to express inner feelings in a visual way but I haven't been able to paint from that level yet. I'm still very much on the surface. Why do I paint? Because it's like breathing. There is something that says "paint" even though I haven't found my Muse or my true voice. To not paint would be like not eating or doing anything else that deprives my body and soul from what it naturally must do to thrive.
2)Not listening to my innermost voice. Not recognizing what it needs to say by blocking the images from view and instead using the excuse of "not knowing what to paint". The thorn is the disconnect between what I am on the inside and what I choose to paint on the outside. I think there will continue to be a feeling of "not really painting" until I connect with that.
3)I usually have to just walk away for a few days and hope that when I come back I will have a fresh eye.
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