the creative life

A fine commentary on art critics…..the painting “The Experts” by Decamps…..brilliant.
We’ve been away and it has been difficult to get back into the flow. Creative work is different. One cannot 9 to 5 it…… although there is the voice that echoes in the corner of my mind to squeeze the work into a standard progression. But its dangerous and damaging to make circular creativity fit into the square hole of a work day. It is all day every day, the creative life. I find it soaks everything I do from cooking to repairing old furniture and it is the breath of life for me.

the beast

I have had more than a few people comment that the characters in my work look just like me. Well, of course. And I completely embrace that. I never noticed it before, but that makes total sense. My work is about me and what is in me. It isn’t about reflecting what is on the outside. That is an easy task. My work is about mining and exposing the beast….. and the exposure of that beast is absolutely essential to becoming fully creative and in finding out who you REALLY are. Look at artwork and you can see plainly who is mining and who is mimicking (and let me say that mimicking is fine if that is your thing…). Like mining work or not, it is stark in its obviousness of TRUTH. It is the artists’ own work…. out of the soul of that person. There is nothing more exciting than that.

to post or ot to post

I have been vacillating on the proposition of actually posting the diary. Being a rather private person and being riddled with the faint hue of something called fear of rejection, I wavered, but as I have walked these last months the philosophy that I hold concerning art has been greatly challenged and continues to bubble up in my life… maybe someone might benefit, and if not, I benefit enormously by just putting it into space. A catharsis, if you will.
There are recurrent themes or objects in the work of an artist. We are prone to force ourselves away from these if the fear of repeating ourselves. Or we ignore them because of the pressure of wanting to fit in. But the repetition of them is a very reflection of the soul.. it is who you are as an artist. Though there may be a deepening and transforming of these elements as an artist grows, they remain interwoven into the structure of the work in some way. The stamp of the unique soul……

traditionalism

DEATH TO THE ART NAZI. Traditionalism is the death of the creative process. I am now convinced of this. The perpetuation of the elitist attitude in the world of art is the demise of real art. Art is one of the few wonders of the world that is completely subjective and the idea that an artist is only an artist if he or she completes a checklist of technical acrobatics is wholly antithetical to the heart and soul of the creative process! I liken it to religion. Do these things well and you are an artist… don’t do them or do them "poorly" (whatever that means) or have no interest in them and you cannot possibly be an artist. Ah! The pharisees and the true followers…. very distinct.

imagination

“It is our inerrant right to create, but the right to create has been largely stripped from us. At an early age we are told that creating isn’t practical…. doesn’t make one a living and is just general nonsense. One has to look no further than a school curriculum to see how slowly, over the years we spend in schooling, the arts are left further behind until they have no relevance at all…….. and we all begin to fit into whatever dead, old slot that we are told……….. Not me. God forbid it. No paying for big houses or new cars working a job I have to…to keep up with the rest of this spoiled, almost vomiting with too much society. No denying my God-given right to create.”

I feel very frustrated today….not much is going right with my work and the voices of ‘reason’ and that dead, and wretched left-brained parent are assaulting me. I am at times tempted to go in the direction of others, but I cannot deny myself and my natural way of working and seeing. Nothing is more boring to me than copying what I see and whenever I see a work with such technical skill I am only momentarily impressed. Momentarily. I need more. It isn’t enough to have technical ability and that alone is quickly forgotten. I want to see the idea…the mystery of the mind of the artist. What has been created is God’s… we have the opportunity to create new things. Take a picture. It will last longer.