What veteran artists know about each other is that they have engaged the issues that matter to them. What veteran artists share in common is that they have learned how to get on with their work. Simply put, artists learn how to proceed, or they don't. The individual recipe any artist finds for proceeding belongs to that artist alone - it's non-transferable and of little use to others."
David Bayles and Ted Orland
In no way do I think of myself as a veteran artist, yet I really appreciate the notion of making art where you know what you stand for. Where you know you have done the work you need to do. Where you know how to get on with your work and to make it happen.
For me I feel like I have been making the work I need to make - most certainly it isn't commercial; but I am expressing, through my artwork, things I need to say.
On the other hand, this quote is rather timely for me as I am at that perennial point in my cycle of art where I struggle to find the recipe for proceeding.
I have not been particularly productive this year and can't quite put my finger on why not. I have been in and out of the studio - doing lots of shifting, moving, cleaning, building up - yet not actually doing much.
My studio work and time has always been peripatetic - it is what it is when it is.
Never a truer word was spoken than that the recipe for proceeding - for moving forward, for making, for busting open any block is purely individualistic. No one can tell you how to do it - its a path you must forge on your own.
Sometimes the way to proceed is messy; sometimes a path becomes clear...
David Bayles and Ted Orland
In no way do I think of myself as a veteran artist, yet I really appreciate the notion of making art where you know what you stand for. Where you know you have done the work you need to do. Where you know how to get on with your work and to make it happen.
For me I feel like I have been making the work I need to make - most certainly it isn't commercial; but I am expressing, through my artwork, things I need to say.
On the other hand, this quote is rather timely for me as I am at that perennial point in my cycle of art where I struggle to find the recipe for proceeding.
I have not been particularly productive this year and can't quite put my finger on why not. I have been in and out of the studio - doing lots of shifting, moving, cleaning, building up - yet not actually doing much.
My studio work and time has always been peripatetic - it is what it is when it is.
Never a truer word was spoken than that the recipe for proceeding - for moving forward, for making, for busting open any block is purely individualistic. No one can tell you how to do it - its a path you must forge on your own.
Sometimes the way to proceed is messy; sometimes a path becomes clear...
(((Fiona))) this is one of my favourite artist's statements-
ReplyDelete"I come to my studio every day at 10.30, and I stay and do nothing. I go to Paris sometimes. I have a few ideas. To be very pretentious, sometimes I believe it is mystical. Sometimes you find nothing, and then you find some-thing you love to do. Sometimes you make mistakes, but some-times it's true. In two minutes, you understand what you must do for the next two years. Sometimes it's in the studio, but other times it's walking in the street or reading a magazine. It's a good life, being an artist, because you do what you want".
Christian Boltanski
Well Mo this made my day! The bits in the middle are so true and so helpful - thank you!!!!!!! I have printed it out and it is over in the studio to remind me.
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