Thursday Thoughts...

“Do not hunt for subjects, let them choose you, not you them. Only do that which insists on being done and runs right up against you, hitting you in the eye until you do it.” 

Samuel Butler

This is one of those circular type questions for me.  I certainly can't agree with the ONLY do that which insists on being done, although I know I spend a lot of time doing just that.

When the quiet voice suggests or guides me; when the gnawing sense of injustice explodes into particles that need to be gathered.  At these times, I know I need to make the work I need to make.

At other times, if those voices have quieted, I can find myself adrift, unsettled, fragmented and distracted.  At these times I find it helps to make for something; towards something; along the lines of something.

I struggle at times to make work for exhibitions - within the guidelines and with some notions of limitations.  At other times I find limitations fabulous for creativity and working within some tight lines can create magic.

I am clearly ambivalent about the ways of working; yet as I critique my own work and my own working life as an artist, I do know for sure that I can only make MY work - never anybody else's; and if my work is niche, or a bit off to the side, so be it.