20080426

Hang Ups



How do I make you see things the way that I do?  

The process of art, in the simplest of terms, is a series of decisions.  As the person making things, you either get an idea first and manifest it or you start to do things and 'discover' the idea along the way.  Of course there are a million variations within these seemingly simple approaches and artists really do some combination of this, but generally that is the root of it.  

So then, beyond the act of making something is the showing it to someone else.  The audience.  And artists decide within their process how they consider their audience, even if they decide to ignore the audience and make art 'for themselves.'  (If they ever show it or are compelled to, then the purest notion of making art only for themselves, doesn't hold much water.) That said, in the end, the artist's job is to communicate. And the success of the communication is the key to reaching an audience no matter how large or small. So, past the act of making something and contemplating its message, is considering how to present the piece.  

And right now, I have a mound of drawings on my bench from the last few years that have me scratching my head.  I picture them in a dozen ways. All depend on the right proportion of multiplicity, delicacy, and light. I'm struggling with the balance.  And beginning to admit what seems obvious more and more, that they belong in all twelve ways, instead of just one.  So, I commit, to testing the variations, seeing how, beyond imagining, they look and feel.  I find this to be one of the most illusive stages of a piece, but also one of the most thrilling. 

 

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