The Seven Roles > Artisan

Artisan and the Five Levels of Input

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Dave:

--- Quote from: Elisabeth on May 11, 2011, 04:06:47 AM ---
Often I felt quite 'dumb' among all the artisans in art school... as I was just a bit too focused on what was there in front of me, and at the same time got frustrated with everyone floating off into unnecessary places during critiques.

All the Hm-ing and er-ing of why someone chose to use certain things in their artworks, when it was fairly obvious to me... "why did you use this color, why this material? would it be better with a frame, what would a frame imply??" got on my last nerve... me thinking "because I just DID, there's no extra meaning, I don't care about the frame and what it signifies, I can't grasp why that might be important..." etc. etc. ;)

--- End quote ---

I agree. Some of the art-speak can be pretentious and unnecessary. As Gertrude Stein once said: sometimes a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. On the other hand, that deeper ponderance does have its place at times. I love art, for example, that makes an impact with Tao-like simplicity, but I must admit an occasional weakness for art that is layered with meaning. It's a fun adventure to look deep within a work to find the inner levels of truth.

Best,
Dave

Velleity:


--- Quote ---that deeper ponderance does have its place at times
--- End quote ---

Definitely agree. Humorous art is fun as well. My art usually has a lot of personal significance that maybe only I will ever know, and it's always amazing when others say more or less what I was personally intending. Perhaps there were more artisans in my nz art classes, as I was often shocked that a group of them could 'get' all the subtle meanings from my art that I thought would never see the light of day; really resonating stuff I wasn't even aware of until they pointed it out. "Oh yeah, I was immersing those certain thoughts into that when I made it but completely forgot I had!" :) Crazy stuff.
 

mAmbessa:
elisabeth, do you find that you can only do 1 project at a time? and just can't seem to move on to something else with a clear conscience/almost impatience unless you finish the first project first?

Velleity:
mAmbessa, I think that's why I had trouble at art school, having to do 'a project' over an entire semester!

When I get an idea and then start on the output of it, yeah, I do really tend to work on it all in one go. I take breaks for food and water and some sleep etc. but it would feel very strange to 'start something else' or something that's 'quite different' before I'm relatively done with the other thing ('relatively' meaning 80-90% done). In art school I was used to working 7 hours straight on something and not feeling too tired.

I wouldn't tell it to any of my art instructors, but for months or weeks I'd sit around just thinking about things and ideas, themes, letting things gestate inside or come to something substantial, then I would churn it all out in a few days before it was due. This didn't work very well when I was depressed or when I lacked ideas, but with my output people thought I had "done a lot over that two week holiday!" when really I'd done it all the night before. ;-P

I never told them how I worked, because I was afraid that they would tell me, "with that kind of output think what you could DO with a few months!", me thinking "sure, I could muralize the entire art building but by the end I'd probably have to be hospitalized".

King making art (for me) = "bursts of bulk quality work".

Another grade school teacher noticed it too, when I kept finishing early on certain things and there would be 'a lot' done, and a lot 'very well' done. Said to me "Your work is wonderful! But I'm not quite sure if I like that you work this way... "

jk:
Artisan here. If leaving things to percolate on back burner is supposed to be typical of Artisan, then I can validate that. I normally read several books at the same time, picking up the one I feel like reading most at a particular time. I don't mean fiction books, (those I either read in one go or don't finish at all), I mean books that you need to process, like self-help and spiritual growth books.
My job (software dev) actually "artificially" forces me to leave things on a back burner as priorities constantly change, and when I am forced to do so, I hate it, if i happen to be focused on something and its coming along well.

Elisabeth, what I can identify with from your post, is burst of dedicated focused activity. If something is coming along well, then (provided I have a financial incentive :D) I tend to just do that and barely sleep let alone anything else. Then dry spells and rest follow that. I most definitely don't work at a steady pace and I deliver mostly right before the deadline (or after).

What I have loads of, is tons of projects that will never get finished, and that is fine, because I don't see a point of finishing something just for the sake of finishing it, if its no longer needed or no longer gives me joy etc.


--- Quote ---But I'm not quite sure if I like that you work this way... "
--- End quote ---
School tells us so many things that are utter rubbish.

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