"It is work for the sake of the worker, the means to appropriate nature and the heritage of other people's skills and ideas - thus a means of developing oneself."
David, this is to make you(and everyone else) think about who you have inherited your skills and ideas from. It will be a number of important people from your past. Try to be a fair witness of your own development and share the joy of that with the people involved.
Don't get me wrong. I know how I've been influenced, and most of you (the ones that know me and my practice) are aware of who has affected me. I have made many references to Funnell, my father, and many of my school and gallery peers (and in a lesser way Richter and Dubeffet or artists i admire in 2d form). Still there needs to be room for something that is purely about being an individual. I am not a reincarnation of any combination of these people. I am a unique individual, and am constantly in pursuit of expressing that, in its truest form. I hope you all do the same. That's the only thing that keeps art (painting specifically) alive. Once we become fixated on technique, status, or marketing, we are likely to fail. I am more interested in communicating, specifically, what it is like to be ME! It is more important than being a great-famous-rich artist. In fact I think this is what ultimately leads to timelessness, is succeeding in that regard. Still, it isn't a ploy for immortality, to be remembered through my work, and live on in the minds of future generations (although that does have some appeal), it is simply trying to be understood. I really am trying.
I've been unearthing a lot of excellent things from my mom's side of the family, which connect me to a long cycle of artists and musicians, and more importantly of loving people. Genetics is an incredible repeat. From the way the look to how they act, the similarities are astounding. And I suppose the disimilarities are what make me, me.
Mr.E, Trevor Tillet, my brother Les. My early art teachers, my first friends, it's quite interesting to study the timeline of people and realize how I got here, or more appropraitely how I got now, to the present.
No one's path is a given. A person is a nexus of specific patterns of discourse. And I think that ultimate harmony is attained through contextualizing.
The exemplary person pursues harmony, not sameness, because sameness is barren.
And I think this is the pursuit we're speaking of, that quest for uniqueness.
Incorporation and accomadation rather than supression.
Narrative sounds interesting to me. Funnell said narrative isn't cool, but I got to call him on that one. I think the stories we tell are important, and a key aspect in individual expression, we are at least partly made by the experiences we've had and the little words that go through our head explaining it. What a grand saga we could write if we had chosen the pen over the brush.
A Love for Art was a collaborative blog for visual artists, musicians, writers, and social scientists. This blog has evolved into a new blog called BETA, go check it out!
8 comments:
Drat! I think I know where this is going.
David, this is to make you(and everyone else) think about who you have inherited your skills and ideas from. It will be a number of important people from your past. Try to be a fair witness of your own development and share the joy of that with the people involved.
Don't get me wrong. I know how I've been influenced, and most of you (the ones that know me and my practice) are aware of who has affected me. I have made many references to Funnell, my father, and many of my school and gallery peers (and in a lesser way Richter and Dubeffet or artists i admire in 2d form). Still there needs to be room for something that is purely about being an individual. I am not a reincarnation of any combination of these people. I am a unique individual, and am constantly in pursuit of expressing that, in its truest form. I hope you all do the same. That's the only thing that keeps art (painting specifically) alive. Once we become fixated on technique, status, or marketing, we are likely to fail. I am more interested in communicating, specifically, what it is like to be ME! It is more important than being a great-famous-rich artist. In fact I think this is what ultimately leads to timelessness, is succeeding in that regard. Still, it isn't a ploy for immortality, to be remembered through my work, and live on in the minds of future generations (although that does have some appeal), it is simply trying to be understood. I really am trying.
also, do we inherit skills? At least part of it is hours of practice and discipline.
I've been unearthing a lot of excellent things from my mom's side of the family, which connect me to a long cycle of artists and musicians, and more importantly of loving people. Genetics is an incredible repeat. From the way the look to how they act, the similarities are astounding. And I suppose the disimilarities are what make me, me.
Mr.E, Trevor Tillet, my brother Les. My early art teachers, my first friends, it's quite interesting to study the timeline of people and realize how I got here, or more appropraitely how I got now, to the present.
No one's path is a given. A person is a nexus of specific patterns of discourse. And I think that ultimate harmony is attained through contextualizing.
The exemplary person pursues harmony, not sameness, because sameness is barren.
And I think this is the pursuit we're speaking of, that quest for uniqueness.
Incorporation and accomadation rather than supression.
Present, yes. But what next?
Beyond! Narrative! The Moon!
Narrative sounds interesting to me. Funnell said narrative isn't cool, but I got to call him on that one. I think the stories we tell are important, and a key aspect in individual expression, we are at least partly made by the experiences we've had and the little words that go through our head explaining it. What a grand saga we could write if we had chosen the pen over the brush.
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