Category Archives: Art in general
Pearls from artists* # 716
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on
… We are in the early stages of what I hope will be a revolution surrounding the way we view creative labor. I optimistically dream of a new model, crafted by the next generation of artists. Hopefully, they will not have to spend too many years chasing the old, late-stage capitalist one, as we did. We must cultivate a sense of our own value. As audiences, we willingly spend money for the experiences of books, plays, and other performances. It is not unusual to drop forty dollars on a mediocre movie and bad popcorn, or hundreds for a concert. Yet, we have tolerated a system where artists are not paid for putting their time, money, and very souls into the creation of inspiring, thought-provoking works. It is time to collectively channel creativity towards new paradigms, to provide us with a living wage, ensure that art history reflects all of us, and change the very status of art in our culture. Armed with the truth, technology, and ingenuity, we can forge a powerful future.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
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Pearls from artists* # 715
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on
Whenever we must solve a big problem, such as the art/money challenge, it is worthwhile to look inward, to see where we may be complicit in perpetuating the problem. While artists are not always valued in our society, we also get what we settle for. Although we must eat and pay rent or mortgages like everyone else, non-artists often try to persuade us that we do not deserve to earn a living wage, because we enjoy our job. In the United States, we are often asked to work for free in a way that other professionals are not.
Consider trying to get an accountant to work ‘for the exposure.’ In many cases, artists go to college, even graduate school, to learn our profession. Many of us are still paying off student loans. We put in thousands of hours to develop our skills. We may win awards or grants that distinguish us from other artists. It is up to us to put a stop to the devaluation of our profession. Artists who agree to work for free, or for a pittance, are essentially strikebreakers on a picket line. As a group, we should be fighting in solidarity to raise standards of living and respect for our collective profession by refusing to work for less. When we agree to bad conditions, we devalue ourselves, and enable a dysfunctional system that perpetuates the exploitation of artists.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
Comments are welcome!
Pearls from artists* # 714
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on
A moment comes when we realize that we have fallen in love with our instrument, our sculptor’s tools, our dance floor, our computer. We are in love with music, art, literature, cooking, physics. We feel love of beauty, love of the craft well done, love of the material, of the instruments. We feel the sensuality of playing, and of listening, reading, seeing, learning. The desire to learn and to play, if we have it at all, the motive power of creation, is part of our innate makeup, that craving to reach beyond ourselves.
Stephen Nachmanovitch in Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art
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Q: You’ve been working with the same medium and subject matter for decades. How did that begin, and how has it sustained you for so long? (Question from “Pastel, Passion, and Perseverance: An Interview with Barbara Rachko” in .ART Odyssey: Healing)
A: Back in the early 1990s I began using folk art as my subject matter, and I was incredibly lucky. More than thirty years later, I’m still working with it. As artists, we don’t know at the start whether a subject will sustain us, whether it will keep our curiosity alive. For me it has. I’ve always been fascinated by different cultures around the world, and that continues to feed the work. There’s freedom in that kind of framework.
I chose pastel on sandpaper as my medium. I don’t have to question it anymore. That choice itself has opened space to keep growing.
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Q: What’s a belief or project you are committed to, no matter how long it takes? (Question from Bold Journey)
Some of my soft pastels (Girault and Sennelier)
A: For centuries, pastel was dismissed as a “second-class” medium, used mainly for sketches. My mission for the past four decades has been to prove otherwise.
Pastel is pure pigment—rich, permanent, and luminous. Great artists such as Degas, Cassatt, and Renoir used pastel for finished works, not just studies. Today, I remain dedicated to showing what pastel can achieve as a major fine art medium.
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Pearls from artists* # 705
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
There are infinitely many ways to structure art and as many ways to construe it once it exists. One mark of a great poem, novel, symphony, or painting is that innumerable interpretations are generated—different people see it differently from one time to another. The hundredth time I taste an artwork I love, I still find something new in it, because I am different, and because there is some largeness or manyness in the art that can resonate with the changing versions of myself.
Stephen Nachmanovitch in Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art
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Pearls from artists* # 704
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
Why do we do art? There may be multiple and serious motivations, such as opening people’s eyes to injustice or saving the world; but if the activity to save the world doesn’t give us joy, what’s the point of having a world, and how will we have the wholeness and energy to carry on? This whole adventure of creativity is about joy and love. We live for the pure joy of being, and out of that joy unfold the ten thousand art forms and all the branches of learning and compassionate activity.
Stephen Nachmanovitch in Free Play: Improvisation in Art and Life
Comments are welcome!
Pearls from artists* # 703
Barbara’s Studio
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
Artmaking embodies freedom, in a way that few vocations do. But, while we have no supervisors in our studios, we are not quite as free as we imagine. We all carry sone cumulative art baggage. All the people and ideas that have influenced us over the years have shaped the art we make today. Sone guidance served us well, seamlessly dovetailing into our own divine direction. Yet others may hold us back, constraining the distinct development of our creative articulation.
The work we do is affected by logistical limitations, such as time, space, and money. But we also possess biases, assumptions, rules, values, methodologies, goal structures, and conceptual frameworks we have assimilated into our practice along the way. We may delude ourselves into thinking we have actively chosen these limiting parameters, instead of recognizing that we may have absorbed them purely by default. Authority figures, over the course of our entire lives, have provided positive or negative reinforcement, not only through overt criticism or praise, but also through omission. These pressures are frequently tacit, wordlessly shaping the direction of our practice when a piece was changed or ignored by the powers that be.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
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Pearls from artists* # 702
“Oblate,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 26” x 20”
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
The most noteworthy hurdle we face as artists is the brutal ‘Why should I care?’ Why, out of all the millions of art objects and experiences vying for our attention, should someone spend time on ours? We cannot share our visions with people if we cannot get them to stop and look at our work. Louise Bourgeois said, ‘Art is a seduction,’ but there are many different types of seduction. There should be something about our work that speaks to those with similar sensibilities, that sends them a secret signal.
Kate Kretz in Art From Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice
Comments are welcome!
Pearls from artists* # 699
Panorama of Barbara’s Studio
*an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the advanced there are few. You are an artist and it’s too late to back out. You have no choice, now or in a year or two, but to take aim upon your life and discard all the debris that holds you back from doing what you know you have to do.
Letter from Ted Orland to Sally Mann in Art Work: On the Creative Life by Sally Mann
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