9-11-18 Seventeen years since your soul was silenced Seventeen years of tears and emptiness Seventeen years of mourning and grieving Seventeen years of remembering and reflecting Seventeen years of wondering and honoring Seventeen years of rebuilding and remaking Seventeen years since you were taken Seventeen years of moving forward, yet looking back Seventeen years without you
2-10-2020 I turn 60 this week. I'm excited to turn that age for I don't see it as negative but as a positive point in my life. It means I've been granted to live this long and been able to have a family, friends, and of course, be an artist for the majority of those years. As I reflect on my life artistically, I'm coming to the conclusion that this journey I'm on is really about process and the experience of making art. The 'product' is the outcome of this experience but this 'product' records the movement and markmaking of my creativity, whether it be painting, sculpture, or something else. I've also come to realize that I don't need to come up with something original, just something honest. The originality comes with honesty; it comes from being in tuned with who I am and how I want to express myself. For so long I thought that I had to create something that had a cooresponding concept or idea. I'm realizing that I am enough....
The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize. Robert Hughes I've heard this quote before from the critic and author, Robert Hughes. I like how he addresses doubt. We all have it. We all face those times in the studio where doubt creeps in and tries to take over our creativity. And, it doesn't matter how long you've had your practice, it just happens. I don't know of one artist who hasn't struggled with doubt. But the issue is how we address and handle doubt when it arises. I've seen doubt paralyze artists and I've seen it spur artists onto creating wonderful works. It can do both. Do we, as artists, rise to the challenge and face doubt or do we shrink from our calling and quit? Doubt is a nasty animal - it would love for us to quit but as artists, we can't allow it to dictate our creativity - or our practice. Doubt can also be a gift....
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