I am a fan of Caroll's book and and worked with her on a Spirit Books exhibition at Regis College in Weston, MA in 2005. In addition to press releases, contacts, and all the nitty gritty stuff, she helped me to address my reluctance to present myself (the old who do you think you are? syndrome).
In the interview, Caroll talks about her start in the field and the challenges that artists face to "survive and prosper." She talked about the need for artists to have stamina. When questioned about where that stamina comes, she found it difficult to say exactly. I have been thinking lately about what makes me keep going and have a few thoughts. By now, making art is my life and I keep plugging along through ups and downs because that is what I do. I think my path could be easier if I did things differently, but I come from a long line of stubborn people.
It is when I think about my start in the world of visual art through calligraphy that I get some clues as to why I stuck it out. I never attended art school and am primarily self-taught. My initial love of calligraphy came from my love of words. By the time I finished my degree in English literature, I was so tired of analyzing texts. A chance request from a high school friend to letter in her friend's wedding album brought out my old set of Speedball pen and nibs. I was unemployed and dove in deep. I was no budding genius (see photo below),
but I was transported into a new world where I could allow my love of the words to spill out even if the letters themselves were awkward and halting. As I learned more, I came to love the letters as well and worked to train both my eye and my hand.
What kept me going was that love—for the physical act of writing and the excitement of learning to see. I think to keep going the work has to always be the reward. The goal can't be attention, acceptance, what Caroll called validation. It has to be the work itself.
You've nailed it Susan, with art (or anything in life really) it's the work that's important! Marketing is for the marking gurus, the spin doctors, the curators, the gallery owners, and art critics! As artists our job is to make the art!
ReplyDeleteI love Leonora Carrington's (a surrealist artist who passed away recently) thoughts on painting from this article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2007/jan/02/art
" ... When I ask her how a painting comes about, what the impetus is, she fixes me with the Moorhead stare. "You don't decide to paint. It's like getting hungry and going to the kitchen to eat. It's a need, not a choice."
When I was at the Pilchuck Glass School I asked the Czech glass artist Dana Zamecnikova where she found her inspiration & she replied-
"Where else can we put all the fears, joys, sadness, frustrations & wonders but in the art?"
All this week I have been thinking a lot about how Art (with a capital A) happens when an idea becomes a shared rather than an internal experience. It's in the moment of setting the work free into the world & letting others see it.... that's the point where the meaning of the work develops (or not as the case may be). Sometimes a work can be utterly magical to the maker but it doesn't release well, it can't fly on it's own and ends up crashing to the floor... maybe it just needs to be reworked a little and launched again but sometimes it just plain doesn't work & needs to be buried with respect or else put on that shelf in the privacy of the artist's home with all the other almost real dream things to wait for its time, like an ephemeral in the desert waiting for rain... hmmmm....
NB I have been drawing since I was 5 years old 52 years later I am still learning!
Thanks for all your thoughts and for the link to the Leonora Carrington article. Loved it.
ReplyDeletesusan, the last photo is so inviting, i want to see the rest, but what i wanted to say is i sucked me right into those letters! wonderful
ReplyDelete