LadyMaze's December 09, 2010 blog about art

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Thursday blog about art

DECEMBER 9, 2010 @ 04:19 PM

I've been thinking a lot lately about creativity and art. Specifically, about why I, personally, choose to create. And you know, I still don't really have a good answer.

I'll say, for one thing, that I don't create art out of some desire to change the world, to make people feel or believe something I believe. Art as activism is not my bag. If it's yours, more power to ya. But me, no.

I would say that I do it for myself, because I enjoy it. But is that enough? Lately, I've really been wondering. I haven't felt very...inspired? Motivated? I've been wondering, really, truly...What is the point? What does art accomplish if I'm only doing it for myself? Is that selfish or solipsistic? Does art NEED a point other than the creator's pleasure? Am I just wasting my time, clicking a camera shutter, when I could be doing something more practical?

So maybe art DOES need an outsider's gaze...a viewer, an appreciator...to keep it from being a waste of time or an exercise in solipsism. Because making something beautiful or meaningful that makes someone else happy...that has to be a good, worthwhile thing to do, right? Not art as activism so much as art as...gift? As generosity?

Ugh. I think I'm just going around in circles, here, and getting no closer to the truth.

thurmis

Chicago, IL

October 2003

DEC 09, 2010 04:59 PM

I know what you are saying 100%, I've been feeling the same way about my music lately.

thurmis

Chicago, IL

October 2003

DEC 10, 2010 07:13 AM

I've come to the realization that if I don't do it, I start to slowly lose my mind, and I start to see things very backwards. I also get the same way about taking pictures, if I don't snap a few pictures every now and then everything starts to look really ugly. I believe I will be bound to these two things for the rest of my life.

thurmis

Chicago, IL

October 2003

DEC 10, 2010 11:20 PM

I'm sure Atlas didn't want to carry the world on his back either.

Olsen

Portland, OR

September 2003

DEC 14, 2010 11:50 PM

I was gonna say I think I make stuff to change people more than to change the world.

If I make something and don't share it or don't get a reaction, I feel like it's incomplete. Maybe that's the most selfish motivation of all or maybe the least selfish I can imagine. Maybe both at once.

I think solipsism has its place in art though. Artists are the people who look inward and outward all at once, and find a way to express the deeply internal in some external way. Without people doing that, those many who don't take the time to look inward might forget about those private parts of themselves that go unrecalled.

So I think art maybe becomes complete through the gaze of someone....but maybe that someone can be you as the artist too.

I'm circling back again too. But I guess what I want to come around to is....no. You're not wasting your time. You create images of serenity and beauty and simplicity; and they're quietly moving. And I think I'm better for being moved.