"Peter used to say that an artist's job is to make order out of chaos. You collect details, look for a pattern, and organize. You make sense out of senseless facts. You puzzle together bits of everything. You shuffle and reorganize. Collage. Montage. Assemble.
Peter used to say, an artist's job is to pay attention, collect, organize, archive, preserve, then write a report. Document. Make your presentation. The job of an artist is just not to forget."
-Diary, by Chuck Palanuik
I read the book Diary a couple of months ago, and this particular qoute stuck in mind. It's something that seemed to make sense to me. Sometimes, well all of the time, I wonder what my job as an artist is.What's the point? Whom (Who?) am I making the art for? And above all, Why? Why do I have this inner drive to make art? I don't even understand it sometimes. There are days that I wish it would go away. I just want to be able to sit down to relax without worrying about the time I am wasting and could be spending on making art. I have always been like this, and it's driving me insane. I keep thinking about when will be my big break? What should I concentrate on? What's my favorite medium to work with? Why can't I just pick a subject and develop something from it? I am beginning to develop a bad case of anxiety from it, and it's going to cause a panic attack one day. I just know it.
I am currently reading the book Skinny Legs and All by tom Robbins. I hate to love this book. It's taking me forever to finish this book, and it has the tendency to throw me off. I recommend this book to other readers, but be aware- it's a tad bit off. Anyway- there's a part of the book where the main character, who is an artist herself, is discussing the idea of originality with a curator who has a studio full of works that lack originality, and this was said to the artist....
"Originality is a myth perpetuated by the naive, the romantic, and the unscrupulous. There has been no truly original art since prehistoric times. Every artist has simply reworked the art of his or her predessors. My artists are unique in that they've owned up to the practice. They've taken it a step further by refusing to participate in the ruse. By simply appropriating the work of artists they admire, copying it and exhibiting it as their own, they are courageously honest- and tragically sad. Their admission of defeat is part and parcel of the melancholia that epitomizes our time."
In response to this part of the book, I have to agree to an extent. Most of the art that we see is simply copied from somewhere else. It makes it so aggravating to me because it makes me wonder why even bother at all with art? It's only going to end up looking like someone else's. But, here comes the beauty of it all, which is also bittersweet, is that there is still a hope that there is room for originality, and that maybe, just maybe, I might find it. I think that's what we all, as artists, hope for. We hope for that last ounce of originality to be ours. To be OUR big break into the world.
And in that search for a big break, I'm going to continue to torture myself.......
And watch cartoons.
And sign on to myspace every five minutes.
And suicidegirls.
Peter used to say, an artist's job is to pay attention, collect, organize, archive, preserve, then write a report. Document. Make your presentation. The job of an artist is just not to forget."
-Diary, by Chuck Palanuik
I read the book Diary a couple of months ago, and this particular qoute stuck in mind. It's something that seemed to make sense to me. Sometimes, well all of the time, I wonder what my job as an artist is.What's the point? Whom (Who?) am I making the art for? And above all, Why? Why do I have this inner drive to make art? I don't even understand it sometimes. There are days that I wish it would go away. I just want to be able to sit down to relax without worrying about the time I am wasting and could be spending on making art. I have always been like this, and it's driving me insane. I keep thinking about when will be my big break? What should I concentrate on? What's my favorite medium to work with? Why can't I just pick a subject and develop something from it? I am beginning to develop a bad case of anxiety from it, and it's going to cause a panic attack one day. I just know it.
I am currently reading the book Skinny Legs and All by tom Robbins. I hate to love this book. It's taking me forever to finish this book, and it has the tendency to throw me off. I recommend this book to other readers, but be aware- it's a tad bit off. Anyway- there's a part of the book where the main character, who is an artist herself, is discussing the idea of originality with a curator who has a studio full of works that lack originality, and this was said to the artist....
"Originality is a myth perpetuated by the naive, the romantic, and the unscrupulous. There has been no truly original art since prehistoric times. Every artist has simply reworked the art of his or her predessors. My artists are unique in that they've owned up to the practice. They've taken it a step further by refusing to participate in the ruse. By simply appropriating the work of artists they admire, copying it and exhibiting it as their own, they are courageously honest- and tragically sad. Their admission of defeat is part and parcel of the melancholia that epitomizes our time."
In response to this part of the book, I have to agree to an extent. Most of the art that we see is simply copied from somewhere else. It makes it so aggravating to me because it makes me wonder why even bother at all with art? It's only going to end up looking like someone else's. But, here comes the beauty of it all, which is also bittersweet, is that there is still a hope that there is room for originality, and that maybe, just maybe, I might find it. I think that's what we all, as artists, hope for. We hope for that last ounce of originality to be ours. To be OUR big break into the world.
And in that search for a big break, I'm going to continue to torture myself.......
And watch cartoons.
And sign on to myspace every five minutes.
And suicidegirls.