Saturday, September 08, 2007

Passion

PASSION. It strikes me that PASSION is a CRITICAL element to art making (and teaching.) Passion is a great MOTIVATOR. Passion creates a deep sense of ENGAGEMENT. There is an URGENCY to return to the project, a DESIRE to push ahead. TIME isn’t felt, nor hunger, or tired-ness. The PULSE quickens, there is a FULLNESS in the heart. There’s a feeling of SATISFACTION, even in the midst of challenges. I think this is critical to the JOY of art-making, a way to avoid burnout and drudgery.

For me, passion comes in the form of IDEAS. I love creating ideas, collecting pictures of inspiring work that I might want to explore. EXPERIMENTATION, a new JOURNEY into “what if?” Planning, pulling together supplies is very EXCITING. The execution is where passion wanes on many of my project.

STORY. Perhaps passion wanes because I have not developed a STORY for the piece. I’m beginning to think that story is another critical element in art-making. What is the piece going to DEPICT? Who are the ACTORS in the story? What is HAPPENING? What is the BACKGROUND? What do I want the viewer to KNOW? SEE? FEEL?

I think a “natural artist” thinks in story-mode, sees an IMAGE and creates a story around it, or creates the image to PORTRAY the story. I see an image and figure out how to create it. Perhaps I need to return to keeping an IMAGE JOURNAL and create a DIALOGUE with images, try to figure out the MESSAGE, explicit and implicit. What is the image TELLING me? What is my INTERPRETATION of what is happening?

Perhaps I need to read more artist stories/statements; try to see where the TITLE of a certain piece stems from. Perhaps I need to engage in some CREATIVE WRITING, especially about things for which I have PASSION ...

1 comment:

Julaine said...

Close your eyes and let the passion guide you - it sounds like it's there for you...your painted fused pieces are so full of life -