what’s behind is what’s ahead

This (unattributed) quote was in the current FAN member newsletter:

“How come such a process as creative joy brings up so many fears? The answer could be because creativity is the ultimate growth process; fear is simply affirmation that growth is happening. When we are unattached to the results of our creative journey, we move through the fear and find rewards greater than the purpose that initially drew us to the journey.”

I feel part of that is wrong: i have to remain “attached”–if i don’t, the work gets abandoned. I can temporarily detach to look objectively, but the connection has to be there, or what’s the point? I might as well go paint the “Art” that gets sold in furniture galleries stores, “canned art” as i call it.

However, I’m trying more consciously to “detach” from “Influenced by”, a prospect that is not completely possible as touched by and surrounded as i/you/we are with the online availability of so many splendiferous candy stores. Still, one can look back to one’s own work and find the denominator that gives our own work the power to keep functioning and creating. I have to keep reminding myself, as a few astute readers have pointed out, it’s style that sets the pace, not the technique. Being selective, and then intense with specific techniques is what makes the style. My opinion

Lord knows when i started blogging and being exposed to other’s work on the web, i tried everything, everything! I still have a list i printed off in 2007 when i led a Fabric ArtJournal exchange, proud to say then that i had used 20 different techniques in the 10 pages i made for the other players! Gak. I might use only 4 or 5 of them currently with hand embroidery topping the list now instead of being waaaay down at the bottom.

One change i have made in my approach is the sketchbook. Still not works of art as some are, but definitely more conceived than ever before. I have finally found a spot where i enjoy them as part of the process, not the be all and end all or the invisible backbone, but as a staging area. I spend a lot more time with them now and that too could be why i didn’t complete as much work in 2011 as i “normally” would have—i’m also happier though with what i did finish, so it must be a good thing.

As to influence, well, a more critical eye could be brought into play here. WHY do i like certain artists? What is it about their work, style or even personality that draws me to them? As dear Samm stated, we CAN work in a vacuum –consider the Lascaux cave paintings, the Venus of Willendorf, etc—but i am choosing to be very selective and learn from others, however indirectly, this year. I have promised myself the green eye of envy, the  acrid taste of shock for shock’s sake and the hand of imitation sites will not be visited this year!

Learning in this next phase for me is entering shows (3 lined up with work for two well under way), a residency at ACAD again i hope, a workshop in June as an immersion retreat, more teaching (now that the first guinea pigs have seemingly survived), serious sketchbook pre-planning, dyeing of ALL sorts, membership in several groups, INVOLVEMENT in several groups and accepting the fact that as an artist i will usually be tied up in knots over something.

No doubt, i’ll continue to piss people off. I’ll argue with friends and make messes in the stoodio, make grandiose plans and mind bogglingly stoopid decisions, but hey, it’s part of the style. I say to 2012, the year of Origin for me:

BRING

 

IT

 

ON.