Another Little Piece of My Heart

I couldn't help it.  When I thought about what I was going to write, this Janis Joplin song popped into my head, so to get it out of the head and into the eyes and ears, I'm sharing the youtube video.  

Afterwards, what follows in this post was going to be my one or two line response to my own last post, which you can click HERE to see.  But in writing it, other things, important things, I think, came to mind.  It got long.  Too long to continue as a comment to a post.  And it meant something for me to say it, so I cut it from the comment section and pasted it here, into a new blog post.  For whatever it's worth.  Combined with my last post, it tells a bit more about me, and what goes on inside me when I work, and why.  No need to read it if that bores you.  No need to agree, or even to form an opinion.  It's only me.  Raw.  So here goes, the video, then the post...

My last post had much to do with art for its own sake, and the concept of jealousy as it relates to art. I know that it sounds so silly at first, to think that jealousy, or lack thereof, can be a defining factor of an artist.  But I do think that to a large extent, a jealous sense of competition prevents a creative from being able to detach from the left brain.  Not to say that something good can't come from someone who's competitive.  The market tells us otherwise.  But if an artist creates in that frame of mind, like everything else inside the artist, it will present itself in the work.  

This detachment from wondering what others will think is key, I think, to creating from the truly authentic place inside that belongs to the artist alone.  It's how babies work, and during and  after training, whether self-taught or formally/classically trained, it's what those who find themselves wondering, or worrying about how others may react, must get past.  It's what's meant, or what should be intended, when a teacher urges a student to "relax and just play".  

The lucky few who don't care and have never cared what others think, can naturally and completely detach the commercial from the creation.  I'm one of those who has never cared.  I use what others say as opinion and critique, but it neither wounds, nor inflates.  I love comments, but I'm not married to them, hence, my blog is not written for anyone's satisfaction but my own.  I care about the feelings of others, thus I try to be careful and sensitive, but I leave people with their opinions intact.  No manipulation.  Stating my opinions, I try to be clear and direct, and often do so emphatically, which is sometimes interpreted as trying to persuade.  But when I choose to state my beliefs, I do it, then I leave others to their own.  I do sell my artwork, but I let my stuff represent itself.  If someone wants it, fine.  If they don't, then I'm not going to try a different marketing technique, tactic, or try to convince.  

For me personally, it's all about the creation, and everything else is peripheral.  I am the kind who would have to leave the business end to an agent, manager, or other professional, if it came down to marketing.  I can mix business and art, but I can't create with marketing in mind.  It isn't about whether or not I believe it's right or wrong;  I simply can't.  I can put my art for sale, but not manage the convincing of people to buy it.  They buy, or they don't buy.  So my livelihood must come from somewhere else, unless my art supports itself with its own message.  I'm not trying to find a market niche.  Very un-American business thinking perhaps, but I truly believe that art is not merely at the top of the food chain, it's above it.  I'm not saying that my particular art is anywhere at all, in any hierarchy, but that art itself, is sovereign.  My art is simply what I create.  Where it ends up in the minds, hearts and pocketbooks of others, is in the realm of their choices, and their choices won't change how I create, because I can't create that way.  I can make crafts that way, but that isn't how I can create artwork, which I equate with soul work -- laying the soul bare.

So, absent the jealousy and positioning of competition, I'm free to decide what I like, and throw away what I don't, given the set of artistic guidelines -- or lack thereof -- that I choose to adhere to at the moment, for the piece at hand.  Then when it's created, I let my artchild stand on it's own legs, and let the rest of the world think what it will.  When I'm stumbling over my own critique of my work, I sometimes ask others who are emotionally detached from it, and in my opinion are competent artists in their own right, for advice.  I don't think of my work as "good" or "bad".  I think of it as "from me", and "on it's own".  I'm not worried about my progress, because I'm in it for the creating, not the improving.  Don't get me wrong.  I want to improve, and need to improve.   I seriously, playfully, learn new things, but I don't strive to improve.   I'm not creating for the sake of technical improvement, I'm creating to create.  And in doing that, I will improve.  It follows naturally and can't be helped.  The more you do with focus, but without stress, strife, or resistance, the better you get.  That's all, really.  

The psychology is really very simple.  What an artist creates is always a self portrait in some way or other.  What other's see in it, is also a self-portrait, but not of the artist.  What others see in any work of art, is a portrait of themselves, as reflected in their reactions to the observed artwork.  This is the communication and the dialogue that interests me.  When someone of knowledge says something about the execution of a technique, that's an art lesson.  When anyone voices an honest reaction to the work itself and says something of what it evokes, that's a revelation of the beholder's identity, not a statement about the piece of art.  The piece of art is merely a vehicle for the conversation, not something good or something bad in and of itself.  

More simply put, artist lays soul bare.  Honest commenter bares soul in commenting.  Personally, I find this to be one of the most sincere and rewarding conversations available to mankind.  And because this is where I begin and end, competition and jealousy are not factors.  It never was about the actual piece of art to begin with.  It's always about the creating, and then progresses to a dialogue in the relationship of artist, creation, and beholder.

 

Comments

[Tammy Vitale]

Here's my take on this and why I do pay attention to the market side (not that I don't play - I do, and that leads to saleable work): when I create I'm a conduit for energy. Often, very often, that energy isn't my own. I'm simply a conduit for what someone else is calling - it was the same when I was doing community-based organizing - I created a space for energy to come through. Here's where marketing comes in. The person who called it can't find it unless I take it out to the market and make some noise so they can find me and what they may not have even known they were looking for. I don't know that creating for play and creating for market preclude each other. I think they are part of the same continuum.

This: *The psychology is really very simple. What an artist creates is always a self portrait in some way or other. What other's see in it, is also a self-portrait, but not of the artist. What others see in any work of art, is a portrait of themselves, as reflected in their reactions to the observed artwork* is awesome, and probably one of the best descriptions of my beliefs about art I've ever seen!

[Rosie]

I agree with you Tammy to a certain extent, but I am also of the opinion that I personally, am no longer acapable of creating for a specific market. Barbara has one of my adorable Arty-Farty Birdie Bags, for example. When I made the first one and showed it on my blog, I received emails asking how much and can I make one for x, y and z... At one point, I had 5 on the go and I am not a factory, so the bubble burst, and I lost all the enjoyment of the original creation. So although I was creating these highly original, very artful bags, the process didn't feed my soul like the concept did! (OMG - I am self-helping here!)... I have discovered that I like to follow my Muse and that I can take my art - in whatever form it takes - to a sale and not feel too bad if people don't "get it". Some will buy, some won't... I now know that I am an artist and I can say that with pride, whether I sell or not!
Methinks I did digress a bit - sorry Barbara. xoxo

[Barbara Hagerty]

First of all, I want to tell you both that I'm head over heals in love with long comments! Write me tomes! I think it's wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing so much of yourselves with this post! Now here's where I am with this:

I stand by what I wrote in the post, but I don't think it's really so different from what you do, Tammy, and here's why: Tammy, you're not making a conscious effort to please the market place just to line your pocketbook by making art to please the masses. Your soul is tuned in to a high enough frequency in the Universe, that you channel the energy, and automatically make what will benefit others, what they need and what they want, in your own, unique creations, without consciously trying to adjust yourself to fit someone else's style. It's what you do from your soul. I don't mean for this to sound so "new-agey", because I think that being "tuned-in" on a deep level is not something that the new age movement or any "discipline" owns the copyright to.

I think that some people are just more in tune with the general flow, and Tammy is one. Even if Tammy makes a concerted effort to be "in tune", whatever her muse comes up with will be from her soul, thus she sells her art, not her soul. Am I correct? Please let me if I'm making a mistake here. It's way different from doing market research, looking at statistics, then making manufacturing and placement decisions, which is the soul-less art that I was referring to in my post.

Where I differ from Tammy, is that I don't channel information from the flow of the marketplace outside my own artistic soul. My artwork is very personal for a reason and a choice, and I think I may even make the decision, unconsciously, to block that flow from outside, because I'm so very curious about what's going on in the universe inside of me, and I'm even more curious to view and hear the response to my work from the few people I know who will tell me honestly what they see. It's the dialogue I'm after. The me, the piece of art, and the responses of the others. Then, after all is said and done, if the marketplace is interested, there are some things I'll let go of for a price. Sometimes I'll even make some things for a price. But the real soul work happens when it's just me and the paper, or canvas, or wood, etc. For me, artwork feeds my intense curiosity. And I know that it does for others, too, but for me, it's all caps INTENSE, and almost exclusionary.