"Is it not the convergence of human perception, interpretation, expression that makes a subjective response to drawing what is seen, exciting and entirely unique? I’m not entirely in control of it myself. That’s what I find fascinating. To record is perhaps photography. But that denigrates the photographer because a war reporter shows what she sees, records the facts and conveys essential information to those of us who don’t have eyes on the ground. I think da Vinci is talking about soul and spirit and bringing yours into the work. On that level I concur - because without your soul and spirit art is indeed empty. And not even art.”
-Lorien Haynes | www.saatchiart.com/LorienHaynes
"I believe intention, thoughtfulness, and consciousness in the artistic process is always present to some degree when an artist creates something from nothing , even if that something is an accurate representation of the objective world around us. Even the act of "copying" what one sees in the world takes conscious intent to bring it about. And what is the real difference if an artist represents an object with accurate hyper realism, or with some other more nuanced, stylized or "artistic" representation? In the end both representations are then contemplated by individuals with varying degrees of taste, perception and opinion."
-Dave Sena | www.senaspace.com/home/
“My parents asked me if I was attending any church services. I answered that when I need ‘to find myself’ I go outside to be in nature and then I know again I belong. It doesn't take many minutes in nature before I pick up a rock, leaf or stick from the ground. My thoughts become: how can this object hold this shape? How did it form? How can my human mind bring attention to this object and share it with others? I work with natural objects: grass, seeds, willow, driftwood, stones, shells, bones and such. I usually work outside, so when I am creating, life's deadlines and obligations leave the forefront of my mind and I become present in the now. A single focus and I am lost in myself.”
- Connie Schaekel
“The artist is able to travel where no man has gone before, beyond normal reality-- beyond the expected. Losing oneself in that journey, opens new thought processes and a new visual language may be my favorite part of the artistic method. I often gain considerable insight about the person I am and can be. Beyond this, when viewing the artwork of others I respect, a similar transformative feeling can be manifested.”
- Michael Sharber | www.msharberstudios.com
“Balance is mediocre. Commit or don't bother. You can't please everyone with a little of this or that. Go fully for what you want to create and get cleanly to the point.”
- Lori Swartz | www.lorimetals.com
“Maintaining balance is a true art form; one that requires precious cultivation on a daily basis. Within my daily routine, whether I'm creating a one-of-a kind custom art piece or sweeping the floor, I find satisfaction in knowing it is not just the end product that is valued but the articulation of the time and space it took to get there as well. All aspects and elements of our craft and life require fine-tuning and discipline - perfection through repetition or wear.”
- Willard Wood
"I consider my work public art-- both my architecturally-integrated glass and steel installations in public spaces and aerial kinetic pieces which exist in our most public space and sky. The human limits that I am most anxious to escape are proscribed by the prepared gallery or performance space. My approach is always the same-- anything goes."
-- David Wagner
"I disagree with the statement 'To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits.' Art in its very nature is about the human experience. It is in its humanity that art transcends decades and cultures. The connection of Giorgio De Chirico and Banksy is their similar striving-- in Giorgio's case, to transcend 'logic and common sense' and in Banksy's case, to transcend the confines of laws governing acceptable public art. It is human nature to set up systems and laws and it is human nature to try and break those rules. By trying to escape all human limits, by trying to create immortality, one merely exposes the shackles of mortality. It is through this failure to truly escape human limits that sincere and honest artwork is created."
-- Catherine Burke
"I can remember reacting poorly to something my mother enjoyed: getting lost. She would deliberately drive an alternate and vaguely considered route to our destination while I fantasized about how a twelve year old could subdue her mother and grab the steering wheel. My mother's defense was, 'you find things when you get lost.' What nonsense, I thought, sulking it out. I was a Point A. to Point B. personality forced to roam neighborhoods and bear witness to my mother's exclamatory remarks over oval windows, round driveways or the polished lettering on a mailbox. 'Would you look at that!' she would be positively beatific, different than she normally was at home. I thought she was nuts. Decades would pass before I realized just how transformative getting lost could be and how close my mother was to being her real self on those journeys. For years, I had relied too much upon the GPS of the 'familiar' in my own work and until I lost ME in those cul-de-sacs, my creative vocabulary lacked strength. Ultimately, I learned that the language of mystery and uncertainty can produce much more interesting results because our identity starts to emerge through the infinitesimal choices of finding our way. 'You find things when you get lost.' Yup, you do."
--Sandra Filippucci | www.sandrafilippucci.com
"Every artist has a way of defining their expression; mine is like a dance to music. I don't start with a goal in mind. I go with the flow, letting the piece I'm working on guide me in an artistic process. Like dancing to music, there is no end in mind with little concern for a particular result. Therefore my work becomes a very organic, physical and intuitive process. The very idea of not working for a preconceived notion. Pure discovery as I move on. I am a multimedia artist working with materials such as oil bars, encaustic, pastels, acrylic, photography and digital media."
-Victoria Sutherland | www.victoriasutherland.com
"I do not relate to this idea in my own experience . For me, working in the landscape or any other visual context, is about being fully present and mindful: being open to the possibilities that flow through the situation. And to be there when a conjunction of elements present itself, if only for an instant. There's a magic in that, when it happens, that has little to do with tests or expectations. I think the sensibility you bring to your art matters more then the 'subject.'"
-Mark Kane |
"The problem with landscape photographs is that everyone has seen 'pretty pictures' and modern cameras and technology make it quite easy to take a very good photograph of a nice scene-- landscapes are everywhere. That's the point: note the use of 'pretty,' 'good,' and 'nice.' The real test is to take what everyone sees and turn it into something that makes them see and think about the subject in a way they never would have without your photograph. Sometimes this makes the scene more impressive or grand, sometimes moodier and sometime just different. This is what makes a great image of a landscape. The failure to do this can result in two types of disappointment. When someone looks at one of my images and says 'Oh, what a pretty picture,' that probably means I have failed. It's like saying 'What a cute baby!' The second kind of disappointment in some ways worse. Sometimes when I take a picture and then process and print it, it does not look as I envisioned it (what I personally saw and felt when I took the picture). The result is wrong -- and nothing can be done about that. There is no software to fix simply taking the wrong picture.
-Steven A. Jackson
"Keeping your heart in the work can be a challenge at times. The work that I do with fabric and custom interiors certainly has a strong labor aspect. I often think of what I do as sculpting with fabric-- this keeps the heart active and alive in my work. Fabric has texture, color, patterns, pliability, sensuality and the power to change things-- often dramatically. Like a canvas, fabric can take color, with the added bonus of being able to wear it, sit on it or in the case of a pillow, throw it across the room. The more unique, the better for me."
--Nancy Clusiau | Nancy Clusiau | www.customsantafe.com
"Without the guidance of the heart, the hands and mind are ronin, or master-less samurai. Dangerous, fickle, not to be trusted. Certainly not to be entrusted with the great works that life demands. Do our masters, whoever they are, value the fruits of our hearts? Or only the products of our hands and minds? What is life without heart? How many choose this path? Why? How many feel they have no choice but to abandon their hearts' desires? If art and heart are the same, what moment of life is heartless? If my heart, mind and hands inspire feeling in others, that's the greatest success I could hope for as an artist."
--Steve Dulfer | www.dulfermetal.us
"Neutrality as expression and expression as meditation. When I am feeling in balance and neutral, I am fed by a flow of creativity. Tranquility is the in-between place of dreams, which is a subject that I am forever interested in. Resting in the altered state of dreams is that other dimension where things are worked out."
-Deanne Richards
"One of the pleasures of tapestry weaving is the extreme slowness of the process. It encourages me to ponder the tiniest moves, no matter if the image is simple or complex. That effort becomes a luxury. I had the opportunity a couple of years ago to visit my home village in Finland after an absence of seventeen years. The visit was like Proust's madeleines. I was there for a few hours but the subconscious dam broke open. Now I have to reach back in my memory. It's all there.
-Bengt Erikson | www.eriksontapestries.com
"The Artist lives in the world not inhabited by mere humans, The artist breathes air and drinks water that is saturated with artistic license. Artistic license allows, encourages and appreciates the spontaneous gesture of the brush or the turn of a phrase by the artist. To understand the nature of beauty in the present time, as Baudelaire suggests, the artist must simply pay attention - aka 'be here now'."
-Lydia Hesse
"A proposition of accountability to respond to imagination for those who choose the perspective of artist and creator in time and space. For example, archived on a severed tree are nature's impressions of time.- the rings reflections of moments. Beauty manifested, only understood recently in the artistry of the rings: such are the creations of the inspired artist in conscious reflection. Representations of subjective beauty in 'the present time' a permanent ripple. They become, are and have been the rings-- captured, created and reflected by the artists of the said time. Understanding is to appreciate the beauty in the row."
-Carlos Ray Martinez
"Beauty is the imagined perception that exists within each being, not within the object seen."
-Michele Worstell
"When I first read this quote, I wondered about the context. Was Hockney referring to his interest in the possible use of optics by the old masters or staging in photography? Was he simply commenting about artistic license and the objective point of view, or was it more personal? Let's imagine he's speaking of artistic process. Artists have leeway and they use artifice, but I wouldn't think of that as 'cheating.' Art does begin with desire, but desire for what? Expression, yes. Beauty? Probably - it's enticing. A friend, a painter, once said that she was wary of becoming 'dutiful' to her imagery. I've always liked that. Sometimes a piece seems to be rendered perfectly, and yet it lacks vibrancy. Part of you wants to hold on to the original achievement, but the truth is you need to disrupt it to make it work. The concept, the intuitive view, and the final impact are key. Art isn't just a means to an end, it's any means to an end."
"When I was young, I refused to sign my paintings. I felt as if the World of imagination was larger than myself and by making work I was privileged to access deeper regions that had little to do with the personal me. I still feel the same way, but now sign humbly with my initials."
"Art is the step you are looking at as you climb the staircase of life, not the one you are standing on - we are never as high as what we perceive. In pursuit of the relationship between texture and the mind's eye. I am constantly assessing the perspective of life's staircase. Through translating three-dimensional texture into two dimensional art, I objectively approach each print I make. I create a thick textured image on a smooth plexiglass plate, and then transfer the image on to paper by hand barrening (rubbing) the back of the paper. Because only the peaks of texture make contact with the paper, the valleys leave negative space in the image; and each print then reveals a two-dimensional view of a three-dimensional reality."
-Ari Kalminson
"I always work to convey the emotional and spiritual aspects of my subjects rather than just the representational elements. Since the 1970's, I've worked to develop a visual dialogue with vibrant color fields and expressive brushwork that transcends standard forms of imaging the natural world. My hope is that viewers experience my paintings of earth, water, and space as multi-dimensional visual portraits of the transcendent energies of a place. I would like my work to inspire and challenge viewers to see the world in new and transformative ways."
-Judy Ashbury
"I think art is what you see and how you share it. I share my vision to have others see the world through my eyes - the beauty and the pain of life. We all see the world a bit differently and that is what is so unique and magical about art and life."
"When I walk out of this world and journey into that other world called wilderness, after a few miles I can begin to absorb what is all around. Then I slowly follow my eye wherever it wants to lead me. Sometimes, if I look hard enough the world allows me a glimpse of some essence, and if I am very lucky I can record a part of this. For me, Adam's quote implies that few allow themselves to imagine the stories held within the recorded image."
"It has been said that the average amount of time most visitors spend looking at an art exhibit is about three seconds per image. In that context Adams makes a point that "a photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into." When I make a print that I am aiming for a finished art piece that provokes an emotional response or makes a statement. I like to execute the image in a process that is unique, one that forces the viewer to look longer than three seconds - maybe three minutes - to figure out what it is, or wonder where is this place? When I look at photography I am attracted to images that are powerful, cutting edge, bold statements that inspire me to find out more - the longer you look, the more you see. The kind of work that gives me a 3D feeling that I've either been there or I have to go there - whether it's in the mind or a physical place."
"If one knows my creative style, this 'breathing room for the spirit' is actually my true blessing once one of my illustrative paintings is finished. The breathing heals and alters my mind, body and spirit - the internal massage. No matter how small or grandiose ones studio space may be, while in the creative process there is always a view of an endless ocean, the high winds, and infinity. That is why I continue in this profession. Why else do it?"
"While many artists would agree with this bland statement, its opposite can also be true. Some great art is obsessively claustrophphobic. There is little room for breathing in a Francis Bacon portrait, and many of the early modernist's works were received with horror, not sighs of content. Personally, I'm not looking to create an atmosphere in which Mr. Updike would be comfortable. I want a more complex and challenging view that takes your breath away and forces you to face the other - the unknown - and therefore consider something new and fresh, even if dark. I'm trying to create a new sensibility about Southwest art that is modern, abstract, yet real. One that shows the Southwest as it is from my interior vision. I prefer art that not only surprises the viewer, but more importantly, surprises me."
"William Faulkner would have needed to at least three narratives to rationalize and give substance to his own statement. Thomas Mann wrote in The Confessions of Felix Krull, "All artists are prisoners either by themselves or society." Given Faulkner's and Mann's dismal perceptions of what compels an artist to create, I guess it is better to keep producing work and ignore the demons that haunt us."
"Faulkner, an educated iconoclast, was probably well aware of demon's Greek root, daimon, which signifies a divine and effective spirit. Ineffable inclinations run parallel to the spiritual, and often steer one's work: forms repeat, patterns reappear, or subjects take on inordinate significance. When working, I'm extremely grateful for the obsessions that captivate and possess my attention; that leave the sink full of dishes, friends, ignored, and laundry piled high. When not in attendance, they are severely missed. Though imbalance is present in this obsession, all is somehow right in the world, nothing more is wanted. In this, there is dedication - perhaps one of the hallmarks of an artist, like love, this unquestioned drive is enduring passion or care, a little inexplicable, embarrassing, enviable, honest and rather excellent."
"For too many generations, the continuum of the European/American artist has looked outside of daily life for that which is extraordinary and rings of the metaphysical - but how isn't this consumerist tourism? Over these ten years in New Mexico, I have found that the most profound depths that are reachable are those that are the simplest and most personal, that seek root and are too close to be in focus. These realms defy clear narratives and, at their richest and most powerful, contain contradictory and irresolvable perspectives and feelings. If there are 'beauty-truths' to be found then the best that anyone can do is to hold space for that which is hard to define, utilizing open-ended, responsive forms, in the way that a parent holds the space for a child to play and to experience the world."
"Paintings for me are anchors to other worlds, other realities, other consciousnesses. These worlds, and states of consciousness are not always easily accessible in the daily momentum of our everyday lives. Art connects us to parts of our being, our soul, that may be at some times elusive, but are where we ultimately vibrate at the deepest level."
"I do feel on the periphery! I do feel tangential in society! I know I help define society by my actions and I often think, "Eliza, you are not doing enough to make life healthier around here!" If we all felt 100% secure in our place in society, wouldn't each of us be variations of Ghandi? It's important to contribute to a stronger whole, but I keep my art practice as a sanctuary from that obligation. In working through the lawless territory of art, it seems the most honest way for me to travel."
"Art always portray's society and culture. You can understand the mind set of a time period by looking at the art that was produced. Perhaps this quote is more indicative of the times we are living in than specifically about artists. I think we might all be a little too comfortable. I do think Becker makes an important point - it seems as though artists and art itself are losing ground in certain ways. Art is being pushed out of schools and the art world is becoming more and more exclusive. It can be difficult to find your place in society as an artist, but it has been that way for a long time. However, I don't believe that we are headed into a future of powerless artists. There is no shortage of artists with something to say and people who still hear them."
-Jamie Cross
"I usually do not start a painting by trying to create anything exact. It is not in my nature. I am much more comfortable trying to express the essence of a person, place or thing, taking into account all the colorful surrounding details. I try to create paintings that have meaning for me and for others. For me, the experiences that have the most meaning are simple and sometimes fleeting - so one has to capture the essence of a moment quickly without over-thinking. It sometimes seems impossible to recreate anything essentially real - to do so would be an arduous task. I don't think I could ever paint a rose as lovely as a real rose, but I might try to incorporate the deep layers of color and shapes that make a rose a rose, or pair it with an African textile. I am not one for imitating, although many great artists have learned through imitation. It is far more exciting to free my soul, to see and appreciate the little things in life and to paint the essence of what I see. I am simply seizing the moment to visually capture the Santa Fe that I love, along with many other charming places. I find myself using the same response as Matisse, when he said to a woman who was looking over his shoulder and saying that the lady he was painting did not look like a lady, 'Madame I am not making a lady, I am creating a painting!'"
-Sandy Vallencourt
"I think it is a bit overreaching for anyone to assume he or she can determine what is 'real' and 'essentially real' - not to mention the 'essence of things.' In my current art practice, a statement like this from Brancusi isn't even on my radar. My art became powerful and real to me when it returned to being simple. Drawing has become surprisingly simple - even effortless at times. I don't have the voices of Brancusi or other artists and theorists in my head when I'm working. I simply put charcoal to paper and take comfort in the fact that I am creating images that feel worthy and necessary to me. It has been liberating to untie my work from the hold of other people's theories. I'll let my life and my art lead me to what feels essentially real."
"Mystery in art is essential and should exist naturally. Balance, as a whole, should also exist. If the job of the artist is to "always" deepen the mystery, every artist, in turn, would eventually have to produce overly mysterious, useless slag. Forcing artwork to be deeply mysterious is pretentious, and is a disservice to everyone. Truth, in art, will always involve mystery."
-Joel Hobbie
"Francis Bacon was hmself an iconic mystery. Artists do not isolate themselves from the mundane. Instead, they take it to greater heights, and somehow they mysteriously manifest beauty into music, sculpture, painting, and architecture."
"Without the context of the original statement I can't respond to it, even if it's referring to an artistic act using a paintbrush produced using underage or prison labor, which brings into the question the idea of right or wrong. For me, spontaneity is an act or impulse that overrides preconditioned responses to my everyday circumstances and behavioral conditioning, due to a moment of consciousness or awareness. Acting on these moments is a release of the constraints I place upon myself, and something I would benefit from by allowing more often."
"As a painter, I certainly need a respite from our hectic world so that I can make my work. Enjoying the art of others, or losing myself in my own studio beckons me into a different place - one of beauty, adventure, mystery, controversy, love. Art invites me to consider other perspectives and to see the magic in ordinary life. The best art takes my breath away, shows me my dreams, and then allows me to breathe again, renewed."
"When I create a photograph, I'm not thinking about what the final result will be or how others will interpret the image. I'm searching for a composition, subject, or perspective that resonates with me. When a viewer sees something in my image beyond their reality, I feel like I've opened a door for them to make it their own. Maybe they're seeing something mundane in a new way, or finding beauty in an object or landscape that wouldn't normally be considered beautiful. When that happens, and our reactions lead others to see something new - even if it's not in exactly the same way we see it - a connection is formed. It doesn't always happen, but I feel a greater sense of purpose to my work when it does."
"While channeling Degas, O'Keefe exclaimed, 'Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.' This statement gets me wondering about the open-endedness'of its terms. She seems to refer to perception, rather than sight. To make others see is a moment of perceptual shift that happens when three conditions - time, place, and audience - come together. At the right time, in the right place, and to the right audience there is potential for an object or an action to change what others see. A painter does not hold any advantage over a basketball player, nor does clay or marble over AstroTurf or Jell-O. It is all about placing the right elements in a context that offers a new perspective to its audience... what you make others see."
"It is more important to me that a painting raises questions than answers them. When I am drawn to a painting, be it mine or someone else's, and find myself wonrdering, marveling, and puzzling, I feel engaged. I like to feel included in an imaginative dialogue with an artwork rather than merely be a passive reader of the imagery. Often, the most alluring aspects of an artwork for me are areas that are indistinct, blurry, or lost in shadow, where my mind tries to fill in the blanks. The two questions I hear most about my paintings are "What is it called?" and "What does it mean?" It may sound trite, but my usual response is, "Well what does it mean to you?" Once my painting is varnished, framed, and hung on a wall, it is, to a large degree, out of my hands. I said what I needed to say within the visual confines of the canvas. It must speak for itself. In my paintings, I hope I have built a worthy springboard for your imagination and sown the seeds of mystery to flower in your mind."
"Bacon got it wrong. Nothing can deepen mystery, and I assume that we are talking about "The Mystery" and not what's in the special sauce. Mystery is deep enough. There is no way to deepen it. We cannot know its depth or breadth. As I see it, some art may emerge and be a result of that. I choose to allow my work to arise from and be driven by the Mystery. That is, the big Mystery, coupled with my own private enigmas. I personally prefer the free fall into that Mystery even though it cannot be spoken of or named. It can be quite unsettling. After all, Gauguin nailed it while in paradise: "Where do we come from? what are we? Where are we going?" Just unplug and pay attention. The mystery is always there."
"For me the creative process is all about surrender: first and foremost, surrendering to the muse, the inspirations, urgings, and the ebb and flow of the powerful creative energy that flows in and around me. When I'm in my true vibrational flow, there is no need for controlling, forcing, or doubt when creating imagery. I can trust that I am where I need to be, doing what I'm meant to do and seeing what is meant to be seen. When coming from this place, I can also surrender to the ego's insatiable appetite and I can create purely for the love of it and not be motivated or manipulated by what anyone else things of the work. Living my life as an artist requires trust, faith, and belief that if I am true to myself and the work, it will lead me to spiritual and financial abundance-and so far this is true. So surrendering isn't an event or a one-time thing; to me it is a beautiful daily practice that allows me to be in harmony with a power much greater than myself."
- Lenny Foster
"I agree. Follow the work and it will show you what to do."
- Jennifer Lynch
I look to "steal" my inspiration is from trees. The language that I use is that of Celtic and Scythian artists. In their language, I express my passion for these amazing, regal, sensual, life-giving beings. I appreciate the way those artists depicted beautifu nature in a stylized manner. I am not looking to copy a tree; I am taking it down to a minimal state to express a moment - connection of the earth to air.
- Matt Young
I'm like a magpie. There's nothing mundane about the world - there is beauty and inspiration everywhere. Having my attention caught by something doesn't make my observation a theft; each little element becomes something entirely new as I translate it onto my canvases.
- Josie Adams
"At some point as a student I was told to draw what I see, not what I know. This was one of the most valuable lessons I was ever given, but I still have to constantly remind myself of it. I find myself always trying to restrain control and to be in the driver's seat, because I never really believe I'll get to the other side unless I am the one driving the car. But when I allow myself to drive my work, I rarely end up anywhere worthwhile. When I see a finished piece and think that I don't know how I did that, or how I got there- when it tells me things I didn't know I was thinking or seeing or trying to say-in spite of the terror and frustration I felt trying to get there, I definitely then feel I've arrived somewhere worth going."
"Imagination, Inspiration, and originality break old habits that condemn the human spirit. The restriction of today's society has tiny doors to spread human courage. Reality sets deeper in stone, but remember that you can change reality through the power of creativity. Art is a tool to let you out of your own certainties."
- Journeyway Price
In my opinion a great artist needs to journey with keen eyes, an open heart and mind, but should also have the courage to change course when the opportunity presents itself. When insecurity leads to pretention it stops a person from being able to see past the mirror they’re holding up in front of themselves. In a sense I suppose the pretentious become their art, perform it by closing off doors to themselves so that they can only be admired through a window like an object. The pretentious build themselves into a house they never leave, and since all great art requires a journey, they are stuck. In art and life. Now I sound pretentious.
"I agree. In addition, I find that my work is also a process of self discovery. I don't really know who I am without the work I do."
And Antonin Artaud agreed when he wrote that he didn't want to meet hmself in his poetry. I paint keenly poised to receive the nuanced messages the paintings themselves suggest. I am at times driven and fevered with the business of galloping after their demands, or dull with a staring trance that fumbles for a thread. Although subtly aware of myself, my styles, and my strokes. I recognize my attack as merely a tool to the work's end. Indeed, I see less myself in the beings of these works and more their rugged need to be just what they are.
- Micaela Gardner
I thought the definition of "artist" was huge ego. I guess sometimes it is, but usually in the creative zone, where I am making something. I feel like I'm either a conduit from a source, or from God, or from an artist that has passed. Recently I've been making a hundred and one bulls and a hundred and one horses out of ceramics - not typically my medium. These pieces are influenced by the late ceramist, Beatrice Woods. While my hands are on the clay, I feel her presence. All the Native American work I've done in the last several years has been channeling messages on Chumash land, usually under a large tree that was indigenous to the Chumash. And in years past when working with angels and goddess icons, I felt that I was receiving visions from the source. In terms of humility, I am forced to be humble in those quiet times of prayer, meditation and listening.
Most days I'm just happy that the "schwein-hund" (pig-dog) hasn't commandeered my inner team of rivals and run amok in the desperate and furious charge through the mundane. Once ina while, however, I can harness the irrational in a manner that sublimely reveals a pathway to beauty. I'm very thankful for these moments, knowing that they are the result of a lot of hard work.
It's time that contemporary Native American art be included in the national and international conversation of Modern Art. I've never felt uncomfortable being a Native artist - it's my perspective that sets me apart.
- Frank Buffalo
Creativity is no anodyne, yet to focus on the pain of creation is a romantic obession that denies the concurrent poetics and pragmatism that propel most contemporary artists. The moment inspiration becomes destined for the tangible world, it begins to erode under systems of taste, economies, politics, and its own physicality in the temporal, degrading world. Instead of the sterotyped tortured ego-driven artist, actual creators possess generosity and humility to allow their perfect inner visions to become imperfect things, existing in an imperfect world. Expiration is both the opposite - and the result-of inspiration.
Well yes and no - there is a chasm and there is the surprise element when intention and vision manifest. Many times beauty and truth have a way of intervening with one's agenda. With age and grace, hopefully we trust the chasm and relinquish control.
I have been in an artistic collaboration (Buchen/Goodwin) for about thirty years and I'm painfully aware of how totally subjective absolutes like "truth" can be. Quantum physics confirms this: the observer influences the observed. I've watched a piece of my art evolve with its meaning or intent shifting dramatically. I make virtual objects which are mercurial by nature. Whether they become 2D or 3D experiences is purely optional. They exist only as equations. Truth feels as fluid as the process of making art itself.
Truth is....art has little to do with truth. Art speaks for those who lack the words to express what they truly feel.
The intuitive is only realized after a history of critical process. Bradbury was only partially correct. He negates that history. As a distance runner, I understand that the state of euphoria that can be reached while running only happens after hours of training. However, it is crucial to trust that history of artistic practice. It is important to begin, to "do things" without self doubt, fear and questions. To know that all of my history will inform the marks, the decisions that I make with my work, is a crucial first step. I can begin to do and to allow the current to take me to transcendence. Expansion takes over and I arrive at a place where intuition draws from all my history of thought and process.
Thought can lead to doubt and doubt is the number one Unholy Dog of Creativity. I saw graffiti on a wall that said, "If you get out of the way, art will happen." Creativity must be allowed to surface without impediment. It rises from a collection of knowledge gained through experience. This applies to all disciplines of art: writing, dance, painting, or just strumming an old guitar. Ya just gotta "Surrender Dorothy." I may be thinking too much but it seems to me that an artist is the epitome of a free person, simply because she/he has freed herself or himself from limitations: their own and those imposed upon them.
- BJ Quintana
Sometimes when I have a fantasy of making a piece of art, I get scared. I find that when I think about what I want to do too much, then I don't do the work. Other times when I am scared yet still do what I want to do, it always ends up being okay. Even if some people are going to get pissed , at times I make art that not everyone is going to be happy with - I just can't do "pretty" work, I can only make work speaks to me, like my piece La Conquistorda.
- Nicholas Herrera
The realities of my life have challenged me since I was a child. I never really learned how to "cope" merely relying on survival instinct many times to move forward. These realities fed my fantasies and it became clear to me when I decied to reclaim all those broken parts of me, that in order to really rise in my life, not mearely "survive," it would be crucial to reveal these excruciating parts that made me whole. Art, in any form, is not only a healing tool, it is the next breath, the release of creative energy, the cultivating of spirit and self. As an artist and woman, combining words with visual art through film, poetry, photography, and mixed media has allowed this wonderment with such purposeful passion and fearlessness that I am humbled to be such a vessel to represent the woman-ness, the earth-ness, and the excruciating honesty of feeling.
- Tara Trudell
I don't think of sculpture as languge, but as a man-made object which arrests us. It births as experience which interrupts thought by evoking feeling. Only later do we explain this experience, now a memory, by language.
Let me respond instead to Brancusi saying, "What is real is not the external form, but the essence of things....it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface." Or Degas saying, "The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity" For me, sculpture isn't separate from any other art form or means of expression. It is a way of creating a new separate reality, which is at its core the same reality.
