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Good Art - Concept, Vision, and Mastery

12/8/2017

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One of my struggles as an artist is the one I face with many of my paintings, and involves developing and communicating my vision.  I understand the importance of draftsmanship and skill, which I also struggle with, but, ideally, I would like for everything that I create to speak to the viewer on some level, reveal something about myself, and hopefully resonate with the viewer.  However, as I begin working on a piece, I sometimes find myself worrying more about the draftsmanship, rather than fully developing the concept and vision.  The result is art that doesn't quite hit the mark I was aiming for.

Draftsmanship, technique, and skill are important, no doubt, but without vision, emotion or feeling, I find the piece lacking when presented as a work of art.  Typically, at some point, I realize the piece just isn't working, but I am at a loss as to how to recapture the initial inspiration and convey the vision.  There is a disconnect, and I often flounder as I struggle to overcome it, and become mired in reworking areas.

As an artist, creating good art requires pushing yourself on all levels, and may very well mean that you are never satisfied.  Taking time to develop the concept, and then fully putting yourself into it, focusing not only on technique and skillful rendering, but on mood and achieving the vision, requires a commitment of time and energy, and often takes quite a bit off trial and error.  All of which is easier said than done.


artbiz.com had an article titled, "What makes good Art?",  which included quotes from many collectors, gallery directors, and art curators.  The one below stuck with me.

Alan Bamberger, itinerant artster, San Francisco:  At its most fundamental level, good art is an effective combination of concept, vision and mastery of medium (the ability to get the point across).  Good art is also uncompromisingly honest, unselfconscious, bold, ambitions, enlightening, original, challenging, and a feast for the senses.  It doesn't necessarily have to have all of these qualities, but at the very least it has to keep you coming back for more. . . and never ever bore.

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Balancing Act

6/26/2017

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I haven't always considered myself an  artist, and it is only now after decades of drawing, painting, and creating, that I am comfortable introducing myself as an artist.  why is that?  i read somewhere that calling yourself an artist is pretentious, but if you don't, who will?  I think that in my case, I am constantly struggling to balance work and art, and when I meet people in the corporate work environment, I am obliged to introduce myself as manager blah blah blah.  Then when I'm outside the office and asked, "what do you do?", I find myself grappling for the right words to describe myself.  Is this a reflection of my inner struggle to balance two of the major parts of my life that help define who I am?

Not that I don't like my job, I do, but I like creating art better.  Way better.  And both of these areas represent who I am, I am not one or the other.  I don't want folks to perceive me as just another number cruncher, or for that matter, just another flaky artist.  I enjoy the challenge of my job, and I definitely enjoy the benefits, like having money to buy food, but I sometimes think that I am using my job as an excuse to not fully commit to the artistic lifestyle.  Is this just me getting in my own way?  Or am I buying into the whole "starving artist" theory that says you must suffer for your art to be considered a "real" artist?  I hope not, because I'm not much for suffering.

I also get the impression that a  lot of folks have a different definition of artist than I do, just as they have their own ideas of what "art" is.   So in the end, I have to listen to my heart, and ask myself, what is the one thing in my life that has remained constant, the one thing that I am driven to do, the thing that makes me happiest, and will do until my dying day, long after I've retired from the corporate world?  Its creating, its imagining, its expressing myself.  Its art.   So yes, I am an artist, but I am also an artist that happens to have a knack for numbers and organization.  And I like to eat.
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    Laurie Burton

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