Jan 22, 2011

Art & Fear (from art and fear by d.bayles and t.orland)


Artmaking involves skills that can be learned. The conventinal wishdom here is that while "craft" can be taught, "art" remains a magical gift bestowed only by the gods. Not so. In large measue becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive. Clearly, these qualities can be nurtured by others. Even talent is rarely distinguishable, over the long run, from perseverance and lots of hard work.

Even the separation of art from craft is largely a post-Renaissance concept, and more recent still is the notion that art transcends what you do, and represents what you are. In the past few centuries Western art has moved from unsigned tableaus of orthodox religious secenes to one-person displayes of personal cosmologies. "Artist" has gradually become a form of identity which (as every artist knows) often carries with it as many drawbacks as benefits.

Consider that if artist equals self, then when (inevitably) you make flawed art, you are a flawed person, and when (worse yet) you make no art, you are no person at all! It seems far healthier to sidestep that vicious spiral by accepting many paths to succesful artmaking -- from reclusive to flamboyant, intuitive to intellectual, folk art to fine art. One of those paths is yours.