Snoozer Palooza
Last day teaching in Oakland. We spent some time puzzling over the relationship between an instinctive approach to the creative process and an intellectual one. Does insisting on the idea of rules informing effective visual communication come across as English and uptight I wonder? Maybe, but the more I teach, and the more time I spend analysing the problems students are having with their work, the more I am aware of the existence of the principles that underlie a successful image.
If you would like to hear what I think these principles are, come to my class at the SAMA Conference in Chicago. I am teaching two day long workshops, on the 17th and 18th March.
Dead head, dead beat. Me too.
But the principles aren’t absolute. The problem is that certain factors seem to remain constant but in fact are being seen by different people in different ways. That works for a certain kind of formal resolution which is fine but becomes problematic when meaning is elevated above pictorial value. What flows from that perspective is the possibility of previously unthinkable or unacceptable formal configurations. i.e. put simply, the ugly is seen as beautiful. I guess as an artist you are left to make a decision about which set of values is most effective for what you can do.
Dear Emma, your writing SO expresses your quiet passion and humor — love it. I truly hope I’ll be able to entice you to participate in the radio show I’m developing: http://www.MosaicOfArt.com, as you clearly are devoted to mosaic, but see it in the broadest context of art-making — both today and historically. Can’t wait to learn more about your book w/ Sonia — great teaser!
Hugs,
g
Clearly, you’re having a great time there in S.F./Oakland!
Not uptight or necessarily English. I caught the same line from a Canadian realist painter, Robert Genn, in his weekly letter, quoting Socrates… “It’s a given that my priorities may not be your priorities. But these are the sort of things we need to think about when we are trying to make art. “The unexamined life is not worth living,” said Socrates. One of my much-celebrated weaknesses is that I try to analyze everything. “The unexamined painting is not worth painting.”
Thanks all.
Oh that Socrates, he seems to have known a thing or two.
I think its thoroughly laudable to think about things deeply. It does help to have a framework in which to think, and a context for your thoughts though, and I think the mosaic community could do more in this area. Of course there is always playfulness, but as another clever type says, play and jokes often bear much more meaning than we might first assume.
As to Simon’s comment, I agree with what he says. There are various contexts and approaches, and different sets of values. But there is also a continuity of visual language, that can be obscure at first glance, as I try to point out in my post ‘More about light’.
Very good to hear about the radio show. Perhaps this subject is something we could discuss at greater length there? Might make the audience doze off though I suppose.