writingaboutpaintings

Today I was doing a casual search on the internet and saw this cool video that encapsulated pretty much what I have been trying to teach my class for the past nine month. I can pretty much relate to the rut they are stuck in day in day out. They are constantly stuck on an empty piece of drawing paper or going back to the same old types of drawings again and again as my safety blanket. Just to be clear, having a signature style, subject matter or palette is not a bad thing, but letting it kill any new attempts at new inspirational content can be dangerous. This video outlined Jean-Michel Basquiat’s artistic ‘rituals’ and I found myself connecting with him in too many ways than one not to feature a blogpost as a homage to the man.

Some salient points from the video includes the following point with some of my personal input:

Let your tastes make the decisions, not your brain.

Many of us already know to a certain extent what we like and what we don’t. However, the saddest thing is not wanting to accept what we enjoy because what we enjoy might not be ‘sufficient’ or acceptable as we get judged for our choices that ultimately become a reflection of our taste. A person’s first instinct when looking at anything is really to like or dislike what they are looking at. It is important to know what you like and trust your gut. It never goes wrong. In this case, one is encouraged to trust the heart instead of the brain just a little bit more. Indeed, the French poet and writer succinctly summed up ‘In art as in love, instinct is enough. This also forms part of my teaching philosophy that as an art educator, while I steer my students gently in the correct direction with exam guidelines and other matters, I should never teach them what to like or dislike. That is a surefire ingredient to incite the hatred of art in within any soul.

Speaking of tastes, steal only ideas that you like.

Celebrated author Austin Kleon stated in his bestseller Steal Like an Artist that no idea in art (and by consequence life) is original at all. The hoarder collects everything. The artist is a connoisseur and accepts only the very best. It is also unacceptable for that connoisseur to have a shelve devoid of any collectible. There must be a starting acquisition of some sort. An artist has to accept that nothing comes up of staring at a blank piece of paper and it is essential to have something to build up on. Think of yourself as one of the cognoscenti of ideas, selecting only the very ones that appeal to you, the crème de la crème makes it to your mental collection. Staring into oblivion and wishing ideas would fall from the sky is akin to having a museum compound with empty walls and pedestals. A good waste of space that is worthy of holding your most prized collection.

Have something to say

I frequently tell my students that going into an artwork without working out the message you want it to express is like writing and essay without a heading. One would go nowhere fruitful in such instances. Know what you want to say and choose your material on what best serves your message. Basquiat had much to say about society and he went back to the same trusty go-to found in Henry Dreyfuss’ Symbol Sourcebook. When stuck, one should always go back to one’s guiding ideology and overarching message to escape this maze of artistic paralysis.

Time is of the essence

Work so fast you don’t have to think. Basically this is meant to counteract the cardinal sin of overthinking. As mentioned in the earlier part of this post, the brain is your enemy at art. Other than conjuring up a whole mountain of negative thoughts and whatnots, there is also the possibility of overworking a piece of work. Everyone can probably relate to that one time in their lives when the artwork started out swimmingly but as time went by, went definitively downhill. This means that saturation point was reached and one to either has to take a break or work on something else. As mentioned in the video, ‘all the ideas you will have for your art will come from when you are not doing art.’ If one has reached some sort of crossroads during the art making process, the only solution will come when one gets busy with other tasks or endeavours.