Are we really the artist?

I've had to ask myself recently, am I the author of my art?  Do I create my own story for people around me to read?  Or...and I am speaking more broadly now, is our life story dictated to by the people (the viewer) manipulating and molding the decisions we make? That's kind of heavy going considering we probably all think we are in total control!  So, if we artists create an object that is scrutinized by the audience/critic, who all have their own opinions on what it means to them, does their interpretation change the concept we have placed into the object?  My learning curve for this week is all about who the author really is.....if you hadn't already guessed! If there is no person with an emotional connection to the work, creating the work, then how can it be made in the first place?

I had time to reflect on these things recently while at WOMAD.  There, the music flowed and people danced with not a whole lot of direction, but heaps of passion!  The music and the people who played the instruments were in control, yet I could see there was this underlying symbiotic relationship happening....artist and audience fed off each other, evolved, bounced ideas off each other.  During that time of dance and reflection an artist friend of mine suggested that I should consider the viewer is the artist.  That's scary to me.  Does the viewer direct the show?  I know that within the world of 'production art' it's possibly true, due to the fact that the galleries are dictated to by the people who spend the money.  I am a romantic.  I like to think an artist is driven to make work that tells their story in some way....that they are communicating who they are through their art.  Is the author/artist/maker dying a slow death?

Treasures

Im reading a book....Treasures: the stories women tell about the things they keep.  My ideas for work in progress stem from the collecting of things, reliving the stories behind them, remembering, maybe even trying to forget?  So this is a great starting point for my research.  I know, having been bought up in a home full of women, that we are emotional creatures.  Often tragically dramatic and desperately passionate about 'things.'  This book reveals many untold stories of treasured objects.  These are personal accounts of happiness and sadness that are held within seemingly unimportant objects.  That's the thing you see.....what one person sees, another doesn't.  So the story is told from one woman to another and held onto for sometimes many generations!  I have two questions that bug me about this...just how many of these stories become distorted over time, who do you ask when the person who gave it to you may have passed on?  And how do we keep hanging onto these treasures when we live in such a throw away society?
A thought provoking quote:  "Our treasured things contain a whole world of associations: the time, the place, the activities, and the emotions all contain connections to vibrant meaning." 

The Everyday Life

What is the everyday life?  Interestingly we were discussing this in depth this week and I found it most thought provoking.  Do we regard the everyday life as a problem?  Or is it an asset that leads to many self discoveries?  Personally, I find the mundane, habitual realities of my everyday life to be a welcome break from the worries and concerns of simply surviving, I have my best creative revelations in those moments of routine.  Vacuuming, hanging the washing out, doing the dishes are all part of the quotidian.  I believe humanity needs this quotidian as it is a way of us 'coping' with all the hideous things that are happening in our world.  I question the critical thinkers who believe that habitual nature of the everyday life is a problem and leads to nowhere....shouldn't we value the opportunity to zone out, meditate, and clear our brains of all the clutter around us? Think about this when you are cleaning your teeth in the morning......Check out  Rita Felski's paper, 'The Invention of Everyday Life.' 

Working in the Storm

A storm swept through our district on Saturday morning and I have to admit it was the most frightening thing I have experienced in a very long time.  The force of Mother Nature was unrelenting! My studio home was bashed from all directions with winds over 160km per hour.
While waiting for the craziness to subside I reflected on everything.  (Actually I thought I was going to die and we realized how close we were to being crushed when we looked out in the morning.....pine trees next to the studio had snapped in half and shot through the air into the ground below us like torpedos!)
So, I reflected frantically, then power went off and all I could think was "how am I going to do my study!!"  No internet....eekk!  Technology is fantastic but no good without power!
The reality is, if you are dead you can't do anything about it and if you have no power you can't do anything about it either!  We constantly rely on technology that needs power and as an artist I should know better.  Pens, pencils, paints, paper, books and using hands to make are fundamentals tools of art making that we must never forget to use as primary modes of exploring.....not always online search, online books and photoshop!
We adjusted to our basic living over the two days with a transistor radio, a container of water (no power, no pump), gas to boil the billy, and the log fire.  The art of survival is to be warm, fed and have a shelter.
We survived none the worse but more the wiser!
Today is a beautiful day.  The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the insects are flying and the power is on, hence I am writing this blog.  I'm back into the books and online stuff as if nothing had happened.  Not entirely.....my reflections have created an awareness that I must always keep my hand and eye in touch with my training as an fine artist and be mindful not  to get sucked into the quick-fix addictiveness of the wonderful world of cyberspace (and know that faced with the mighty power of Mother Nature, we have no control at all).
Below is what is left of the shed across the road!!

Being Creative

If there's one thing I love doing, that's being creative.  It doesn't matter what I may be doing, I'd rather make things happen in a creative way....as I can imagine a lot of you would also do.  So today I embarked on tuning up or rather prettying up my blog.  Again, it was a learning curve just to find the right links and buttons to adjust things, but oh so much fun was had!!  I am aware that to some people exploring the possibilities on the internet can be daunting.  But remember, it is a tool just like any other tool we use in our creative processes.  Drawing, photographing, sculpting, painting can all be utilized and used within or taken from, cyberspace. I feel blessed to have such a tool so I have decided to embrace it fully.  And in embracing it, I can research the worlds resources.  Today's little flurry with my blog has taught me that interacting with text, imagery and not being scared to be geeky can help me answer many philosophical questions.  My talking out loud to you is clarifying what it is I'm on about.  Hopefully I will see the effects of this self analyzing in my work and research....so today's thought is....dialogue through the web is just another form of creative exploration and it's absolutely cool!

The Cabbage

I picked a gorgeous red cabbage from my garden. Each layer is a life in itself. Each layer represents growth. I feel like a cabbage, peeling away each layer until a best layer presents itself ready to be used in some culinary masterpiece. It's all part of the learning curve....yum!

Part of my immediate learning curve is to master the computer search engine.  I sat for 5 hours (glasses on, drink bottle by my side) looking at the words 'object' and 'visuality' and 'memory'.  Oh my God its such a powerful tool!  Addictive!!  Which makes me worry about the future of books??  and my ability to keep on track and not get distracted with Face Book and online shopping.  I thought I would rather flick through a book with visually tactile text and glossy pics any day, but for some reason I am drawn to the 'Google'.  Am I becoming a geek as well as an intellectual type?  Or have I been subtly seduced by the WWW!!!?  So much for the cabbage!

Knowing by Being-There Making:Explicating the Tacit Post-Subject in Use

Remember I mentioned I needed an 'art speak' dictionary??  My head is now full of words that are fabulously poetic....yet I don't have a clue what they mean?!  I have been told with great certainty that I will learn these gorgeous mouthfuls in no time at all and I will soon be intellectualizing my written research....I will be an academic!!!  Oh my God I am so excited!  Snap out of it girl!!  Before all that can happen I have to read, write, document, make, design, rip apart, scream loud!!  and probably pull my hair out......am I that uneducated?  Oh my God now I am full of angst....
So, I challenge you intellectuals out there to read the above piece of written poetry (written by Cameron Tonkinwise, link below) and tell me what you think.  I can't wait to understand it!!
http://www.materialthinking.org/papers/30    If you can't find it there are plenty of other juicy journals to look at....:)

P.S.  Learning is wonderful!