The process of creation is certainly a difficult one. I thought I would be quickly updating this with new pieces and progress shots, but I'm empty. I've been working and re-working a drawing these past several days so much that the paper has pilled and is now useless to me. It resembles a note-taking scrawl worthy of reference but not much more. Stress.
While fighting with that drawing, I had the words "Well, you're not really an artist then" echo through my head. In my post, Messing Around With Sculpture, I mentioned a conversation I had where I was told the above line. It never left my brain...it was scorched on there...branded. I was in my hometown having a conversation with a respected, well educated businessman. He had just returned from a vacation abroad and was talking about the differences in our country's view on art/artists to the views other countries held. He felt, compared to these other places, we didn't respect artists, understand art, nor took either seriously. He was aware of what I did and wanted to know about my process. He wanted to know everything: why I do it, what goes through my head, what master is reflected in my work, and so on. I didn't have the right answers for him. I think he was eager to use his new found interest and have a conversation with Michelangelo and I could only give him responses from a small town weirdo.
I told him I didn't know why I did what I did - I just had to do it. Sometimes nothing goes through my head and it feels like I'm doodling while other times I'm so overwhelmed with emotions that I leave my brain and get trapped in brushstrokes. And then I listed a few artists that inspire me. My answers didn't suit him. He was stuck on my use of the word "doodle" and said "Well, you're not really an artist then" and ended our conversation.
I was crushed. I was still quite young and very, very new to the idea of the possibility that I could be an artist and I took his words as truth/fact. He was educated, after all. And he went to places that I've, still, only seen in pictures or had explained to me by family and a couple of friends. I was convinced that he was right and I was a fool. It wasn't until I got out and met artists that I realized he was wrong. Because he had the Sistine Chapel above his head for a period of time does not make him an expert on what makes artists tick. He was simply a sort of poseur hoping to use his travels to seem semi-interesting to a community that is not interested. He did not want to know why I do what I do and even now, years later, I highly doubt my slightly evolved answers would suit him. He made up his mind while learning about the celebrated masters....anything or anyone less than that would be insulting and worthless.
Hopefully now that I've spat a bit, I can get those words out of my head, grab a new sheet of paper, and start again!
-M
