I’d like to start my blog with an intended post that I wrote back in October.
I recently stumbled across a short video interview by the artist Richard Serra. In it he answers the question ‘Why make art?’- or at least gives reasons as to why he chooses to. The question itself seems almost trivial- the obvious answer being, why not?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWoiAf_qMA4
Why not indeed, art is after all a luxury not a necessity. I assume that most artists make art, or at least started making art, through their want to express something. In short they produce art because they want to. That’s not to say I don’t want to or don’t enjoy producing art. When I am in the studio and a painting is going well, a few hours can feel like fifteen minutes. I’ll sit there and paint, listening to whatever album or audiobook I am listening to at the time, and let my subconscious take over. Painting, for me, is the perfect balance between difficulty and ease. It’s challenging enough to keep my mind engaged but not difficult enough that I struggle to complete it or feel disheartened by the outcome.
The thing I struggle with most is to find a topic to base my art upon. Without wanting to psychoanalyse myself, especially not in a public blog, I cannot help but see parallels between my life and my art. In my life I have lots of hobbies or ‘mini obsessions’ as I see them. I flutter from one thing to another almost knowing that in a few months time I’ll have something new to keep me occupied. For example music production (dub-reggae in case you were wondering) is my latest craze; others being online poker, running, popular science books, autobiographies and various instruments. I have a few ides why this is the case, although I won’t get into that here- I’m already rambling.
My point is, that over the years, my art has contained all sorts of ideas and references to various things. However, none of them particularly describe me- at least not entirely. Richard Serra talks about studying his own “sentiments and experiences” and dealing with problems that were of interest to him when making art. I intend to do this except I have no ‘problems’ so to speak. My life is exceptionally unexceptional in most areas and as far as ‘experiences’ are concerned, they are also limited. As far as environmental, economical, political and social issues go, I would at best describe my self as uninterested. Not in a sociopathic way, just in the sense that if I was to go down that route when producing art, the resulting art would be a lie. I have a mostly nihilistic outlook on life and consequently producing art based around any ‘belief’ is also out.
I do however have a few certainties when it comes to my art, these are:
· Medium: Paint
· Paint on canvas no smaller than a metre on one side.
That’s it, I have two criteria to base my art upon. Good start I think.
