What Does It Take?
March 28, 2008
This is preying on my mind. What makes great art? Whether painting, drawing, sculpting, writing, film-making. Or whatever other form it is. Does it take a singularity of focus? Whereby one abandons all other things in the world around them to make the art one feels compelled to make? What compels one to abandon all to focus on the creation of what one sees. Or feels.
I fear, for all my love for the thought of it, I will never be that person. I am too concerned with the day-to-day–with making money to pay the bills, with having food on the table. What might I make that might stand the test of time? Still, I appreciate it. I see it delivered in fabulous ways on nearly a daily basis.
I suppose, there must be room for the appreciator. Without us, where would the artist be? Without us, wouldn’t the great works be? Lost, forgotten. Perhaps we are the keepers of the archive. The “critics” we are, serve to hold these works in a place of protection.
I’ve scarce started to talk about this. All y’all! Some of you are true artists, some of you are appreciators. Help me figure it out. OK?
March 31, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Rick, your questions here helped to clarify something for me. I think it’s important to note that the very best creators and appreciators share the ability to keenly select what is and is not art. This word, not that. This color, not that. This frame, not that. I believe it all comes from the same place; some (the appreciators) simply enjoy the discovery of selecting from what is already there, and others (the creators) wish to select from the broader world to make something new.
I have no idea whether this will make sense to anyone but me–I hope it does. Thank you, dear Rick, for helping me to see this.
April 1, 2008 at 12:38 am
Thank you dear Cindy. What you brought to me is a realization of how closely tied all these existences are. Perhaps there are three sides to the single coin?
There is something in the artist that draws from the worlds of appreciator and practitioner that leads her to draw from it all and from experience to create something wholly new. Whether the medium is paint, word, fiber, music. (Any other media, including maybe dead things included, yes?)
What I love in art, when I see it, as appreciator, is the sensation that the abyss of the universe is opening at my feet. At end, I’ve seen something I never would have seen had it not been for that instant of engagement with that particular artist.
When I am in the role of creator, it is my desire to open the abyss of this universe to others. (Not so many folks are comfortable having the abyss opened before them.) Have I done it? I have my doubts. Still, I have to try. Yes?
April 22, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Gosh, that Cindy Scroggins is something else.