About a month ago I received
a totally unexpected invitation to an art group on facebook. I was surprised and pleased with the
invitation.
About a week ago one of
the members submitted a video on John Baldessari, an artist with whom I was
marginally familiar. In one brief
segment of the video he is seen (or someone’s hand is seen) writing repeatedly
– like a schoolboy doing a disciplinary task – I will not make boring art. Over and over again – I will not make
boring art. That phrase reached in
and grabbed hold of me, firmly, and would not let go.
As a self-taught artist
with limited skills my self- confidence always teeters on the brink, and
Baldessari’s admonition to himself nearly pushed me over. Coming at a time when I was seriously
questioning my work, all I could think about was the question, is my art
boring? Have I fallen into a
comfortable and familiar place, where there is little impetus to push the
boundaries of my work? Are my
paintings old and tired?
After several days of
wrestling with this self-doubt I found the answers to be quite simple…yes, and
no. Yes, some of my work is tired
and boring, but no, some of it is inspired and interesting. Sometimes I push the boundaries and
sometimes I fall back into my comfort zone. I don’t think it is possible to work any other way, and the
critical point is to recognize when the work is boring, and when it is not. The goal, of course, is to spend more
time in the not boring mode.
I am in the process of
creating a series of paintings for an exhibition later this year and this
recent “encounter” has suddenly infused the task with some excitement and
anticipation…the work will definitely not be boring.
Autumn trees...acrylic...12x48
What is boring art? I’ll try to give my answer to that
question in my next post.
2 comments:
DON'T STOP CREATING ART! I love your work Bill and I know a lot of other people do as well. I will own one of your pieces some day.
Sue
Thanks Sue.
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