I shared a number of my recent drawings with some friends and it was a nice reminder to keep how and when I share what I do a wide circle. For me at least, I do better at being kind to myself and making more things that feel good to me when I share aspects of that making and the feelings that come with it.
One artist friend asked…
“Are you just going with the flow when you work on these? Letting your hands make the decisions instead of your brain, like a creative game of Ouija board?”
To which I replied…
“Very much so. It’s just reacting to what’s on the page to start and then I just follow myself as I make marks and add collaged elements. I’m not a planner when it comes to making art. I prefer intuitive flows for sure.”
It’s not something new that I haven’t said about how I make art before. But it reminded me that I enjoy the whys and hows of other people’s making and that revealing myself is often the way to find out more about others.
The art shown here is all made within the last few months and is part of my on-going Red Book project. The Red Book is a 1976 Olympics commemorative book that I am drawing in. I like the active surface of each page as something to react to.
I am not as interested in the literal process of “how” something is made that could be demonstrated in a tutorial of materials and techniques. Those can sometimes be informative and revealing, but I am more fascinated by the creative methods and approaches artists take. I want to know about the rhythms and personal systems that bring people to their easels and tables, move them through spaces with a camera, or place their hands on instruments to find their sounds.
I find in my work that tools and materials play roles but aren’t what gets me engaged. I need them in my hands to translate what’s in my head and heart onto the current surface but they are just a means to an end. They aren’t arbitrary since I choose media and tools based on properties I want but it’s still more about what happens during a drawing than what any of the component parts are.
So when it comes to other people’s work, I want to know the same sort of things.
Questions like…
- What’s their relationship like with tools? Are they careful and specific or do they choose to make marks with whatever is close at hand?
- Do they want a type of control over colour that means they frequently mix pigments or do they work straight from the tube?
- Do they finish work in single sittings or do they come and go possibly over a long period of time?
- Do they work on multiple pieces at the same time?
- What are the processes that circle or connect to the process of making? Do they write to paint? Do they walk to sculpt?
- Are there meta-creative structures or organization that allow people to get into a flow faster or deeper? The practice of keeping a maintained mise en place (a culinary term for “putting in place” or gathering tools and ingredients) can be crucial to some people and without it they feel adrift.
Beyond the how, why people create is even more compelling. It’s also something that is harder for most people to place or articulate. They may simply say that creation is just a necessity, that they need to make to feel whole or sane or grounded.
For myself, those are all true and more. When I make there are a variety of connective and contradictory reasons why.
- Physical presence in my body and an awareness of the motions I make as I make marks.
- Physical disconnection from undue control I might be exerting over my body. Loosening and releasing.
- Taking something mental that feels “stuck” and translating that into the action of drawing.
- Communication of thoughts and feelings.
- Connection with something inside myself.
- Connection with something/one outside myself.
- Transmute a hard or dark emotion into a safe and creative action.
Some artists wonder about their “purpose” or the meaning of what they make. I have found that while those questions aren’t without merit, they are also traps that for me lead to shut down.
The broader scope of how and why I make things is an active set of questions that interconnect and are less likely to have me turn on myself.
Art can have purpose and meaning but both of those primarily happen after something has been made. And the shape the purpose and meaning are mostly in other people’s hands.
My friend asked…
“Are you generally happy with how most turn out or are there some clear winners and losers?”
I said…
“It’s a mixed bag. I definitely don’t love them all but I love that I made them. My primary goal is making with a secondary goal of enjoying myself. And then I like to share them even when I don’t like them since they might mean or feel something to somebody else. Trying not to engage in preciousness and self doubt.”
Because this friend showed this kind of interest in my process, I also shared a link with them to one of the real time drawing videos I have posted to YouTube. It’s 52 minutes of me making one of the Red Book drawings start to finish. No edits or commentary. Just me making marks and choices.
Describe the Shape of a Heart – Complete drawing process
I don’t post these videos often even though I shoot video of myself drawing most of the time for my own purposes. Most people’s appetite for watching art be made in real time is limited but I love it whenever I find someone just doing their thing and allowing an over the shoulder casual view.
Harry Stooshinoff’s videos are great in this way.
Reach out if you want to share some aspect of your creative process. I am curious to hear other people’s Hows and Whys of making.