Moved to TypePad

New Year, new place. All my old stuff will be here, but new work will be at the new joint.

Living in My Left Brain

Lately I've neglected my art because of a need to work on other projects that are more left-brained. This is making me a more boring person, I'm afraid, as I have difficulty switching off my left brain and accessing the passion and heart that resides on the right side of my head.

Last night I forced myself to let go of words and to operate in the visual arena. It felt good.

Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

For those who may be wondering if I've given up the creative ghost, the answer is no. Although my creativity is currently being channeled here and here. I felt badly about this for awhile, and then I read Barbara Lobenstine's The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with too Many Passions to Pick Just One and I decided to accept that 1) I am a "Renaissance Soul," 2) in certain circles this is admired and 3) creativity can be expressed in a variety of ways.

Let me know what you think of my newest passion. Positive reinforcement and insults equally welcome. Alright, I lie. Mostly I want the postive reinforcement.

In Lieu of Anything Original

Indexed. Quite amusing--sort of a "3rd grade teacher meets Jon Stewart" sensibility. I find that I have to think, too, which is always a plus. Except when I'm brain-dead as I am now for some unknown reason.

Via Dooce who gets to make a living looking at and linking to this stuff. My dream job.

5 a.m. This Morning

Darvin: "Nice hair."

Me: "What's the matter with it?"

Darvin: "Nothing. You just have an anime sort of thing going on."

Me: "Thanks."

What Kind of Genius Are You?

Most of the time, I don't have a plan when I draw. Well, I have a plan in that I'm trying to draw something, but beyond that I find that it sort of evolves, often into something completely unrelated to the original. Here, I started out trying to draw a beautiful woman. Somehow it evolved into something androgynous and unrecognizable in comparison to the photo that was my inspiration.

It made me think about this article that I read in Wired Magazine about the nature of artistic genius. Economist David Galenson did a study of artists and discovered that there were two basic types--those who created their most valuable work in their youth and those that seemed to experience a steady rise in their creativity that peaked toward the end of their lives. Further exploration revealed to him that there are essentially two kinds of innovation and genius.

The first is what he calls conceptual innovation. These are the people who have a picture in their minds of what they want to create and in a series of bold, sharp moves they create it. Picasso is an example of this type--someone who created an entirely new style of art (Cubism) and who "jolted art in a new direction."

The second group are the experimental innovators. These people progress in fits and starts, trying new things, discarding them, moving in a slower progression with insights from one small experiment getting incorporated into the next in an evolutionary process that ultimately can end up someplace entirely different from where they began. Galenson places Cezanne in this second group--working endlessly to perfect his technique, he moved slowly toward a goal that he never fully understood. As a result, some of his best work didn't come until the end of his life.

Galenson argues that this insight isn't confined to art, that it is, in fact, a way of looking at all sorts of creativity and innovation. He applied it in his own field of study--economics--and discovered that it held true for them, too.

Reading this created one of those "aha" moments for me. In all facets of my life I find that I'm more experimental than conceptual. I tinker and play around with things, never totally sure where I'm going, but knowing when I get there. I find that I'm often jealous, though, of those who are more conceptual, particularly when it comes to creating art. Somehow it seems to me that the essence of being an artist is knowing where you're going. Intellectually I know this isn't true, but emotionally, I have a hard time letting go of that proposition.

I think that part of my discomfort with the more experimental approach is the feeling that I get that our society values conceptual innovation more. We're drawn to early genius and to the idea of having a clear, knowable path. Somehow there's a kind of comfort in believing that people know where their going and what they're doing and the idea of evolution of ideas is disconcerting--what if they end up some place that we don't like?

I find, though, that lately I'm getting more comfortable with this more experimental way of living. I'm trying to actually be thoughtful in my experimentation, to know and accept that it's my own way of getting through life. I'm working on accepting that and being OK with uncertainty. It also means having to let go of perfectionism and embracing risk, but hey, at almost 43 years old, isn't it time that I did those things anyway?

Amour

Illustration Friday--Safe

Sometimes safety is overrated.

art is short

Friday night we went to see Art after 5. We drank over-priced appletinis and ate over-priced food while we watched Art in Motion. Yesterday I thought about how in the digital age, art is more available to everyone through the Internet. We can use all kinds of easily accessible tools to create digital art. But is this a good thing?

While we were at the Museum, we looked at some paintings, too. We could see the brushwork of the artists and I thought about how at some time, each artist had poured his sweat--literally--into his work. How there were real physical pieces of the artist in each painting. And do we lose something in this digital age when art can be created entirely in bits and bytes? I love to alter my drawings in my paint program, but is this creating something that's more removed from me? And then when I scan it, is it even more distant? I don't know the answer, but it's an interesting question for me.