The Nation: I once had this girlfriend who was an artist. We used to go to galleries and see shows together. Sometimes when she looked at a piece she would say, “Oh, that’s something I did in art school.” After a while it dawned on me that a lot of what she dismissed as student exercises—gambits she figured she’d outgrown—were things I liked. I started to think that she had inadvertently taught me, if not a definition of good art, then at least a kind of rule of thumb for identifying it in the field: if you make art in ways that other artists would have considered disposable exercises—Wittgensteinian ladders to be tossed aside once ascended—then you are getting somewhere with your art.
6 comments:
2) I love the concept of the ‘method-acting’ artist! I often find myself getting stuck within my own routine or habits of designing things. While these habits may work for me or come easily, that means I am leaving out the innumerable other ways to envision a space, approach a problem, or create a solution. Also, sometimes I find that we have so much work that I cannot devote time to stepping out of myself of every project, so I instead cling to the things that are familiar or similar to that I have created in the past. However, perhaps if I create a character it will be easier to get into their mind and find a new path of thinking.
We did the blind drawings the first day of drawing this past semester! As someone who wasn't very confident in drawing at that point, it boosted my confidence instead of being the ego-check discussed here in the article. I think it is cool how they point out that in contemporary art (and I think art in general) the artist is asked to distance their mind from their selves at times for reflection and critique while this is not common to other fields. I was reminded of times when some of my friends would say things like "how is that art" when they see a canvas painted white or 4:33. I believe in these cases the observer's reaction or reflection of their definition of art is the more important part than the process of creating the piece.
I think this would be a great article for anyone in our Basic Design class to read. This line in particular resonates with what I think one of the main intentions of our Basic Design class may be:
"the purpose of the contemporary art school is not so much to teach students how to make art as to show them how to be artists." Throughout the year, I know that some of us have at times felt frustrated with design projects. Sometimes, it can be hard to understand what the purpose of our projects are which can make working on them confusing and challenging. But going into this semester, I have been better able to understand that this class is not so much about practical techniques as it is about teaching us how to think in order to prepare us for learning to be designers.
This is a great article. Barry Schwabsky does a wonderful job of outlining the potential pitfalls of acquiring an academic degree in art while ultimately championing the process. In my nearly four years at CMU, I have had some truly amazing professors – and MFA grad students – who knew (and still know) how to ask the right questions to get me to challenge myself. Because of these experiences, I have begun to learn to continually ask myself what is the core of the ideas I am attempting to share/communicate? And what might be the most truthful – and therefore the most inherently satisfying – way to proceed? I do not yet have the answers, and perhaps I never will. But I am resolved to continue the journey. And I believe that more or less sums up Schwabsky’s point, “The problem isn’t with artists wanting to learn, but rather when they’re too convinced of what they know.”
I think this is a great article. Art is all about taking a risk and sometimes that risk leads to failure. I have gone down that road many times in the past and I'm sure I continue to go down that road in the future. What I think is important about failure is that you learn something from it so you can be better next time. Sometimes I feel like its hard to take artistic risk here at CMU because grades are such an end all be all of the program. At the same time though, this is a place where artistic risk is strongly encouraged as it should be. When I am working on my projects I do my best to try new ideas, materials, processes etc. etc. while still living in a realm of whats reasonable so I wont fail the project.
I think we as artists too often get bogged down in the idea that everything has to be the best and outdo the older work, especially in school. Everyone want to be the best and stand out for what they pride themselves on. I personally though, have learned the most from when ive tried to do something and it hasnt worked or its failed completely. To kind of reference edison- if im trying to complete a project with a technique i havent used before and it works the first time, i now know one way that it will work. But if it fails 7 times first, i now know 7 ways it wont work and 1 that it will, and thus i have learned more. Its important for us in school to keep this in mind.
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