Art and Science: Common Threads
January 31, 2008
NPR on the collisions of art and science
Tucked into the third minute of this story is possibly the best
description of art’s purpose that I’ve ever heard:
…art is a way of taking people in between moments, in between
questions, in between answers, so they can intuit the movement of
imagination.
Also, the Morbid Anatomy blog points to a new article in Seed Magazine stressing the need for artists and scientists to work together:
If we want answers to our most essential questions, then we will need to bridge our cultural divide. By heeding the wisdom of the arts, science can gain the kinds of new insights and perspectives that are the seeds of scientific progress.
Both of these stories hint at the central discrepancy we perceive between art and science: Science requires answers, art doesn’t. I think the more we examine the so-called differences between these two types of thought, the more we will discover they are both in turn intuitive and empirical.
Scarlet Letters’ Art-Making Advice
January 30, 2008
This, another good list of creative process tips (I seem to be on a kick lately), could be boiled down to one crucial point:
Do the work. Do the work. Do the work.
I have to remind myself of this quite often.
New Art Term: Pop Baroque
January 29, 2008
I believe I identify more with the label “Pop Baroque” than I do with its predecessor “Pop Surrealism.” And this one fits me much better than “Lowbrow.” (It’s cute! It’s creepy! It’s kitschy! It’s naughty! It’s cute! Bloody bunnies, bloody bunnies! Yeah, I think I’m over it.)
Kirsten Anderson, owner of Roq La Rue Gallery, discusses this new term at her blog, Right Some Good.
Chuck Close Gets It Done
January 14, 2008
Brian Oberkirch over at the 43 Folders blog has a great post about Chuck Close and the process of making art. He nails something that I often find myself explaining to people who are are unfamiliar with the creative process: it’s not about insipration; it’s work. (Someone else phrased that better: one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.)
Close devised a working process to circumvent his personal limitations (some of which sound a lot like mine). In an interview with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, Close says,
I’m a nervous wreck. I’m a slob. I have no patience. And I’m rather lazy. All those things would seem to guarantee that I would not make work like I make. But I didn’t want to just go with my nature.
In addition to its visual qualities, the grid format allows Close to easily delineate his daily workload. The result is a streamlined working process:
There are no good days or bad days. Every day essentially builds positively on what I did the day before.
My biggest mental block is the giant question of “What do I do?” I don’t have trouble completing tasks, I have trouble deciding which task to complete. One thing that helps is before leaving the studio at night, I set the next day’s work out on the table, sometimes with a to-do checklist. When I know what direction I’m headed in, starting down the path is easy.