Thoughtful work?

[Brock]

. . .For me it's as if the work already exists spiritually and has chosen me to make it physically. . .

Well, none of my work has ever existed until I made it, and it's taken years to become facile. Frankly, my motivator is mainly mammon, but that doesn't mean I don't take pride in my work.

Maybe I should be more in touch with my spiritual side . . . maybe.

I'll see your Maugham, and raise you a Conrad!

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary: men alone are quite capable of every wickedness - Joseph Conrad

[Judd]

Ooh, I love Conrad.

"We live as we dream - alone."

[Cynthia]

...again, why do people feel that they need a connection to the artist? art is personal to the person looking at it, and what it means to them. why should a buyer care what the artist felt when designing/making a piece? are they expected to feel the same emotions that the artist did? if art didn't say something to the buyer, they most probably wouldn't be buying it, and imho, they are shallow if they require a list of the artists feelings, or are needing the artist statement to validate their own feelings.

I look at the work first. If it tickles my fancy, then I read the statement. I don't have any need to be told what to think about the work, but do like knowing what the artist has to say about their work, and it can influence me to look at the work with different eyes than my own. If it gives me more information, grand, if it doesn't seem to fit for me, fine. I am not anticipating that I will feel the same emotions the artist had, only that I may become more informed about the the entire process from the artists view and her concept. I do desire at times to have an understanding and connection to the artist. It can enrich my experience of the work.

It's a bit like a great books course for me. I read the book, then I go to the class and learn that Heart of Darkness was intended to be about, blah, blah, blah, and makes allusions to blah, blah, blah,...I learn that my take and experience with the material can be broadened by seeing things in different ways by learning more about the references made and intentions that I wasn't previously aware of.

[jerry flanary]

The horror! The horror!

[Cynthia]

...How do you all title your work? Does the work always suggest the title (mine always come from the work), or do you work toward a preconceived title?

Catharine

For me the title comes last. For most of my work it's simple. The title makes direct reference to the feel of the work. The Whimsy's are about playing, so the titles are playful. Sometimes the words simply sound like the work looks to my way of thinking.

Hey Diddle; Snakes and Ladders; Squiggle and Chunk... I like the way things look and sound... A Bob hair cut is self-explanatory, and sometimes I just want to play with that onomatopoetic thing. I had a piece called Primordial Soup. A buyer made the connection with this piece even more firmly once they heard the title. Their take was their own. But the title seemed a fit and evoked even more of a connection for them once they heard it. Go figure.

[Brock]

Ooh, I love Conrad.

"We live as we dream - alone."

Remember, life is never as it seems, dream . . .

Harry Nilsson

[ellen abbott]

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary: men alone are quite capable of every wickedness - Joseph Conrad

My position exactly. I don't believe in Satan or any personification of 'evil'. Who needs Satan when we humans got it down. I think a lot of stuff we call evil is just stuff we just don't understand. Also like the quote about dreams except I'm never alone in my dreams. Maybe dreams are really reality. I may have to read this guy.

Here's part of my artist's statement...Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily; life is but a dream.

I actually use it.

Here's more food for thought. Humans are the only creature without a natural predator. Maybe that's why we prey on ourselves.

e

[ellen abbott]

For me the title comes last.

Me too.

e

[Brock]

. . .Here's more food for thought. Humans are the only creature without a natural predator. Maybe that's why we prey on ourselves. . .


I wonder if we were nicer to one another when there were sabretooth tigers and cave bears roaming the earth?

[Rob Cleve]

As a newbie to the field I often have friends stop by and see what I'm working on. Generally I have a couple of projects happening at the same time and the pieces I've completed are chaotically displayed around my space. Since I am currently working out my home, my friends often feel very "open" about saying what's on their minds.

I was completing a piece that was on my main work table that combined fused glass in a traditional stained glass piece. My friend looked at it for quite awhile, we chatted about other topics and he kept going back to the piece. He smiled and said, "I'm not sure what you were going for here....but it's not happening". We both laughed hysterically.
This lead to a very interesting conversation about the "meaning" of art. He is an architect by trade.

I realized two things from the conversation. The things that make us all individuals is that we all bring our history to the table and most likely will never "see" anything the same way, whether it's art, a tree or another person. But more importantly, that "other observation" can be tremendously valuable in helping to gain some insights into where we are "headed" with a piece. He didn't change my mind about how the piece was working and I completed it with the original intent ( he now loves it) but it helped me to gain a focus.

I hope that I will always be as open to challanges as I was to this one.

[Don Burt]

clip
I hope that I will always be as open to challanges as I was to this one.

Well put.

Most of my work is done pretty much in the grand tradition of the particular craft I work in, so its easy to relate-to, easy to understand, and easy to criticize. The value system is fairly clearly established for what I do, and I accept its constraint. Its either cool or it sucks, and most of my critics agree as to which. My main critic is merciless. She never minces a word. I'm lucky in that regard.

But the people that do stuff that is difficult to approach, that is for one reason or another a bit difficult to 'get', had best be open to challenges of value, to being totally ignored, and being totally misunderstood. If there's no value system established for what you make, you'd best be flexible, and it wouldn't hurt to have an artists statement, or liner notes for your CD if you're a musician, or inherit the fortune of your ex-Beatle husband if you're a performance artist, or better yet, get a real day job.

[Brock]

. . But the people that do stuff that is difficult to approach, that is for one reason or another a bit difficult to 'get', had best be open to challenges of value, to being totally ignored, and being totally misunderstood. If there's no value system established for what you make, you'd best be flexible, and it wouldn't hurt to have an artists statement, or liner notes for your CD if you're a musician, or inherit the fortune of your ex-Beatle husband if you're a performance artist, or better yet, get a real day job.

Or, in that time honoured tradition best exemplified by RISD and Pilchuck, be a trustafarian. Brock

[Rob Cleve]

I'll bite...trustafarian?
=)
Rob

[Brock]

I'll bite...trustafarian?
=)
Rob

Rich white kids with dreadlocks. Glass world is full of them. Brock

[LesleyNolan]

I haven't been on the board for a while. I have been busy in my studio making stuff for a few openings....WOW what a conversation. You guys have really been from one point to another...Is Craft Art?, What is Art? Who Cares?... well you know what you have been saying.

However, to answer Catherine's initial question... for me I think I just like to make things. I love the whole aspect of creation. It could be a piece of clothing, a quilt, a great meal, or glass. When I finish one piece I am excited to start the next one. I rarely get "attached" to the piece because it is not the final product that intrigues but the process. Although I do get that 10 minutes of "wow, look at that...isn't it great" Too often I might look at it closer and begin to notice the flaws... And thats what also moves me to try again.

I love color and pattern and that is what intrigues me about glass... the spectrum for those two things is unending. The techniques that I have learned are sort of like expanding my vocabulary. I have been able to speak for a long time but I keep adding to my vocabulary which hopefully will allow me to be more concise. Or maybe technique is more like the cadence, drumbeat, or the rythm of a poem. Alone it can be beautiful but when added to meaning it is extraordinary.

I am still working on the extraordinary. Meaning may capture me at the end of the creation. I have ideas, fleeting concepts, but rarely concrete ideas of meaning when I sit down to work. Usually I just say....I want to play with greens today.... I often use torsos as the canvas of my "every crayon in the box" mentality or just a simple rectangle.

I think I am still waiting for it all to jell. Heck it may never...but I am having a good time and that is one of the comments I get when people look at my work...so that's something.

thanks for letting me have my say.
Lesley

[Lynne Chappell]

again, why do people feel that they need a connection to the artist? art is personal to the person looking at it, and what it means to them. why should a buyer care what the artist felt when designing/making a piece? are they expected to feel the same emotions that the artist did? if art didn't say something to the buyer, they most probably wouldn't be buying it, and imho, they are shallow if they require a list of the artists feelings, or are needing the artist statement to validate their own feelings.[/quote]

I know everyone is probably finished with this thread, but I've been too busy for regular visits. I don't find it strange that buyers want to connect with the artist. It bothers me that I don't know who bought my babies. Are they being properly fed and watered? Or - gasp! - passed along to others! I've become a little used to the idea now, but I like to think that the buyers have given some thought to who made this, and possibly why. Not that I could explain why, but I don't object to some kind of statement that identifies me as the maker of the "art". I am a person after all, and the object is a personal statement. The buyer is paying for a piece of art, not a manufactured item and deserves to know a little about the artist.

I think I would fail miserably at the kind of self-examination Catherine is asking for. I do what I do because it's exciting. If I'm not anxious to look in the kiln the next morning, then maybe I shouldn't have bothered. However, the motivation is very blurry, and I'm positive there isn't any "message". Each work just naturally leads to the next. I used to paint in oils, and the very best thing about this was that I didn't know ahead of time what the painting would look like (well of course I knew what the subject was, just not what it would turn into). It just took on its own life on the canvas. Warmglass needs a little more planning, but it can still be quite spontaneous.

I don't like to come up with the verbal stuff for the galleries, and I don't like to analyze my work. But if anyone asks me in person about a piece, I can gab for half an hour.

[Tony Smith]

Lynne,

I think Brock made the point earlier when he said:

again, why do people feel that they need a connection to the artist? art is personal to the person looking at it, and what it means to them. why should a buyer care what the artist felt when designing/making a piece? are they expected to feel the same emotions that the artist did? if art didn't say something to the buyer, they most probably wouldn't be buying it, and imho, they are shallow if they require a list of the artists feelings, or are needing the artist statement to validate their own feelings.

I don't know why they do Charlie, but they do. Many times at openings or auctions, successful bidders have come up to me to be introduced. Maybe they want to own a little bit of you, as well as your piece. Brock

You aren't going to change the behaviour of your audience or buyers, and you shouldn't want to. If people think that spending $750 earns them the right to shake your hand, or conversely, if shaking your hand or knowing more about you, the artist, makes them want to spend $750, why wouldn't you do it?

Tony

[Gale aka artistefem]

"Creativity is a drug I cannot live without."
Cecil B. DeMille (1881 - 1959)

[ellen abbott]

When someone takes the time to send me a note of admiration for my work, I always respond. There have been several times when I have been interested in an artist's work to the point of considering buying a piece and sent a note expressing my admiration. If they can't be bothered to reply with a simple 'thank you', I lose my interest.
e

[Don Burt]

clip If they can't be bothered to reply with a simple 'thank you', I lose my interest.
e

I find that really thought-provoking. You have a situation where art patron 'demands' (I don't mean that in a negative sense) personal interaction and some sort of transactional acceptance/gratitude in the artistic experiece. I'm trying to visualize parallel situations. I've heard of situations the other way around, where for instance an artist won't sell you his work unless you're cool, or not a member of the royal family or something.