Thanks for the post Ana. Your comment about struggling to call yourself an artist really resonated with me for pretty much the same reasons.
I was out drawing one day recently when a passerby stopped to look at my work and chat. I said something like, 'Yeah, but I'm not an artist.' He said, 'Yes you are. Look.' As someone who has trained as, and calls themselves, an 'academic' also calling myself an 'artist' still sits uncomfortably with me, but not as much as it did.
That's exactly it, we need to appreciate that being an artist means a way of seeing the world and expressing ourselves creatively - regardless of whether or not that is what we do as 'a job'.
I keep working on it!! Thanks for sharing your personal experience, Chris! 💛
Thanks for these notes and reminders of Art & Fear, Ana! That book helped launch me into my daily artmaking in 2018, specifically the anecdote about making 50 pounds of pottery versus making one perfect piece, and how quantity (and the experimentation and trial and error that come with it) leads to quality.
That metaphor of the creative process is so powerful, so true. Quality comes after quantity and practice. It also got me thinking a lot... the way we learn and we are generally expected right answers without going through a process of experimentation and discovery.
Right, and not just quantity/practice, but the experimentation, the freedom to try and fail and find one's artistic voice. I haven't read other books by them!
I really enjoyed this post, Ana, and the thinking behind it. Will try and order the Fear book down here in Wellington. Thanks!
Thanks, Anne!! It's such a great little book!
Thanks for the post Ana. Your comment about struggling to call yourself an artist really resonated with me for pretty much the same reasons.
I was out drawing one day recently when a passerby stopped to look at my work and chat. I said something like, 'Yeah, but I'm not an artist.' He said, 'Yes you are. Look.' As someone who has trained as, and calls themselves, an 'academic' also calling myself an 'artist' still sits uncomfortably with me, but not as much as it did.
That's exactly it, we need to appreciate that being an artist means a way of seeing the world and expressing ourselves creatively - regardless of whether or not that is what we do as 'a job'.
I keep working on it!! Thanks for sharing your personal experience, Chris! 💛
Thanks for these notes and reminders of Art & Fear, Ana! That book helped launch me into my daily artmaking in 2018, specifically the anecdote about making 50 pounds of pottery versus making one perfect piece, and how quantity (and the experimentation and trial and error that come with it) leads to quality.
Thanks, Kelcey! ❤️ It’s such a great book!
That metaphor of the creative process is so powerful, so true. Quality comes after quantity and practice. It also got me thinking a lot... the way we learn and we are generally expected right answers without going through a process of experimentation and discovery.
Have you read anything else by the same authors?
Right, and not just quantity/practice, but the experimentation, the freedom to try and fail and find one's artistic voice. I haven't read other books by them!
100%!!!