Writer’s Brush

Posted on January 17, 2012 by dylan

Since I was small, I have wanted to paint. But I waited until I was thirty before I actually took up a brush. Why? The simple answer is fear. There are many visual artists in my family. I was afraid I would never measure up to their standards. It was safer not to try.

I write because I have to. I’ve been writing poems and stories for as long as I can remember. Writing has much to do with how I functioned in the world, connect with friends and family, make choices, and make a living.

Being a visual artist is still important to me, so I continue my drawing and painting practices. I also play music. I recently started taking drum lessons. I’m not proficient as a painter or a drummer, and I may never be. I still believe filling your life with many different types of creative processes has merits.

And I’m not alone.

Finding the book, Writer’s Brush a few years ago was a turning point in my thinking about incorporating multiple arts into my life. It continues to bolster my confidence in making visual art especially. Editor, Donald Friedman presents a catalog of visual art by famous writers—Mark Twain, Maxine Hong Kingston, Flannery O’Connor, Sylvia Plath, E. E. Cummings, Derek Walcott—and often includes excerpts of commentary by them about their drawings and paintings.

E. E. Cummings reminds readers that every authentic “work of art is in and of itself alive and that however the arts may differ among themselves, their common function is the expression of that supreme alive-ness which is known as beauty.”

In an excerpt from “The Nature and Aim of Fiction,” an essay published in 1957 and reprinted in Friedman’s book, Flannery O’Connor writes that her main task as a writer is to make the reader see, and she recommends the visual arts to other writers. “Any discipline can help your writing: logic, mathematics, theology, and of course and particularly drawing. Anything that helps you to see, anything that makes you look. The writer should never be ashamed of staring…I know a good many fiction writers who paint, not because they’re any good at painting, but because it helps their writing. It forces them to look at things.”

The last part of O’Connor’s quote—the part about the writers she knows not being any good at painting—has shored up my resolve to keep drawing and painting even when the images I make look like hell, which is most of the time. If I’m too tired and frustrated to aim for Cumming’s spiritually elevated “supreme alive-ness” I can still tell myself I’m reaching for something a bit more useful: painting is good for my writing.

Speaking on the same wavelength, Friedman quotes Derek Walcott who describes his own unsentimental approach to visual art-making: “No seasoned artist ever expects trumpets and a visionary light saying, ‘Go now to the studio.’ You just get up and you do your work as if you are a mason and a carpenter…you get an immense kick out of painting for ten minutes, and then you realize it’s hard.” Writes the editor, Friedman: “Artistry is not a matter of inspiration for Walcott, but of craftsmanship.” It’s that way for me too. Just doing the work is my primary mode of operation, if I have one.

One final note: It helps to have a purpose in making art, especially when creativity seems in short supply. For me that purpose has been community. Art brings us together in unique and important ways. It helps us communicate, honor one another’s experiences, and move forward together peacefully. Making art–no matter what it looks like–brings you into the conversation. Your voice matters.

Chuck Close: Art and Human Relationships

Posted on January 2, 2012 by dylan

Art making is often a solitary business. In fact, many choose to become artists precisely because they enjoy working alone. That is true for painter Chuck Close. In a 2007 television interview with Charlie Rose, Close described the working methods that have allowed him to continue to paint with minimal assistance from others after a spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him paralyzed from the neck down. After a brief period when he thought he would never paint again, physical therapy helped Close regain the use of his arms and hands, but he no longer enjoyed the same freedom of mobility. Close is known internationally for his enormous, nine-foot portraits of human faces—often of personal friends—on canvas. Prior to becoming paralyzed the artist painted with the help of a forklift truck. As a result of his impairment, however, he needed a new working method. Maintaining Independence and solitude were primary goals. “You become an artist because you wanted to be in a room by yourself,” he says. “And all of sudden you’re handicapped and you need help. Well, you want to make it as much like it used to be as you can…” Close’s solution has been to work in a two-story studio where he can move his paintings vertically through a hole in the floor.

Though Close enjoys the seclusion of the art-making process and tries to work unassisted as much as possible, his paintings express the personal connections he shares with other human beings. Close was born with Prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces. He has said that the disorder is part of what motivates him to paint enormous portraits of friends and family members’ faces. Through his paintings he hopes to etch the details of people’s faces onto his memory so that when he meets with them again “face-to-face,” he will know them more deeply.

Close’s work reminds us that regardless of how it gets made, all art is done in the context of the community in which it is made. Art—whether it is painting, music, poetry, or dance—speaks through self-expression and shared transcendence. It is a byproduct of human relationship.

Art & Fear and Perfectionism

Posted on December 23, 2011 by dylan

I recently thumbed through my copy of the book, Art and Fear again. Authors David Bayles and Ted Orland offer artists one of the best recourses I’ve found for advice on continuing a healthy art practice.

In one of the books most famous sections (noted by bloggers like Jason Kottke) the authors share this parable on perfection:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay (29).

It’s pointless to strive for perfection since humans, by nature, are imperfect. Why should we expect something different from our art? In fact, imperfection is an important ingredient in art. “Ansel Adams, never one to mistake precision for perfection, often recalled the old adage that “the perfect is the enemy of the good…’”

It is also fruitless for us to force ourselves to understand our art practice outside of the actual work itself. You come to make what you make by making it. Well, you might say, I haven’t any talent. Hogwash. “Talent is a snare and a delusion. In the end, the practical questions about talent come down to these: Who cares? Who would know? and What difference would it make? And the practical answers are: Nobody, Nobody, and None.”

We sometimes put a lot of unnecessary pressure on ourselves to fit a mold, any kind of mold. But art is too complex, too big and too rich to be labeled or constrained.

Bayles and Orland are not saying we ought to take our artmaking or the ideas behind it lightly. On the contrary. As we work, we should keep asking ourselves why our art matters. “In making art you declare what is important (108).”

Question yourself about your art practice, locate in it what is most important to you—careful always that the questioning comes through the making.

Creative activity of the Month: Daily Journal Entry

Posted on December 19, 2011 by dylan

This month’s creative activity is featured in my forthcoming e-book, 31 Days to a More Creative You: Keep Your Day Job, Banish Perfectionism & Play More. It is Day 1.

Each day this week, spend 5 minutes writing in your journal. If you don’t own a journal, any simple notebook will do.

Fill two pages of your journal with stream of consciousness writing. Give yourself absolute freedom to write about anything and everything, even if you think it has nothing to do with a particular topic. Just keep writing.

Try starting with an image (a storm cloud, a bushy-tailed cat), a quote or line from a poem (see below for links to poems) and let the words flow without stopping them.

Practical writing is fine, of course. Even your (late) Christmas shopping list counts as writing, but only if it arises naturally. You may also find yourself writing useful material for work or school projects. Wonderful! Just keep writing.

When your fifteen minutes of free-writing are up, and only then, feel free to go back and collect chunks of useful text. Plop them into your work report, term paper or new novel. But remember, the point of your journals is “play,” not “work.” If what you write seems like gibberish, don’t be dismayed. Just keep writing.

When I lead writing workshops, I try to emulate one of my most important teachers, Pat Schneider. Pat founded Amherst Writer’s and Artists (AWA) and developed a method for writing that she fully describes in her book, Writing Alone and With Others. Pat says, “Every person is a writer, and every writer deserves a safe environment in which to experiment, learn, and develop craft.”

I was a member of Pat’s writing workshop for several years. She often encouraged us to respond to prompts through free-writing as a way to break through creative blocks.

Author Julia Cameron also uses free-writing in her book, The Artist’s Way. She encourages readers to write daily “morning pages” to reconnect to their creative selves.

Painter’s Painting

Posted on December 16, 2011 by dylan

Made in 1972 by Emile de Antonio, Painters Painting features interviews with many of the important post-World War II abstract expressionist painters: Willem de Kooning, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Andy Warhol, and Helen Frankenthaler.

An opening monolog describes these painters as the originators of truly American painting because they sought to break away from European examples, from representational forms, and from later movements such as impressionism and cubism. Their work was entirely new. It was bigger and used an entirely different visual language.

Clement Greenberg says abstract expressionists looked to Duchamp who had created the avant-garde. An artist, in Duchamp’s view, could use shock and surprise to move viewers instead of making “good” art.

Describing his process, de Kooning says that he rides his bike around New York City, open to inspiration. He is influenced by water. He uses giant brushes with handles the size of baseball bats, soaking them in hot water for long periods of time so that they create swoosh marks on the canvas.

Rauschenberg says the only thing he got from the expressionists was that “they let their brush strokes show.” He never identified with the abstract expressionists pessimism. You have to have a lot of time to feel sorry for yourself in order to be a good abstract expressionist, he says. “I thought that was a waste.”

Helen Frankenthaler, one of my personal favorites, created what came to be known as “stained” canvases. Frankenthaler says she was influenced by the cubists, by their notion of using space to make relationships. A guitar in the center of a picture might relate to a g-clef in the lower left corner, for example.

In her paintings, Frankenthaler tries to build relationships between colors and forms and the canvas itself. A painting succeeds when it appears as if it was made with one stroke. She does not use drips or brush strokes in her work.

She started working in large scale on the floor after a trip to Nova Scotia when she made many watercolor paintings from nature. Her attitude after returning to her studio, she says, was “let ‘er rip.”

Frankenthaler says her paintings refer to reality and nature, but guide the viewer towards a less conspicuous perspective. In still-life painting, for example, one might see apples on a table covered by a cloth. While the apples are the subject of these traditional paintings, Frankenthaler says that the table and the position of the cloth ought to be just as important. It is as if Frankenthaler has taken a magnifying glass to the world.

New Murals Support The Work Of Speech Pathologists

Posted on November 15, 2011 by dylan

(Artist, Philip Cozma and his mural)

Standing near one of two colorful new murals at the Jacksonville Speech and Hearing Center, Director Bill McQuilkin, Jr. Points down an adjacent hallway: “The children go right down [there],” he says. “They’re always seeing both of them.”

Installing the murals at the Center was McQuilkin’s idea. He says he wanted to incorporate images from nature into the building’s interior design, to “bring the outside in.” He also wanted the imagery to be “child-centric.” He hoped the murals would appeal to children aged one to five who are the Center’s primary focus.

Matisyahu talks inspiration

Posted on August 1, 2011 by dylan

Matisyahu’s genre-blending music has garnered a steady following since he began touring in 2004. His unique sound defies categorization, combining Jewish-themed reggae, rap, punk rock, and hip-hop. He performs locally at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall on August 23, 2011 at 7:30 pm, accompanied by the band, Dub Trio, whose style also crosses musical boundaries by mixing dub effects with rock, punk, heavy metal, and electronic. Recently, Matisyahu took time out from a busy touring schedule to talk about what inspires him…

The Lure of the Logo: Local Designers Weigh in on Using This Simple But Effective Marketing Tool

Posted on January 11, 2011 by dylan

January 11, 2011

Last September, Players by the Sea Community Theatre launched a new logo that executive director Joe Schwarz says brought energy, life and professionalism to the organization’s marketing efforts. The apostrophe-like icon, which also calls to mind classic drama masks, now appears on the theater’s advertisements, playbills, posters- even its building’s façade. It provides a consistent message reflecting the inventive, cutting-edge performances that continue to entertain and educate theatergoers on the First Coast.

Logos, though often quite simple in design, play a significant role in delivering an organization’s unique message. They are a prominent part of the modern landscape, found on everything from clothing to billboards, computers to buildings. According to local art directors and designers, logos are a crucial element to a successful marketing plan and deserve careful consideration.

Barrels of Hope: Building Shelter for Haiti

Posted on October 10, 2010 by dylan

During the September 1, 2010 Green Drinks meeting in Gainesville, Mike Amish of Indigo Green Building Solutions, the U.S. Green Building Council and Jacob Cravey of Earthbuilders described their project—Barrels of Hope —and offered community members an opportunity to help them build shelters for earthquake victims in Haiti using inexpensive earthbag construction.

The Barrels of Hope initiative started last March, after Amish and several colleagues heard a presentation about earthbag building by Jeff Bousquet, who has been certified through the Cal Earth Institute.

The group traveled to Kenscoff, Haiti, last July and constructed their first earthbag house. Included among them were members of Indigo, The Sustainable Design Group, and The United States Green Building Chapter’s local chapter, Heart of Florida.

Amish hopes the structures he builds will last 50 years or more and become part of the local culture. The 100 square foot houses are expected to fill both a temporary need for shelter and provide a permanent housing solution. “We would hope that they would use it to build on to,” he said.

Unfettered: New Work by Artist and Gallery Owner Eileen Corse

Posted on October 1, 2010 by dylan

Cover: Art & Healing Issue

Oct/November 2010

Eileen Corse, artist and owner of Corse Gallery & Atelier, unveiled a collection of her new paintings in September. The show, titled Unfettered, comes just months after Corse celebrated her business’s second anniversary in March, 2010. Corse says that for the past two and a half years she has put her painting career on hold in order to promote other artists and her gallery, because she thought it was a great thing for Jacksonville.

But now she is ready to promote her own work. She is calling her show Unfettered, she says, “because I feel free to paint again.”