Thoughts on Being an Artist
June 5, 2009 11:07 PM Subscribe
Help me hunt down some “Thoughts on Being an Artist”
Okay, so I'm taking an art class over the summer where we'll be designing & printing a book as a group, and a few days ago one of our professors sent out an email with the following:
"As you know the project that we will be working on is a book that will be collaboratively designed, illustrated, printed and bound. The subject of the book will be on the general topic of “Thoughts on Being an Artist” (or a Designer, or a Maker of Things or etc). We would like each of you to bring to the project a text of 300 or so words that you find, informative, interesting or inspiring on the subject. This text will be used as the written content for you section of the book.?
so I've goggled around and re-read the interviews and forwards in some of my art books and I've found a few passages that would work, but they're all on the serious side. I'm an illustration student with a pretty strong comic book/cartoonish feel to my style and I'm just a goofy oddball in general, so none of them really fit my work or my personality. Since the literal route isn't getting me very I'm trying a metaphor-ish route now and I'm digging through fairy tales and fantasy novels looking for passages about magic. The Magic-do-as-you-will bits from the Last Unicorn are topping my list at the moment.
Anyway, since I only have a handful of days to find something usable I thought I'd toss the problem out to see if anyone had any suggestions. Either literal thoughts on being an artist or something that would work in an allegorical or metaphorical sense would be great.
Okay, so I'm taking an art class over the summer where we'll be designing & printing a book as a group, and a few days ago one of our professors sent out an email with the following:
"As you know the project that we will be working on is a book that will be collaboratively designed, illustrated, printed and bound. The subject of the book will be on the general topic of “Thoughts on Being an Artist” (or a Designer, or a Maker of Things or etc). We would like each of you to bring to the project a text of 300 or so words that you find, informative, interesting or inspiring on the subject. This text will be used as the written content for you section of the book.?
so I've goggled around and re-read the interviews and forwards in some of my art books and I've found a few passages that would work, but they're all on the serious side. I'm an illustration student with a pretty strong comic book/cartoonish feel to my style and I'm just a goofy oddball in general, so none of them really fit my work or my personality. Since the literal route isn't getting me very I'm trying a metaphor-ish route now and I'm digging through fairy tales and fantasy novels looking for passages about magic. The Magic-do-as-you-will bits from the Last Unicorn are topping my list at the moment.
Anyway, since I only have a handful of days to find something usable I thought I'd toss the problem out to see if anyone had any suggestions. Either literal thoughts on being an artist or something that would work in an allegorical or metaphorical sense would be great.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, for when it's actually time to get to work.
posted by skypieces at 6:01 AM on June 6, 2009
posted by skypieces at 6:01 AM on June 6, 2009
Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, is exactly what you're looking for, if you can find a copy.
posted by jayder at 6:36 AM on June 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by jayder at 6:36 AM on June 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
Jon Winokur's "Writer on Writing", is just a book of quotations by writers on different aspects of writing, but it would apply from the point of view of artists on art. I've had it for about 10 years and still pick it up from time to time and find something that I missed previously but seems important to me now. It might be hard to find though.
posted by Elmore at 7:24 AM on June 6, 2009
posted by Elmore at 7:24 AM on June 6, 2009
When I was a young artist I found Ranier Marie Rikle's Letters to a Young Poet to be very appropriate to the questions I was asking myself.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 1:41 PM on June 6, 2009
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 1:41 PM on June 6, 2009
Most of these kinds of things don't do much for me but I really like Eddie Campbell's How to Be an Artist. It's an autobiographical graphic novel about how he became an artist but also presents his thoughts on being an artist.
Eddie Campbell is most fame for his Alec series (which this is a part of) and for having drawn Alan Moore's From Hell.
posted by Kattullus at 8:53 PM on June 6, 2009
Eddie Campbell is most fame for his Alec series (which this is a part of) and for having drawn Alan Moore's From Hell.
posted by Kattullus at 8:53 PM on June 6, 2009
WELL. What would be most interesting would be if you could tell us about how you *do* feel about being an artist. It seems you want to be clever or borrow someone else's vision. Don't borrow any one else's vision.
The very fact that you begin with just an idea and with only marks you get others to think in different ways--that is indeed magic. Consider a stream of consciousness thing about how you feel about making art (specifically about the magic involved)--use no punctuation and don't put down your pen until you have three pages longhand--turn that in---it will be honest and raw and nothing that anyone can argue with.
posted by naplesyellow at 9:24 PM on June 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
The very fact that you begin with just an idea and with only marks you get others to think in different ways--that is indeed magic. Consider a stream of consciousness thing about how you feel about making art (specifically about the magic involved)--use no punctuation and don't put down your pen until you have three pages longhand--turn that in---it will be honest and raw and nothing that anyone can argue with.
posted by naplesyellow at 9:24 PM on June 6, 2009 [1 favorite]
There are some great quotable bits in Hugh McLeod's 'How to be Creative'.
posted by Happy Dave at 6:04 AM on June 8, 2009
posted by Happy Dave at 6:04 AM on June 8, 2009
Art and Fear :Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
posted by iiniisfree at 9:14 AM on June 8, 2009
posted by iiniisfree at 9:14 AM on June 8, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by whimsicalnymph at 11:46 PM on June 5, 2009 [1 favorite]