...more on "Art & Fear"

For any artist visiting this site, and this particular post, if you have not read this book yet, do yourself a favor and gift yourself with it.

As a past college art instructor, I would hold class critique sessions at the completion of a new student project. Critiques were ongoing throughout the semester & I'll always remember the tension which had its roots in FEAR as students were facing their first critique session. Trying to help students get comfortable being UNcomfortable, I'd often liken the first critique to feeling "naked" before fellow students (to which they all related!).

Point being.......the making of art comes from a place deep within and the SHOWING of what's been made lays bare a very vulnerable core of the one who made it. At least in the beginning, I have seen this to be true. As an artist becomes more comfortable with the whole creative process, likewise, he/she becomes more comfortable with the "self" the art reveals.

This little (BIG) book "Art & Fear" by Bayles & Orland addresses so many things each and every artist grapples with in their individual life as an artist and in the identification of threads which are common to all of us who create art, I find it a validation as well as a comfort and an inspiration......it'd be a great one to add to your list!

The Artist's Impulse.....

"He can only obey the apparently alien impulse within him and follow where it leads, sensing that his work is greater than himself, and wields a power which is not his and which he cannot command." Carl Jung

I've been asked many times "where do you get your ideas?"

Call it impulse, call it revelation, call it dreaming, call it the artist's "BREATH"......it is as NATURAL to me as breathing....and I've often purposely used a double negative to describe this....."an artist can't NOT make art"....for, indeed, it does seem a work greater than oneself, it's on the inside and must come out. Perhaps a form of communication, expression and, for me, a path of supreme adventure. The making of art, the ideas,.... the conceptions transforming into reality bring a satisfaction deep and enduring.

One of my favorite books.....

"Art & Fear" by Bayles & Orland. Many times, as I was teaching "Art Appreciation" and "Two Dimensional Design" for Mesa St. College, I recommended this book to my students. It's a small little book with some pretty profound thoughts. Here's one I love:

"Something about making art has to do with overcoming things, giving us a clear opportunity for doing things in ways we have always known we should do them."