breakTHROUGHArts 5-09 Follow the Music: a free newsletter for visual artists





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breakTHROUGHArts
a free newsletter for visual artists

Thanks to all who have passed breakTHROUGHArts on to other artists! To share this newsletter with friends who want more creativity in their lives, use your e-mail Forward button. To subscribe or schedule your complimentary coaching hour click: connect@dianereardon.com.

 May 2009 Contents
I. Follow the Music
 II. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room, and the Shrink’s Couch
III. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading
IV. Creative Links
V. Newsletter and Info: Share this newsletter, subscribe, or unsubscribe

I. Follow the Music
 I can thank my friend Sue* for helping me out. She called and asked the question I’ve often avoided: “Do your clients have trouble creating the same kind of art they like to look at?” I told her I couldn’t even think about clients because of my own experience of the day before. I had been strongly moved by a wall-mounted art basket, followed by a yearning to make work "like it”. The problem was I couldn’t tell what “like it” meant.

Luckily I’d had an hour’s drivetime to struggle with what it was in that piece that had touched me so deeply. I’d been unable to pinpoint anything about the formal design elements, but was left with the felt experience of coming home to something, something I knew but had forgotten about.

As Sue and I talked, we worked at describing how our work differs from work we admire. Reflecting on the art basket, I got to new words: simple, archaic, balanced, movement. I was able to contrast these marker words with descriptions of my more “typical” work: complex, textured, dense, rich. I’ll only share that Sue was also able to come up with useful words and they were in high contrast to seeing her current work as more “tame”.

Many, of course, have written about artists’ styles; art critics and academics have filled pages comparing both the evocative and design elements of different artists. Since I’m missing a stable of critics ready to describe the contemporary work I respond to, I’ve been experimenting with images of more well-known works that I’ve collected. The internet is (once again) useful in trolling for critics’ descriptions of these works that I’ve long loved. Maybe some of these creative adjectives will spark some new elements into my more “typical’’ work.

Beyond using language to guide us to styles we crave, Sue and I also were able to connect to looks we love using music as a bridge. It didn’t take me long to find music that echoed the tone and energy of the piece I’d been admiring (Aarvo Part). Since then, I’ve started a list of music I admire. For example, the piano rags of Scott Joplin to me are perfect in form and lightness, each being complete in itself. Best of luck to you in finding others’ work that speaks to you in that special creative way, a way that points to new heartfelt directions for your work.
*You can meet Sue on her blog - http://sewingmagpie.blogspot.com/
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II. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room and the Shrink’s Couch
 Bohm, David. On Creativity. Chapter 2. On the Relationships of Science and Art. 1996. I know that it is my eyes that have to tell me when art works, yet my intellect still wants to understand how or why. In this quest, my regular readers may have noticed I’ve been turning to physicists, if only because reading their theories fools my brain into thinking it understands something.

“…a good work of art must be coherent in itself, as well as with the basic natural laws of space, color, form, light, and of how they must be perceived.” Bohm, David. On Creativity. p. 47

Bohm, a renowned physicist, has waded into the gap between science and art on occasion, and this small book is a gathering of such writings. Of most use for working artists is the second chapter where he lays out his main assumption that humans are constantly seeking to establish a harmoniously ordered totality of their experiences. He proposes that both art and science are ways we assimilate our experiences into total structures of harmony and beauty.

“By expressing this perception in the form of artistically created objects, (artists) also helped other people to see in a more sensitive way..” Bohm, David. On Creativity. p. 34

His phrase “total structure” has already helped me re-view a piece I’m working on. But then he adds two more concepts that I wrapped up and took right into the studio. The first is the reminder from theoretical physics that the observer is part of the reality being observed.  Although I, like most artists, know this truth, I had not been harnessing its power by specifically checking in with my own mental and emotional states each time I settle in to work.

“People think that beauty is what is pleasing to the eye,” . . . “It’s not. Beauty is seeing without bias.” Marsot, Vanina. Foreign Tongue: A Novel of Life and Love in Paris. p. 327

The second reminder he provides is that when they “work”, both science and art go beyond the beautiful in accepting what is perceived as true whether we like it or not. This, to me, was a new way of thinking about a work being ‘true to itself’. The idea of following the truth of the piece in front of me nudges me past repeating what I’ve done before.

I know that not everyone likes to read physicists to help their art along, but hope that what I’ve abstracted inspires us all to move toward being continually creative rather than making what was creative last year.
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III. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading
Maxwell, Robin. Signora Da Vinci. 1991.
A fun novel for those wanting to hang out in Leonardo’s time. Since little is known about his mother, Caterina, the author was free to invent her place in her son’s world and does so in an entertaining mix of herbalism, religious rifts, and costumes of the day.  The characteristics of Leonardo’s imagery are woven into the story, adding to its vividness but also a little too neatly for those who know his notebooks and work beyond the Mona Lisa.
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IV. Creative Links
http://www.ttms.org/writing_quality/voice.htm
Music is not the only other medium that can help you clarify your style of visual art. Writers have long struggled with finding and developing a unique “voice”. This site offers hints for strengthening “voice’ in a guide simple enough to apply to any creative work.
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V. E-mail changes. To change your e-mail address, subscribe, or unsubscribe please e-mail connect@dianereardon.com. If you use a spam filter, please add this e-mail address to your list of approved senders. This material is included on the breakTHROUGH Creativity Coaching (website www.dianereardon.com) All material is copyrighted ©, 30 April 2009, Diane Reardon. All rights reserved. Visit the website for back issues and details on scheduling a complimentary one-hour coaching session.
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