Creative Slacker

A third post in one month? Has someone hijacked Full of Earth & Dirt???

Though no one is seriously asking this question, the answer is: No. I'm just incredibly bored at at work. I've been temping here for a few months and was officially hired today, but since the company needs to reconfigure all of my settings, I literally can't do anything useful today. Putting together another blog entry seems a good way to go. Especially since the entry about my internet wanderings is probably not that interesting, looking back at it. I feel like I have to explain myself whenever I express a wariness of uber-social media. I just don't want Mark Zuckerberg taking over the world by integrating Facebook into every aspect of our lives, which I'm half convinced he's aimed to do -- kind of like Google.

I'm also slightly wary of smart technologies (like Nest, the learning thermostat or the iPod for your home), while simultaneously finding them totally awesome and brilliant. I jump back and forth over a line between "paranoid" and "geek-out." I've watched too many sci-fi movies that explore artificial intelligence's relationship to humans.

Anyway.

I've been in a sort of art-slump for the whole summer, at least in the way of major drawings or paintings. It's been a blazing hot summer, and the room that acts as my studio (slash dining room) is just an uncomfortable place to be (so we've been eating in the living room a lot, too). I have been able to figure out some fun crafts, though, which helped me do my first craft fair ever on July 29th! It was a lot of fun and I hope to do another one someday. Scott keeps saying I should just give up my day job and start doing crafts... thankfully, he is joking.

More after the jump.. click to read on!





The crafting has helped a little bit in getting out my creative frustration, but I really want to paint. Actually, what I really want to do is get my hands back into printmaking. I'm just waiting for a few other things to fall in to place first. I'm finding that my paintings (or ideas for paintings) keep falling more into an abstract realm than I would have wanted 4-6 years ago. Abstract in the sense of having a lot more to do with color fields and texture to speak of content. While the evolution is a welcome as an experiment, the change is also a little startling as I try to figure out what my "voice" for the look and feel of my art. I'm not there yet. What doesn't help is that I feel stuck in a bubble, and don't get many opportunities to talk about my artwork with others like I used to. From what I understand, this can be a common problem. It's not that I don't want to talk about my work with other artists, though; or that it's even about me as an artist being anti-social (since that's such a stereotypical image of artists). Or at least, I'm pretty sure it's not about all that. Especially since I know better.

There's an article I read recently that pointed towards community and sharing with others as creativity's best friend, and not just in the art field, but in science as well. This is a point that I agree whole-heartedly with, and have seen it proven in my life as well as others' lives in the past. Human beings - yes even those odd, eccentric artists - are meant to be in community with one another. Community helps us thrive with a give and take of ideas, challenges, and problem solving. Even Scripture points towards this in literal and symbolic language: "As iron sharpens iron, so does one man another." (Proverbs 27:17); "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up." (Ecclesiastes 4:9,10). A number of other places point towards the importance of coming together as a community (specifically in worship of Jesus and for spiritual encouragement/prayers/etc). So I know that community is important. Yet why is it so hard to come together with other artists? Why do I not take the initiative to ask artist friends to take a look at my artwork and help me sort out my thoughts and methods?
If I were to guess, I would say that laziness is a factor, as well as fear or pride. Generally, I find artists who are older and/or more established (or ambitious) to be intimidating. I'm afraid that what I make is not good enough. I also fall into a trap of being really defensive about my work and the content of my work, and push back when someone is really trying to offer some good constructive criticism. I'm also afraid that another artist is going to impose their own idea of what my art should look like, as a reflection of how they make art. I feel like I can pin this on a certain professor I had for an introductory class, who would literally take something I made and make it look like something she would make. With all of that, I also turn around and think: I should really just get over it and stop being so protective.
Community would also help me have a better idea of what sort of galleries to be looking at; and it would give me people to go with to look at art. You'd think that living in Philadelphia that this would be easier.

Of course, there are a LOT of "I could be doing this" to keep up a healthy artist habit. Sometimes I feel like the biggest creative slacker in Philadelphia (I can't really say the planet, since, I'm sure there are others just as bad as I am).

Another reason community is helpful: accountability.

Anyone want to chime in on this line of thought? Although I know I'm not the only one who thinks about these things, it would be super helpful to actually hear about others' thoughts! What struggles do you have about community as an artist? Where have you seen community being super helpful in your life/art/work?