Thursday, October 11, 2012

Looking for Direction, Inspiration, and Time v.2.0

I realized a full day after my last post that I didn't end up finishing my thoughts. Probably because I was at work, and I just wanted to get my post out there RIGHT AWAY.

Whoops.

In the last post, I mentioned how I was finding some ways to make art and that spiralled into questioning my artistic identity. Well, not questioning exactly, but examining the very different methods of creating that I have. It just proves my theory that if I were ever not able to make something for an extended period of time (like the rest of my life), I just might explode. Because I'm spread out in a few different areas, I tend to question the quality of what I'm making. Then again, this is not entirely new. During college I would work on 7 different projects at once (for my Printmaking courses specifically), because there is something in me that HAS to work on multiple projects at once. Settling down and focusing on one thing art-wise has proven to be a difficulty.

Another thing I'm working on right now is not directly about creating. I'm working on pulling together an exhibition. For the record, I've only ever thought of ideas for shows but I've never tried pulling together a group show before; this is going to be a huge learning curve for me. Recently, the President addressed the issue of human trafficking and what our government will do in response to it domestically. While certainly more can be done, I got very excited that this was being addressed at ALL (but disappointed that practically no news stations picked it up). Last week, PBS aired a two-part documentary called Half the Sky that looked at injustice done against women worldwide, including trafficking. I decided: I need to do something about this in a way that I know how. So I'm in the baby-steps phase of pulling together a show based on addressing human trafficking from an artist's perspective. Thankfully I already have a space; now I'm just confirming with the artists I'm interested in having participate, and we'll see what else needs to be done. This won't be until early 2014, so there is plenty of time to work out the kinks, and I'm glad to be working with people who have done this before! I'll write another blog entry another day about human trafficking.. I don't want to get too off topic here.

The other point I mentioned was about desiring a creative/artistic community or folks who can provide helpful feedback and support for what I'm working on. This has been an on-going issue for a few years, but I'm finally at a point where it just needs to happen. Thankfully, an opportunity has come up where someone with more leadership and people-organizing skills than I do wants to start up an artists' group at our church and I'll be helping. The driving force is to provide community and support to artists of faith, and utilizing our gifts to help those around us (within the church and outside of the church). This could mean a lot of different things, and it's something I'll be aiming to explore. The vision includes discussions, critiques, supporting one another by going to other artists' exhibitions/shows/performances etc, and praying for one another and our city. Since I'm blogging from work (again), not all of my thoughts are concentrated to really explain it right now but it's something I'm really looking forward to.


All in all: some really good things are coming together!

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