During the past six months or so, most of my artwork has been done on a commission basis. This, for me, is the most difficult type of work, I suppose because I am doing it to meet someone else's standards of excellence. It also does not encourage free thinking. By that I mean that when I am working on a project that is born in my imagination, if I become disenchanted with it, I can turn aside from it, change it, or even abandon it. A commission piece is more demanding because though it allows for any number of small decisions to be made during the completion, there is a definite tendency for it to be more product oriented than process driven. |
Perhaps I am just getting old and cranky, but lately it seems as though our culture promotes the idea of thought avoidance. We stay too busy to think. I can't say that the answer is to eliminate distraction. (Even though that does work sometimes--for example with meditation or repetitive movement.) For me, the opposite is usually true--I tend to be more productive when I overload my senses!
I am reminded of the time I asked my grandson, Super Dave, what he was going to do that day. At the time he was I think about eight years old. He said, "I am going to be a think tank!" To which I cautioned, "I don't know if you can really be an entire tank!" (I have since learned that he IS indeed an entire tank!)
Here is a photo of Dave in his Halloween costume that year. Funny enough, my friends often call me the Art Shark because I spend all of my time making art. I would have to call Dave the Maker Shark because since he was old enough to talk, he would wake up each morning discussing what he was going to make that day! And he does make something almost every day. Here is a photo of the inside of a synthesizer he recently built from scratch! Admittedly, he is quite smart--but perhaps even more important to his success, he is not afraid of failure! |
Just in case it seems like I have spent this entire blog complaining (and procrastinating), I offer this helpful link on how to Seek Original Images.
I will close today with this:
"Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth."--Bradley Whitford