I have this discussion with my final year Art Student daughter A LOT....
Is not the process THE Art?
In fact, could it be THE Art with no need to see the final result?
We reference our own and others work practices and lives and ponder that perhaps what we or the person is DOING, is in fact THE ARTWORK!
If a Belly-dancing performance is Art, then why not "platform work connecting to spirits"
This is not to say its not real or a valid belief system or practice, its to say it is creative.
This is where the word CREATIVE makes it muddy.
To CREATE is to make and to MAKE something can be interpreted as "TO MAKE IT UP"
I don't believe so.... all the time :)
A body of work I exhibited years ago was titled
"The Lost Goddess, everyday goddesses we REALLY need"
Mary Place Gallery, Paddington, Australia 2009
"Goddess of Secrets I Keep"
Cheralyn Darcey 2008 38x18cm assemblage & sculpture
PRIVATE COLLECTION ~ Australia
It was a sellout at the gallery and what excited me, aside from a successful show, was that the pieces resonated with a VERY broad cross section and that I had created a body of work I was immensely proud of, though really no one could see it.
The sculptures, where not THE Art I had created, the process was.
I spent as much time on the process as the sculptures and lived it. I believe this resulted with a cohesve body of work that had such a broad appeal.
Whether I made up the Goddesses or whether they where real, made no difference to the Art Collectors.
Some collectors where of particular faiths, one Hindu lady purchased TWO! Pagan people purchased, a Christian and then people with no spiritual or religious leaning purchased as well. Opening night discussions where exciting and so interesting.
"Goddess of Triumph over Mechanical Failure"
Cheralyn Darcey 2008 44x19cm assemblage & sculpture
PRIVATE COLLECTION ~ USA
Though these "Goddesses" where completely fictitious and very tongue in cheek, the process of creation was the artwork, not the actual finished piece!
I was exploring a made up spiritual belief system. That was art, it was created with respect by me, an artist with a commitment to a belief and it was a living piece of art.
Was it 'not real'?
It was a conceptual idea I explored. I never said they where real Goddesses but the exploration was very real.
And when people ask me what was my favourite piece?
It was indeed the entire process of creation. Not the physical 'doing' but the creation of the concept and the everyday workings on bringing it to life.
That MOMENT, that pleasure that is defined from creating a piece of artwork that is a Passion Decides Fate moment has nothing to do with how wonderful the lines look on the paper, how perfectly a face is sculpted or the tones emanated from the shading of your airbrush. The moment of pleasure for an artist is when the concept is working when we see in an instant explosion the realization of the resolution of an idea we had.
It IS the Art.
The actual finished piece could reveal it but I believe the concept resolved in your mind and heart is the art and this has a profound effect on everything in an Artists life that lives beyond the piece of clay or canvas. Perhaps ANY any other human practice we set our minds to.
So we live our Art.
The way I relate to others, go about my everyday life is changed in the constant resolutions of concepts I decide to work on.
"Goddess of Gardens that Never End Up in Vogue Magazines"
Cheralyn Darcey 2008 42x20cm assemblage & sculpture
PRIVATE COLLECTION ~ Australia
NEXT TIME you are set to create a work of art... here we go the J word again!!!!...
Yes JOURNAL! This is HOW you develop concepts, you see what is coming up and in a pattern and revelations WILL jump out at you. Let your mind wander and play with your ideas. Sketch, write, scrapbook emphemera.....
I am the first to say, JUST DO ART, for in the PLAY we create Art and this is true.
But there is nothing more satisfying as an artist than working on a concept!
You bring depth into your work, you explore in other ways you never would, had you just decided to paint cats or flowers or bridges! You live your every waking moment as an artist, the art is just being.
You then LIVE it, not even aware of it a lot of the time!.... While creating the Lost Goddesses I was living the Art. I'd have conversations with people, read certain books, look at things in the grocery shopping differently. My life was the art, what I did was IT!
This is why my daughter and I when discussing the life or works of ourselves or others often say, "perhaps its THE Art we are looking at!"
So what IS the art for YOU right now?
That brings me to one of my favourite artworks!
I know there are many interpretations to this piece and I'd love to hear YOURS!
NO Googling Cliff Notes!.... ;)
Oscar Wilde....
"THE ARTIST"
ONE evening there came into his soul the desire to fashion an image of The Pleasure that Abideth for a Moment. And he went forth into the world to look for bronze. For he could think only in bronze.
But all the bronze of the whole world had disappeared, nor anywhere in the whole world was there any bronze to be found, save only the bronze of the image of The Sorrow that Endureth For Ever.
Now this image he had himself, and with his own hands, fashioned, and had set it on the tomb of the one thing he had loved in life. On the tomb of the dead thing he had most loved had he set this image of his own fashioning, that it might serve as a sign of the love of man that dieth not, and a symbol of the sorrow of man that endureth for ever. And in the whole world there was no other bronze save the bronze of this image.
And he took the image he had fashioned, and set it in a great furnace, and gave it to the fire.
And out of the bronze of the image of The Sorrow that Endureth For Ever he fashioned an image of The Pleasure that Abideth for a Moment.
