Two years after writing the statement about why I make art, I'm changing
my mind a bit. "Art" is a broad thing, isn't it?
Before, I was all obsessed about getting people to stop overconsuming. And
I still have a beef about Wal Mart and $3 shoes from Target for toddlers.
Do you really need all that *stuff*?? But hey. I'm not in Seattle anymore.
I'm in North Carolina, where I'm from, and there's just not the same
hell-raising about overconsumption and sparing use of natural resources.
So the temperature has changed around me, and I'm adapting, too.
Now, I'm not making art to show people they really don't need a bunch of
*stuff.* I mean, not as much.
The purpose is changing.
I see people making anything, and framing it, and calling it art. I worked
two days at Somerhill Gallery in Durham around Christmas 2009. I just
didn't get a good feeling about the place, which is why I was only there
two days. A few months later, it imploded due to defaulted payments to
artists.
On the other side of the art space, I was paying attention to a couple of
key things.
What made a piece "good?" What made it "salable?" What was the difference,
and who wanted to know?
SHIFT
The thing I want to do now is create experiences. Moments. Poise, the apex
of dance. The quiet that happens.
I know, I know.
I draw with sharpies, and that's part of it.
The slowing down aspect of making lines without overthinking them. Black
on white. Pretty hard to erase, or layer over, unless you're doing that.
But I don't. Once the line is there, it's there, and it stays.
It's almost like every minute, you know? You can't go back and undo
things. Or make them more textured, or detailed, or erase out of them the
parts you didn't like.
Know what I'm saying?
Every minute is a one-act play, and there's no rehearsal.
If you weren't alive, this moment wouldn't be here. What it is. What it
was about to be. Where it went.
You wouldn't have the chance to know the universe as it is *right now*
*right here*.
Instead of drawing lines to ease the overflow of visual stimulation, my
purpose of making is adapting to the new times.
I want to show people that we're all here, in it, *now*.
Kind of inspired by yoga. Kind of by the loss of a dear friend at this
time last year. I did an open mic at the Durham Public Library with some
very amazing people spontaneously because I was there, and I got to read
what I wrote for R.S. and his family. It was good to do that. And I
remembered, in the running up and just doing, what it is that makes art
good.
The rawness.
The soulfulness.
The connectedness.
Engagement.
Feeling.
Without those things, you're just making pictures. Will they matter to
anyone? Will they care? Will you?
We need to connect if we want our art to matter. So the mode can be
something aside from an image on a wall. It can be a conversation. An
experience. Grace. Sentiment. Intimacy.
Art is noticing--no, celebrating!--the minutes of our lives.
Not all of them. Maybe not even four or five of them.
But noticing them. That's a different kind of approach to making art.
Are you with me?
