Notes on Work
2011
Bits on Working Jan 2010
Martha J. Gelarden
January 01.2010
Bits on Work
Idea + Form + Context = Art (theoretically)
Artists have made art to: record, inform, respond, express.
As a maker, what is your intent?
As a viewer, what is the artist trying to tell me?
What are the clues?
All art is conceptual at some time, I strive to make art of my time.
There is always more than one solution to a problem.
If someone says there is only one way, run the other way.
Ideas come from ideas.
Be curious, an insatiable curiosity is generative.
Safety is for tools. Risk is a necessary requirement for development.
Time is precious. Work smart.
Art is what we do. Art is not a job.
Art is a practice, which requires daily practice.
Art practice is terminal, it is not a choice.
It is the reason to get out of bed.
Do your homework.
Commit and re-commit to your work everyday.
Feed the muse.
Beware the seduction of materials.
It is not enough to just make shiny stuff anymore. Plops are ornaments without a tree.
Know why, what are you trying to communicate through the art.
Materials always support the idea.
Why should the viewer care?
Know the difference between an emotionally charged experience and therapy.
Transform the personal into the universal experience.
Laugh at yourself first, always joke up, never joke down.
Contemporary Art is most often accessible on many levels. The more the viewer brings to the experience the more they get out of the work.
Let the viewer work. Art is like playing poker, don’t give it all away.
Strive to make art that keeps on giving a gift to repeat viewers.
Information alone is not art
Modernism was 50 years ago.
Even Ansel Adams would have a hard time getting in to most MFA Programs today. Dante must have gone through Grad School.
Graduate School is heaven disguised as hell.
Decoration is NOT the same thing as Modernism.
Decoration is historically an integral part of design. It is informed by the idea behind the design. Patterns and borders add layers of meaning within the context of the design.
Duchamp’s Fountain was over 100 years ago
“know thyself”
Artists are nature and nurture. Artists are wired and see the world differently.
Where do you fit within the context of the history of art?
To whom would you like to claim as art kin? Classicist or Romantics?
January 01.2010
Bits on Work
Idea + Form + Context = Art (theoretically)
Artists have made art to: record, inform, respond, express.
As a maker, what is your intent?
As a viewer, what is the artist trying to tell me?
What are the clues?
All art is conceptual at some time, I strive to make art of my time.
There is always more than one solution to a problem.
If someone says there is only one way, run the other way.
Ideas come from ideas.
Be curious, an insatiable curiosity is generative.
Safety is for tools. Risk is a necessary requirement for development.
Time is precious. Work smart.
Art is what we do. Art is not a job.
Art is a practice, which requires daily practice.
Art practice is terminal, it is not a choice.
It is the reason to get out of bed.
Do your homework.
Commit and re-commit to your work everyday.
Feed the muse.
Beware the seduction of materials.
It is not enough to just make shiny stuff anymore. Plops are ornaments without a tree.
Know why, what are you trying to communicate through the art.
Materials always support the idea.
Why should the viewer care?
Know the difference between an emotionally charged experience and therapy.
Transform the personal into the universal experience.
Laugh at yourself first, always joke up, never joke down.
Contemporary Art is most often accessible on many levels. The more the viewer brings to the experience the more they get out of the work.
Let the viewer work. Art is like playing poker, don’t give it all away.
Strive to make art that keeps on giving a gift to repeat viewers.
Information alone is not art
Modernism was 50 years ago.
Even Ansel Adams would have a hard time getting in to most MFA Programs today. Dante must have gone through Grad School.
Graduate School is heaven disguised as hell.
Decoration is NOT the same thing as Modernism.
Decoration is historically an integral part of design. It is informed by the idea behind the design. Patterns and borders add layers of meaning within the context of the design.
Duchamp’s Fountain was over 100 years ago
“know thyself”
Artists are nature and nurture. Artists are wired and see the world differently.
Where do you fit within the context of the history of art?
To whom would you like to claim as art kin? Classicist or Romantics?
