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"Against the ruin of the world, there is only one defense -- the creative act."
Links of Interest
- Apocalypse Mambo
- Bukowski's "A Little Atomic Bomb"
- Desk Space
- Duotrope's Digest
- Fogged Clarity
- Hit and Run Magazine
- How a Book Gets Published (Ha Ha)
- Jacob Riis Photo Gallery
- Literary News Blog
- litmags.org
- Outside Writers Collective
- Places for Writers
- Tomorrowland
- Vonnegut on Style
- Walker Evans' Photos
- Writing Routines
12 comments:
While "Art & Fear" contains several great statements, I feel the one that speaks to me the most is a quote from Joan Didion: "What's so hard about that first sentence is that you're stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you've laid down the first two sentences, your options are all gone."
This is precisely how I feel when I complete those two sentences; the rest of the story has to follow what these inaugural statements have laid down. All the new ideas and concepts I'd like to connect may not work because of these two sentences. However we continue with the story because we have to as writers, artists, what have you. Such is the difficulty oh writing and controlling your imagination and beautifully stated in the Didion quote.
"Don't look back- something might be gaining on you." -Satchel Paige
Art and Fear is a book that connects, like the authors took a piece of an artist soul and smearing it on the page till it marked.
Fear About Others drew me in, even more pivotally. Making it clear that we, creative minds, are all in the same boat or seeking acceptance, while listen to that little voice sitting on our solider, and exposing ourselves at the same time.
Its scary that the scale of appreciation, and acceptance is an invisible struggle, in which we get neither.
A lot of statements in "Art & Fear" were the type of things I wrote down to remember later. However, one sentence did stand out to me more than others.
"To require perfection is to invite paralysis."
I can recall many times, probably more than not, that I convinced myself I was not talented enough or ambitious enough to finish a lofty writing piece I was imagining. The problem was that I would imagine these projects in their finished form. I would have a clear image of what I wanted, but too precise of an image. I am usually either too discouraged before I even begin or I convince myself there is someone out there who would do much better than me, so why bother?
I realize now that I have been dooming myself before I even begin. Remembering this quote would help me remember that accepting error or products different than what you expected is the best way to continue producing work. Instead of errors halting progress they should redirect it. The important thing is to keep working.
First, I was really relieved when I read "most artists don't dream about making great art- they daydream about having made great art." I do that all the time, and I always worry that I'm going to screw myself up by thinking that way. It’s really great to know I’m not alone.
The part that really spoke to me, though, was the section on pretending. I always worry that I’m not a real writer because I haven’t had anything published and I’m still in college, but at the same time I don’t know what would then classify me as a legitimate writer when I think this way. Though the example of being a chess player made me feel a little better at first, I couldn’t help but think about how even though someone moving the pieces is a chess player…that doesn’t make them a professional chess player.
As several others have alluded to, the messages present in Art & Fear are good and many.
One such message is as follows: "The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars."
So, though it sounds overplayed and dumb, I can now view my writing in terms on an iceberg. Believe it or not, this helps. It keeps me confident that most of what is written, right now, is held under water, much like that 90% of an iceberg that floats along invisibly. Eventually, something that I write will be good enough to float closer to the surface to join the other elusive 10% of that iceberg. This is the part that passing vessels see. This is the part that is finally good enough to share with your audience.
Most importantly, though, there is a certain comfort in understanding that everything produced NOW does not have to be flawless art. Instead, it must contain the flaws that you hope to exclude from that final 10% so that they are fixable.
"Art and Fear" contained a lot of useful information on the process of making art and how to deal with the uncertainties that, apparently, everyone experiences when undergoing the creative process. Although there were many sections that I connected with in the reading, one that really spoke to me (which I also enjoyed because of its beautiful syntax) is:
"Look at your work and it tells you how it is when you hold back or when you embrace. When you are lazy, your art is lazy; when you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes."
I think this idea is especially important for college students, or anyone with a busy schedule not only devoted to writing for that matter, to find time to sit down and really commit to what you're writing. It becomes difficult to do this when you're working in time blocks. (Class now, gym later, studying, meetings?) It can get difficult to find time to sit down and focus on nothing else besides your writing. Yet, this is extremely important, and "Art and Fear" reminds us that when you do find this time, it is quite rewarding to the art making process.
It's hard to pick one statement that speaks to me from Art and Fear, because I feel like every sentence in that book had value-- I was doing a lot of underlining as I was reading. But, after re-reading all the things I underlined, I think the statement that speaks to me the most is, "There is probably no clearer waste of psychic energy than worrying about how much talent you have."
So, according to this quote, I waste a lot of psychic energy. I am constantly comparing my work to peers, debating whether mine is better or worse, stuck in this constant cycle of uncertainty in my writing and of myself. But, as the writers reinforce, everyone is different-- everyone has a different set of experiences that influence their art. So, I cannot consistently compare myself to other people, simply because I am not them. Basically, what this statement says to me is, "Amy, maybe if you stopped worrying about how much talent you have and stopped comparing your talent to other people, you'd have more time to work on your writing and make it really good. Worrying about your writing makes your writing crappy. "
While reading section one of Art and Fear, everything that was being sad i felt was exactly what i was feeling about my writing. The one particular sentence that stood out the most to me was on page 3 " In a large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive". i feel like a major part of my problem when it comes to writing is at first i feel like i have a great idea. I then begin to doubt myself and think what others will think of my writing. Once i begin to have doubts i loose my style of writing. I always think to myself that who is to judge if my writing is actually good or not. Maybe the wierd things i write or how i write are my intentions and who has the right to judge me. I always worry when writing a piece to be handed into teachers because i know that there job is to find the things wrong and tell me. Sometimes i just want to tell them that i think my writing is perfect no matter how they grade it. I guess what i got out of part one was that writers and artists just need to have confidence in the pieces they put out there. Not everyone is going to be recognized as an amazing artist, but if your art comes out how you wanted it to, then that is what it should mean to have made something great.
In Art & Fear, there is one particular idea that I've been thinking about for a few days. It comes from the Ansel Adams quote on page 30 - "the perfect is the enemy of the good."
I've been thinking about this quote a lot because I've been dealing with compulsive perfectionism for years. The process of trying to write the perfect story, or even the perfect sentence, have greatly taken away from my productivity. Along the same lines, another passage that I feel speaks to me is the one on page 29 about the ceramics teacher grading his students on either quality or quantity.
These two passages have made me realize that I have another obstacle I'd like to tackle by the end of this semester - I just want to write as much as I possibly can, rather than to overwork one or two pieces in order to make them "perfect."
As I stated in class, the part that stood out to me is the part about acceptance. A quote from that section that sums up how I feel is "the dilemma seems obvious: risk rejection by exploring new worlds, or court acceptance by by following well-explored paths."
To be honest, I get scared that if I keep writing, I will never be accepted or acknowledged by my friends and family. And more directly related to the quote, I'm afraid of wanting to do the safe thing so that my writing is accepted. I suppose it has to do with my insecurities and always hoping that everyone likes what I write. Which in the end, is just plain silly to constantly think about.
**It took me quite a while to post this, but I think that I've found the excerpt that relates best to my issue**
When reading this book, the following quote caught my eye… and it took me a while to think about how I could apply it to my writing. (I feel as though BECAUSE this book talks mainly of art, it forces us (or just me) to completely stop to acknowledge certain quotes and really analyze them because of the exchange… almost like really thinking about how much your spending on something because your using a different currency… did that make sense? Like being in a different country… different currency?... purchasing a coffee… and really thinking about how much it would cost if you were using dollars… )
This was the quote I chose:
“When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at a college – that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared back at me, incredulous, and said, “You mean they forget?”
-Howard Ikemoto
With this quote I thought. I’m in this class working to accomplish a goal. As I stated before, I felt as though I lost touch with my ability to paint pictures… the display a scene with my writing. After reading this book, I realized that in actuality, what I really need to work on is building confidence in my abilities. I assumed I had lost my skill, but when I think about it, all that really needs to happen is for me to try. To really focus on what I’m writing and just do it. My real issue is my hesitation, and I’m some what proud of myself for letting go during our last class. I knew what I wanted to express about how the site could look and I just dived in… and I didn’t care if I was met with criticism because at least I got it out there. I have a unique style of writing, and all I really need to do to bring it back into my writing is to
let go.
My losing my skill was an amnesia brought on by my eagerness to follow blasé protocol in journalistic writing.
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