One of my favorite things to learn and then to teach is the idea of building concept into your work. In critique we talk a lot about continuity in pieces especially if they are part of a series. In writing that can look like everything from character consistency, to intentional stylized pieces, to the deep lore you come up with in order to write just about anything.
In visual art I have found that it is very similar, but not exactly the same. Much like writing visual art uses metaphors that are both universally and personally known. An artist can use things to make you feel in a certain way by using themes that exist on a large scale or using themes that exist on a personal scale.
I’m going to talk a little bit about my process through the early years of making things. As a warning some images might be triggering. I put a content warning on the top but I just want to be sure.
One of the things that I excelled at was concept, my technical skills are not great in anything except photography. I have a style of painting that I love, and it may be great one day. For me, everything needed to have a reason. Even when I was making films, if the character was wearing a blue scarf especially if that was the only bright color in the scene you know it was going to come up later. Rosebud was the sled.
But how do we translate that on to a singular image? I’ve found with visual arts it’s easier for me at least to allow a series to come about naturally, though I did like a challenge in school.
When I taught that it involved a lot of talking to students. Uncovering what they want to make work about, what they are actually comfortable making work about, and what fuels their work. I used to tell students that they need to be asking themselves those kind of uncomfortable questions in order to find their limit. Mostly because I knew what it was like to be extremely vulnerable during critique. I made some incredibly personal art during college and I only did so because I trusted the other people in my class.
TW: Self harm: art photograph
I did a series on secrets in my color photography class where I interviewed friends about highly personal things and photographed them while they were talking. I then used items and took photographs of me holding the items they were talking about.
I’m going to go into the ethics of this project at another time.
I knew art school was the time to try anything. I did performance pieces where I folded thousands of little strips of paper into springy things in order to make a point about mental illness. I sat down and continued to fold them, I had my shoes off next to me, and I pulled out the string from my hoodie. Then I refused to answer questions.
For one of my drawing courses I did a writing piece using a dip pen and ink. It was part of a larger project. These are 24×36 and that is my regular sized handwriting. I did a lot of really obsessive pieces of art back then.
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This was an installation piece I made in a seventy-eight hour period with vellum and paint. I listened to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors on repeat and I slept on the floor of the studio. (Now I can’t stay up past ten at the latest and I think if I slept on the floor I wouldn’t be able to get up). I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned how absolutely bonkers both I and my life were back then on here, but of course it would take the art themed community to bring it out.
The process was just, if not more important as the finished piece, and I think that realization got me through my thesis at school. I talk about school, even though it was a little while ago because that’s where I got the building blocks to be able to talk about art in a productive way.
I also learned that sometimes, it’s okay to not give your audience everything, no one is obligated to your story. Just because you make something and put it out in the world you don’t have to involve yourself in conversation about it unless asked directly and politely AND you feel comfortable.
Making visual art has always been the way I communicate things I am not comfortable communicating in writing. Writing has always been a way to take control of the narrative of my art. I’m not unrealistic, I’m well aware that as soon as something leaves your private space it is no longer only yours. No matter how much you want it to be, every person is going to put everything they know before that into how they perceive your work.
Finding the deeper meaning in pieces has always been one of my favorite things about making work, and also the thing that has kept me making work even if it’s “not enough”. Art means something, it is intention incarnate.
I sprinkled some of my pieces throughout this piece. I will answer questions if there are any, I know how to protect my peace.
Anyway, here’s the third installment of something that’s probably less catchy than Tales of a Retail Nothing, but it’s about the images here. I will share more art and more lessons I’ve learned on both the academic side and the emotional side.
’till tomorrow probably
river
- photo by author
- This is my own work and has not been generated in whole or in part by AI
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