Elca Branman on wed 12 mar 97
Truthfully, I have a hard time reading this stuff, and oftenchoose not to
tire my poor charley horsed brain, BUT why is there an assumption that
art is made to communicate..In my experience , art is made by the artist
in an attempt to understand, to find out, because he/she has no choice,
because it feels right, becausesomething is begging to be painted or
writtem, because the world is so huge and marvellous that this is a way
to connect with it, because it feels good to squish clay through the
fingers, or to lick a brush across the page..What is this communication
thing? If people get one's own wonder, terrific, whipped cream on the
cake, but if they don't, nothing is going to stop the artist from
producing..its simply a way of breathing for him/her.
Elca, opinionated this a.m. and still romantic at seventy
Branman Potters elcab1@juno.com
in Stone Ridge ,N.Y.
in the Hudson Valley
Dave and Pat Eitel on thu 13 mar 97
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Truthfully, I have a hard time reading this stuff, and oftenchoose not to
>tire my poor charley horsed brain, BUT why is there an assumption that
>art is made to communicate..
What Elca says is certainly true--but all communication is not intentional
communication. One's art communicates, I believe, whether one wants it to
or not. Artists/craftspersons work for a variety of reasons, and whatever
those reasons are, thank goodness they do.
Later...Dave
Dave Eitel
Cedar Creek Pottery
Cedarburg, WI
pots@cedarcreekpottery.com
http://www.cedarcreekpottery.com
Doug Gray on sun 16 mar 97
Elca Branman wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
why is there an assumption that
> art is made to communicate..In my experience , art is made by the artist
> in an attempt to understand, to find out, because he/she has no choice,
> because it feels right, becausesomething is begging to be painted or
> writtem, because the world is so huge and marvellous that this is a way
> to connect with it, because it feels good to squish clay through the
> fingers, or to lick a brush across the page..What is this communication
> thing?
Interesting point, to which I agree partially. But I do feel that, for
many of us, there is an element of sharing involved in the production of
our art. Theoretically, if an artist is working to satisfy some
personal urgency, then there would be no need for some one else to see
the work, no need to sell the work, no need for feed back from
collegues, no need for ant other interaction except with the material
used to create the work--art in a vaccum.
I agree that there is an urgency that drives me to produce and that this
urgency helps to keep me working. In the book "Art & Fear," the authors
dsicuss this theory as "produce or die", that if one is no longer making
art then one is no longer an artist. The fear of anihilation is the
impetus for continuing. I can't say that I fall into this category, but
I know people who do.
My point is, if there is a point to this rambling, is that for many
people (maybe not yourself) there will always be a degree of external
validation, however minute, that enables the work to continue, change or
evolve. For many people this is the sharing, this is the communicating.
The message communicated does not have to be profound, but something has
to be shared--a pleasing arrangement of color or textures, the touch of
a form that functions well, an emotion or response, or simply the
manifestations of your own aesthetic.
Doug Gray
Alpine, TX
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