› Discipline
July 18, 2000
Dear Artist,
Benjamin Franklin said; "Keep your shop and
your shop will keep you." So it is with us
artists-when we step into our studios we are open
for the business of our imaginations. Here's
three ideas about staying open:
Wishboard: This is a spatial pin-up of projects
both obligatory and voluntary. Post-its or file
cards do the trick. Make sure they are all in
your own writing. Remove them when the jobs are
done. When you commit with a note to yourself,
even sketchily, your dreaming mind will fine tune
and add to the project, and when you go to work
you will be more likely to complete with a
flourish. If you don't like the idea of your
wish-list being out and about--put your plans
into a journal.
Graphs: For visual people an excellent system is
the graph. Out the corner of the eye in an
inauspicious corner of the studio, unnoticed and
unintelligible to visitors, it manages. Whether
you make a graph of ideas generated, works
produced, works delivered or income flow, your
graph is a gentle reminder of what makes you
tick. Here's Genn's law number 3872: "If you
keep a graph it will go up; if you do not keep a
graph it will go down."
Procrastaid: While procrastination has varied
causes, it is also just a bad habit. Habits can
be beaten. Simply teach yourself to start.
Squeeze out. Hit the chisel, push the brush. It
can't be said any better than Goethe:
"Boldness has genius, power and magic.
Engage, and the mind grows heated. Begin, and the
work will be completed."
Best regards,
Robert
PS: "It's only a thought, and a thought can be changed."
(Elizabeth Hay)
Esoterica: Joanna Field, who wrote the classic
"A Life of One's Own,"(1934), a method
of discovering one's true likes and dislikes,
kept a journal. In it she entered items like:
"I want to draw and study a few things
closely by feeling, not thinking." A lot of
her entries started with "I want."
The following are selected correspondence
relating to the above letter. If you find value
in any of this please feel free to copy to a
friend or fellow artist. We have no other
motivation than to give creative people an
opportunity to share ideas and possibly broaden
their capabilities. Thank you for writing rgenn@saraphina.com
› Moving home
I am in the process of moving back home to my own studio as I am
finding that a studio outside the home in a community is not productive
for me. It has become too social and they have too many "things"
which are for the society and its goals rather than encouraging
the individual artist to grow. There is a place for these art communities
within our society however I find they limit one's personal growth.
When a person is starting out they are a way of encouraging and
exposing them to the market and its expectations. However for me,
I find that they are robbing me of the little precious time I have
to paint. Also sabotaging my own potential to grow creatively.
Your letter on discipline reminded me of why I
made the decision to be true to my dreams as an
artist and not always be giving away my dreams
for the benefit of others.
Angelique Gillespie, Calgary
› Trouble finishing
On Procrastination: Your letter today counselled
us to teach ourselves to start. It is not
starting that is a problem for me; it's the
finishing. My house is littered with projects
that I have started and cast away half-complete.
Starting is the easiest part of my battle. I have
to celebrate a finished painting--a reward to
myself, and encouragement to do it again. But
that doesn't seem to be enough, and I still find
myself not carrying through on my projects. Do
you have any advice on finishing?
Jennifer Cannon, Utah
(RG note) This is a big
subject. Your problem is that you lack the
collecting instinct. You don’t have enough
motivation to see your work completed because you
don’t treasure it enough. If your work is
not going to galleries you must set up a special
room--an archive--a place for the Collected Works
of Jennifer Cannon. If your perfectionist nature
is standing in the way of finishing, take heart
in the idea that it’s better to leave them
unfinished than to overwork them. Go ahead and
sign. Getting to the signature completes the
circle and gives permission to start again.
Some artists can’t
finish because down deep they fear what may
happen if they become successful. This condition
is even more dangerous than fear of failure. Both
result in self-sabotage. We have to admit,
though, that many works of art gradually let us
down as we proceed. There comes a time when a
decision must be made—whether to press on,
or abort. This is a good exercise. Take the
hopeless cases out and burn them. While it may
not clear the air, it clears the psyche for works
that have a better chance of completion.
Someone who is poor at finishing may simply be
overactive in creative ideas--hundreds in the
imagination--you start and are enthusiastic but
if gratification doesn’t happen you lose
interest and go onto something else. It's part
laziness and impatience, part disregard for
detail and simply part of the creative abundance
that stops us on project one and moves us over to
project two.
For some of us it’s
enough to know that we can do it. We only need to
take the job to the point where we know where
it’s going. Boredom sets in. Completion is
redundant because it’s good enough in the
head. There may be no effective antidote to this
condition.
› A handy device
Something that has helped me to value my work
more and finish properly is your technique of
keeping pristine, beautiful frames in the studio
and using the secondary easel. I never used to do
this but now I find it is a highlight in the
process of making, finishing, signing, varnishing
and eventually delivering. All in all a very
handy device. Doing it at the 75% done stage does
wonders for the work. I have now gone so far as
to move to a third easel as it were -- my clean,
lovely living room wall...for a few days before
delivery my "tens" get to hang there. I
have the opportunity to enjoy the painting, see
where I’m succeeding and also decide how I
am going to improve in the next one.
L Page, UK
› Incomplete history
For quite some time now I have been perplexed by
my own procrastination, bordering almost on
reluctance, in signing my paintings. It is not
that they are unfinished. A majority of them are.
However, I do spend a lot of time looking at my
own work. If I had spent two hours of a certain
day painting, I could spend another four hours
simply looking, occasionally putting a touch of
paint here and there. Then I chanced upon a
paragraph on Giacometti written by John Berger
which struck me immediately: "The extreme
proposition on which Giacometti based all his
mature work was that no reality… could ever
be shared. This is why he believed it impossible
for a work to be finished. This is why the
content of any work is not the nature of the
figure or head portrayed but the incomplete
history of him staring at it."
Teng Jee Hum, Singapore
› Yes, how?
A change in habit, a new work, a different technique, an improved
performance, and from a line in T.S. Eliot's 'The Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock', we ask "And how should I begin?"
J Sommers
› Graphic evidence
I have kept a graph of my weekly production now
for almost twenty-three years. My volume has only
diminished slightly during the last few. A
parallel graph shows income on a weekly basis for
the same period. Due to incremental increases in
the price of my paintings over the years there is
a dramatic disparity—the income graph far
outstrips the production graph. I agree with you
that the graph goes up when you keep it. Also,
it’s a comfort to know that one is in charge
of one’s destiny.
S Dole
› A new spin
A few years ago I resigned my job as a restaurant
waiter in order to devote full time to art. I
took a spinner with me. A spinner is one of those
round things with clips on it that hangs between
the kitchen and the dining area. I now wear two
hats. I am a waiter of ideas and a cook of
creativity. I send myself orders on the spinner
which now hangs in the studio. The spinner also
reminds me how I used to run my little buns off
as a waiter and I try to put out just as much
effort now.
Daryl, San Francisco
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If you would like to see selected correspondence
relating to the previous letter
"Invention" please click here http://painterskeys.com/clickbacks/invention.htm
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