Inculcation

I may be the only person who doesn’t mind an occasional flight delay once in a Blue Moon.  Of course this applies only if I happen to be in an airport with a really good bookstore. My last great find was in December on a trip to San Francisco.  Austin Kleon’s “Steal Like an Artist” caught my eye.  An easy read with lots of graphics, I am enamored with his theory that there are no original ideas and an individual artist’s interpretation of the work of another becomes her own unique art.

When my boys first started painting I was perplexed by their process, sourcing artwork on the internet for cutting stencils.  Why they aren’t using their own drawings caused me to wonder.  After reading Kleon’s book I started watching their work closely, beginning to notice the nuances in a single drawing.  Like a puzzle, positive and negative space needs to be negotiated, along with the myriad of stylistic decisions the artist makes in choosing where to cut. The simple, two-dimensional clip art is altered geometrically with each slice of the exacto, each layer of spray paint, each color, speckle or drop landing on canvas, wood, metal or glass.  I’ve developed a whole new appreciation for their work which offers interpretations as vast as the Milky Way.

I came across this piece on Kleon’s Tumblr blog the other day and it piqued my interest:  http://tumblr.austinkleon.com/post/41121223410 Its further proof of his concept, as the artist he is referencing creates his own work from paintings he finds in thrift stores. What I like even more though, is the observation this artist made when he exposed his friends to these pieces.  Here he thought the thrift store art was no big deal, just another tangent he was sent on by his creative mind. His friends thought otherwise, which was the catalyst to move his pieces out of his studio and into a public space.

As an artist it feels really risky to put your work out there.  Many of us suffer from a lack of confidence.  Art is subject to judgment and people can react very strongly.  We want our work on exhibit, but we lack courage to knock on the doors of the very places we want to step inside.  This leaves lots of us with studios full of a multitude of iterations of some cool concept we thought up, but we’re not sure is good enough for the masses. And it’s not just art that’s like this.  It’s any gift or passion we house that we feel really strongly about.  When it’s that personal, it’s tough to get it out there in the light of day.

After spray on the drawing board -- N8

But it’s really important to let someone in or, in today’s world of boundless social media outlets, to put your work out there, even if it’s only in some small way.  Because today, more than ever, it’s even easier for your passion to catch the eye of the person who can help you change your world.  Before you know it, the very people you seek to impress may come knocking on your door looking for you.  What have you got to lose?