What is it about being an artist that makes us feel so vulnerable to criticism? Perhaps, as a group, we are not any more insecure then any other class of people but creating is a unique endeavor. With something like math, you add up the numbers, perhaps do it twice, and if it checks out, it’s “right”. Creating, without rules or clearly defined goals, all you can really do is try. But how do you know what’s “right” when you create? There’s nothing to “add”. No real yardstick to measure success.
Perhaps there’s a goal or an ideal that you strive for when you create with the understanding that you will never reach the goal you seek. Perhaps you strive to be “in the moment”, to create and not get in your own way.
In striking out on my own path, it was important to me not to use type, collage, and two dimensional images frequently used by Joseph Cornell. To avoid the criticism that I was being “derivative”. Avoiding elements, however, because “they have been used” is like not using the color red because it’s been used by others.
This piece is called Washington. Part of the thinking with this piece was not to avoid the surreal elements used by Cornell. To explore what these elements might do in a Foundling. How they would expand my creativity. Would the use of these elements, indeed be derivative?
I need to keep reminding myself, it’s not what you do, but how you do it.