Making Art is Not An Obligation

Jane Smiley, an American writer has a new book out on writing, The Questions that Matter Most. I really recommend it for those interested in the art of writing but much of what she says is equally applicable to making visual art.

Her main premise is that writing is an act of freedom and by extension so is any art form. She points out no one is asking you to write that novel or create an artwork (though of course if you have just written a best seller, publishers often DO ask you what’s coming up next). What she is emphasising is making something is an exercise in freedom, not an obligation. If you feel obligated in any way, not up to standard (whose standards?) or paralysed by comparisons, you are not free to let your true voice emerge.

Then there are those elusive creatures- ideas. Some she calls pebbles that may look attractive but are inert, whereas other ideas can be seeds with potential to grow. When beginning a new work, she is never sure which idea is a seed or a pebble so when her writing takes off in an unexpected direction, she knows it a seed idea taking charge with a life of its own. This leads to a constant back and forth between what she planned and didn’t plan with the latter holding most of the energy, joy and originality.

Visual artists too struggle with what the work “should” look like and what is happening on the canvas. I like Jane Smiley’s approach of back and forth, not letting the original ideas go completely while letting new ones emerge as the work takes shape. Unless you are copying a subject, it is rare for a completed work to look exactly like it was first imagined. I don’t see this as a failing but more of a willingness to let the unexpected do its magic.