What a statement on art (broadly defined), on product development, on learning, on blogging.
Read the Throw More Pots or this synopsis: Two sets of pottery students were graded on different criteria. The first purely by quantity of the work produced as measured in pounds on a scale. The second group needed were judged by quality. They had only to produce a single perfect pot for an "A".
Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seem that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes - the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay...
Art is human; error is human; ergo, art is error.
- David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking
Other fav quotes from Art & Fear:
In large measure becoming an artist consists in learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.
What veteran artists know about each other is that they have engaged the issues that matter to them.
To make art is to sing with the human voice. To do this you must first learn that the only voice you need is the voice you already have.
credits: flickr photo by clickykbd
Thought provoking stuff. I guess I would say that art arises out of errors, or better: out of continual improvements, out of trial and error, out of inspired experimentations.
Simply increasing quantity is no guarantee of art. And some slow deliberations with tons of theory can also result in art.
As far as voice, I personally again have a different viewpoint. I think no one has any voice unless exposed to lots of great voices from the past, or has bizarre and troubling sufferings.
I mean, my "voice" as a writer is a result of studying Proust, Blanchot, Hemingway, Poe, Bible, Koran, Buddhism, Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Kafka, Hawthorne, Wharton, Rimbaud, Rilke, etc.
And I also have experienced weird things, suffered tremendously, and deliberately investigated underground music and so forth.
My "unique, individualized voice" is not my Self in a vacuum with no influences, is what I'm trying to say.
Do I make sense? Perhaps I'm eccentric and maladjusted to this perfect world. Hmmm...
Posted by: steven streight aka vaspers the grate | Aug 12, 2005 at 11:55 PM
Wow! I love this!*
Posted by: coach bags | Nov 08, 2010 at 12:11 AM