Don't stay safe.
I have lost track, but I think we are heading into week six of lockdown and it seems that the new farewell catchphrase is ‘stay safe’. Whilst this most certainly applies to our current environment, I was thinking about this with respect to my work, staying safe would be a trap that holds me back.
When I was studying Media Arts at Wintec in Hamilton, NZ, I remember one of my tutors, Lauren, telling me failures should be celebrated, we should make bad work. I remember at the time thinking, yeah right, okay, well thankfully you’re not my favourite tutor!
Last week I referred to my first two asparagus as successes, this week I have changed my mind.
Yes, yes, these asparagus are successful in that they are relatively well rendered and look like the real thing, but to be honest I am fairly well versed in this water-colouristic, glazing technique and it’s not that difficult to create likeness. The question is, would I consider these a success? For me it’s about the process, not the end product. If I am learning nothing new about the materiality of paint, not navigating my way through new ground to find the essence of the work I am just dealing with predictable outcomes leading to an end product, so where is the achievement? I may as well be in Vietnam reproducing formulaic paintings of women riding bicycles with a bamboo hat on their head. I'm not finished with these asparagus yet! I have some exciting thoughts about losing to gain.
This brings me back to failure. Failure and experimentation go hand-in-hand we cannot have one without the other. Here are some half-baked experimentations that I am currently learning from, one good and one really bad crab!
I have a choice, stay safe and make fairly successful work or don’t stay safe and make work that, keeps me thinking and leads to a more thorough exploration of myself and the possibilities of paint. Lauren, wherever you are, I apologise for not listening and I'm going to think more about this, maybe it's the negative connotation of failure that put me off the scent.
As a complete aside Jac shared this image with me and I loved it so much I have to share.... Andrea Kastner's version of Rembrandt's, 1632 oil painting, 'Dr Tulp leading the way on Zoom.'
For friends who don't know the painting this is referencing, this is an image of Rembrandt's original:
The anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp.
