There is nothing more encouraging on a Monday morning when you're feeling so very discouraged, and having no beginning direction or motivation, than to see your work on the front page of Indie Spotting.
This should give me the willingness to persevere through the day.. . .
I've decided that Spring not only brings green beautiful plants, somehow it renews creativity.
Over the passed several weeks, I've been working on new and different ideas to round out my store. I thought about what things I would buy. A less juvenile key chain is something I would buy.
So I found the hooks and decided that adding some pretty beads would do the trick.
Additionally, I will be adding 3 more mixed media pieces and 3 more pairs of earrings in the next few days to my Etsy Store.
If you look up the term Biography or Auto-biography in the dictionary you'll see the following:
bi·og·ra·phy(b-gr-f)
n.pl.bi·og·ra·phies
1. An account of a person's life written, composed, or produced by another: a film biography of Adlai Stevenson; an oral biography.
2. Biographies considered as a group, especially when regarded as a genre.
3. The writing, composition, or production of biographies: a career entirely devoted to biography.
au·to·bi·og·ra·phy(รดt-b-gr-f)
n.pl.au·to·bi·og·ra·phies
The biography of a person written by that person.
In the basic sense of a concise definition, it does the trick, but there are many subtleties to biography, (or to be exact autobiography), writing that I have recently begun to re-examine.
A few weeks ago, after many hours of Etsy and Blog research of my contemporaries; I realized that I must sit down to the task of writing a new biography. I have of course evolved since my last edition. There have also been many life altering changes; i.e. the birth of my daughter. When my focus was as a gallery artist, the biography that I wrote sounded much like an over-intellectualized organized bit of artistic jargon. Is it me? Well, I do consider it to be a representation of ME, but no it's not me. The reasoning behind that type of writing was to capture the academic or professionalized aspect of my work to increase it's saleability. It has a purpose, but not my current purpose.
This is the moment during the process where I sit blankly staring that the blinking cursor with not an inkling of where to begin such a daunting process.
I could go back to where I started and rework this bio:
Isaac Asimov once said, "I write for the same reason I breathe-because if I didn't, I would die." I couldn't describe my passion for art any more adequately than with that very same quote. The desire to express myself is so strong that it no longer resembles a passion or a desire, but supersedes it and manifests itself as necessity. To live without it, I wouldn't have a life. All of my work begins with observation and life experiences that have shaped my judgment and point of view. I describe the observation first with the lens of a camera or the line of pencil or charcoal. The subtleties of light, form, line contour, and color all interest my mind and imagination. Working with the photograph or drawings as reference, I use interesting angles and sketches to describe the intricate nature of my subject. Then through the process of abstraction, I eliminate color, shading, and detail. I break the image down into linear forms, shapes, and line. I extract the sense of dimension and shadow. After I have de-constructed my subject to a pure and essential form, I determine the overall composition with cropping and manipulation. I determine size and point of view. Then, I translate it it onto canvas with abstracted linear forms. Working from that linear translations, I build up my emotional reasons to the existence of my subject with paint. I use color and texture to describe feelings, instincts, and moods. I create a sense of tension and movement with bold colors and thick application of paint which is often left on the canvas with visible brush strokes. Color takes precedence and it is the propulsion that actualizes the personal expressiveness displayed in my work. Attention to detail is now re-introduced into the composition with layers of pigment. The linear strokes are manipulated with paint and pigment to articulate ideas, thoughts, and expressions about my subject reinstalling detail, shadow, light, and dimensions. Describing subjects in an entirely realistic manner does not interest me. I leave that to the photographic lens. I am more interested in the psychological responses of my viewers to the emotional and bold expression of my interpreted subject. I create my work with a deeply personal ardor that explores the humanistic process of judgment. My altruistic intentions are to illicit a response from the view regarding interpretation, emotion, and belief.
But how do you add soul to something that is so pretentious and academic? Again, just another question that I cannot answer, but I feel is directing me to the right place. I know that I started my career with the intuition to know that I wanted art to be for ALL people, somehow that idea got jumbled.
So listing my raison d'etre is a starting point, or I could begin with an outline of what I feel is a long list of accomplishments, but then again I have an even longer list of unaccomplished wishes. Another fight between ego and intuition begins: one side nearly begging me to list off my amazing achievements, the other humbly encouraging me to concisely speak of how art affects my soul.
As for the reader; I can't image either form of (auto)biography would lead to greater interest in my art. So again, I think that I could write it solely on your behalf; although, that may sound quite odd: "I love to paint just knowing that this will get hung on a long ago plastered wall in a dingy smoked filled unfit apartment, realizing my worth is about $2/hr after having figured in my time, self promotion, material cost, and the little bit of soul that gets taken away anytime I work." If you understand sarcasm you've also quickly realized that approach will not at all be conducive to this exercise.
Another idea forms and I think now that I am a blogger I can take the "One-a-day" approach. I could add a new fact or interesting tidbit of informative verbiage to this blog everyday, but that would not have a lasting effect on the reader. It could end up being confusing and boring, neither of which describes me at all. How long until my ego would be exhausted of irrelevant self fulfilling bullshit; one day?; one week?; one month?
Maybe, I shall scrap the entire idea and put my ego away for safe keeping. I know if it wanders out too far, it will probably come back damaged. In no other profession, but that of an artist, do we really truly let our essence wander for such public and often harsh criticism. So often the damage is sustained for eternity, forever impacting our present and future working selves. How can that be worth the price we're paid?
Knowing that to pursue art as a business I must try to represent ego, accomplishments, and my humble and reclusive nature. This sometimes incomprehensible juxtaposition is exactly what buyers, collectors, and lovers of art latch onto. This personal and revealing description of the very essence of human nature, which so many of us cannot fathom let alone describe, is what makes art appealing.
So it seems I was able to redefine (auto)biography, but has it gotten me closer to my objective? I could answer that by immediately saying it was a great task in rumination and procrastination; just what an artist does.
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