Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Metope]

Alright, guess I should just jump right in and start with the beginning here. I know this is a really long topic introduction, but it has to be for me to get it right, and for you guys to understand and hopefully be a bit interested in what I’m saying (and maybe even wanting to participate):

I’ve always been interested in art, both making it and viewing it. I went to an art high school, and absolutely loved the fact that I was able to do what I felt most passionate about in school. Graduating on the other hand was not that neat. You see, over the years I spent in high school I got used to teachers handing out various art assignments, and then it was up to us students to use our creativity to interpret the assignments the way we wanted. I think of myself as a fairly creative person, but when I graduated and nobody was there to hand me assignments I felt lost, and I still do. You know when writers are talking about that famous writer’s block? Well, I have a painter’s block.

So basically I haven’t produced anything in about a year and a half. My mind has been absolutely blank, and even though I’ve been wanting to get back in the game for a long time, there’s always something else I “need” to do first. I guess I’m just scared I don’t have it in me anymore.

Well, enough of my oh-so-tragic artsy background, let’s get to the point! I’ve been going to a lot of art exhibitions lately (fall = exhibition time), which has led to me having a fair amount of “What if...?” thoughts. This is a good thing! If I can find inspiration in exhibitions it must mean that I haven’t lost it completely, right? Anyway, the most stubborn “What if...?” thought that keeps popping up sort of goes like this: “What if I can get people to make assignments for me?”. At first it felt like a cheap and easy way to get things going, but now it’s really growing on me. I mean, what if I can make this into some sort of a project?

As you’ve probably guessed by now, I would like the people on this forum to be the ones helping me out. It won’t be a “You give and I take”-situation, because I hope it will be interesting for you to see what I'll make of your ideas. The paintings I make based on your thoughts and ideas won’t be completely my work, it will be the result of a creative process between you and me. Also, you don’t have to “know” art or even be interested in art to participate, just try to make an interesting and challenging assignment based on whatever you want. It could be a song you like, a dream you had last night, something you find repulsive... You get the idea, anything goes!

Some of you are probably a little lost right now considering most people have never seen an art assignment, so I’ve been digging in my archives to find some old high school stuff. These are examples on what art assignments really are, and I tried to find a varied bunch of them. Hopefully you'll get the idea (Oh, and I should probably mention that I don’t work with 3D-stuff, so no installations or sculptures, please):

Assignment 1: Create a self-portrait based on random personal belongings. No physical features allowed.


Assignment 2: Paint a Greek ruin, and use fauvism as stylistic inspiration.


Assignment 3: The keyword is “Traveling”. Paint or draw anything you want as long as it’s based on the keyword.


Assignment 4: Use a place you are fond of as inspiration for a landscape painting.


If it makes it easier for you, I guess you can think of the assignment as a question, and then the painting is my answer to it.
I won't be able to paint or draw anything until the end of November because of my studies (three exams in a row starting in about a month, puh!), which will give you plenty of time to figure something out. I'm not sure if I'll be able to make something out of all of your assignments, but I will try my very best. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping this will be a good experience. Now, have fun and good luck!

[Jace]

I'll take the bait. I'll write you a story. You can illustrate whichever parts you'd want. I'll write it directly into this thread, because why not?

-The Story, it will be short-

It was thirteen years ago this day that I met her. I knew she was different from the moment I saw her. She was so beautiful, those eyes, that face. I knew I'd never see her again after that day in passing. But I'll never forget her face.

[Metope]

Yess, that's exactly what I'm talking about! Thanks, I'll do my best.

[Jace]

Thanks, I'll do my best.

And if that's not good enough?!
Nah, you do better on a 2d medium than I could ever imagine myself doing.

[Metope]

Haha, if my best is not good enough you'll get your money back. But thank you, compliments are always welcomed around here.

Man, now I wanna get started on this, damn you, uni!

[KharBevNor]

Wow, I remember art at high school now.

Your work is technically excellent, but I feel you've become a little mired in a literalist approach to making work that is both conceptually limiting and (if you care about ever making money out of your work) rather behind the times. This is a criticism of the method by which you seem to have been taught more than anything else. I find that the best 'pure' art arises from the analysis of the relationship between the artist and the world. If this is what you want to do (create 'pure' fine art) then it would be best for you to make a serious effort to set your own briefs with a view to breaking that high-school mould. If you are really serious about it you should probably pursue a Foundation diploma (or some other similiar one or two year course based on the Bauhaus teaching model) to deconstruct your previous training, and then some sort of batchelors degree in Fine Art or painting. That's if you want to produce pure art, that is: from what tiny amount I've seen of your work, you should probably consider a career as an illustrator. There's a lot more work in it than you'd think and it requires the rigor of technique and broad visual vocabulary which you seem to possess. Work like that would probably get you on to most Illustration BA's (in the UK at least) without requiring a Foundation, though a lot of places prefer it.

I'm a second year fine art student (having come on from a Foundation diploma) so I have a vague idea what I'm talking about. The sad truth is that the myth of the artist as a lone creative genius is false (as you seem to have discovered through your inability to make work). It actually takes years of training. Though be warned you'll probably end up creating neo-expressionist sculptures made from the bones of birds or something.

[Metope]

Thank you, this is probably the best constructive criticism I've ever gotten. I know I'm kind of stuck taking things too literally as you say, and I agree with your thoughts on how the best art is made, I'm just not sure if I'll ever get that far. If I got this right (sorry if I didn't, I've had a long day), you're basically saying that I'm talented, but high school has screwed me up? I've never really looked at it that way, but if that's true it's scary as hell. Breaking habits is extremely hard (this thread is probably a good example). I am serious about making art, but I'm not sure if I will try to make a career out of it, because I know it's extremely difficult and I'm not sure if I'm good enough. This is one of the reasons I'm now in uni studying for a BA in art history, and not in some sort of art school.

You're not the first one to recommend me the illustrator career, and that is the most likely path for me to take if I end up trying to make a living out of art after all. My mother used to be a freelance illustrator, so I know a bit about what it's like. I guess I started this thread so I would slowly get back in the game, but your post made me realize it will probably just end up with me getting nowhere and going in circles. Damn, and here I was thinking I had come up with a great idea. I don't know what I'll be doing in the future other that finishing my art history BA (one and a half year left), so I guess I have a lot of thinking to do...

That said, the thought of neo-expressionist sculptures made of bird bones was kind of depressing, seeing how my mother had made sculptures of flowers and butterflies out of fish bones. Haha, oh well, I still think they are pretty.

[KharBevNor]

Everyone learns bad habits vis a vis art in high school. That is just a fact of how art works within a standard high-school education: at high school level you respond to questions set by the exam board/education authority, because everyone has to be marked across the board in a standardised way. It's only when you get to university level when self-direction begins in any serious way, literally just because of the shift in how things are marked and accredited allows for it. Unfortunately, in art, especially fine art, self-direction and self-motivation is literally everything. That's why 95% of people, I would say (in this country anyway, I'm not sure what it's like abroad) need to do a Foundation Diploma before their BA. It's literally an intensive one week course designed to break the mould of high-school art teaching, salvage all the good bits (like your excellence and range of technique) and set you up for the BA.

If there's one thing you should keep on doing, it's making work. Any work. Keep a nice little moleskine sketchbook or something and just draw on the bus or train or whatever, observational or imagined or abstract, it doesn't matter. If you are stuck for more finished work, I recommend losing yourself in exploring the formal properties of materials a an excellent way to generate new ideas. Try new ways of drawing, mark-making and applying paint to paper amd canvas. It doesn't matter what you're doing. The blank canvas is the enemy of the artist. If you're really stuck just throw a pot of ink over it to destroy the blankness and start from there. Once you have filled a few sketchbook and done a few canvases, sit down and analyse what you've done: what images and themes do you keep returning to? Essentially, turn the techniques you use to analyse the work of others inward on your own work. Hopefully you will begin to be able to see how to proceed from there. The only possible way to fail as an artist is not to make work, and even that you can argue against.

[Metope]

Looks like I have a lot more work to do than I thought, because I find it hard to motivate myself. And don't even start on the self-direction thing, this is going to take years and years. About the Foundation Diploma, I'm not sure if we have anything similar to in Norway, because I've never heard of anything like it. I know a few people who went to some sort of art course before applying for a bachelor in fine arts, but that's it. The course lasted over a year, and I know it wasn't designed to break bad habits or preparing them for further education, so I guess it's probably as far away from a Foundation Diploma as you can get. Is the Foundation Diploma something they offer at universities, or is it private? And when do you do it; before or after applying for the fine arts BA?

Yeah, I should probably invest in some sketchbooks, pencils, brushes and other stuff (Jeez, I don't even have proper equipment, all I have is a broken calligraphy pen and some old, gooey acrylic paint). I think I need to learn how to empty my head and just paint, draw, doodle, whatever. It will be difficult though, because as my mother says (and you mentioned it too), I have "The fright of the Blank Canvas". I don't know what happened, because I used to draw and doodle mindlessly all over my school notes (Especially math notes. I hated math.) and basically anything you could draw on, but I'm now more determined to get going again than I've been in months, so I know I still have it in me. And yeah, nothing is worse than nothing, I just need to remember that when my first doodles ends up clumsy and awkward.

[Aura]

Thanks for this thread.  It's pretty poignant to anyone that lost a lot of their drive for art after high school after getting used to assignments.  I went to a performing arts high school and a lot of us are now suffering from the same kind of artist's block.  It's hard to remember where to start again.

Wanders off to throw some ink at her sketchbook.

[pwhodges]

Sadly, when I was seriously ill at age 13, I was out of school for half a year - and then went to a new one.  One of the casualties of that period was my art; but I guess I wasn't so much inspired by it, as I would have made it happen otherwise.  None-the-less, I had won a national "prep-schools" competition the previous year, and had that picture exhibited in London.  It's the only surviving relic of my painting...  It was called "Birds in a tree" - and I had them fighting and stealing eggs.

er...
I'm sure I had a relevant reason for starting this message - but I can't think of it now.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

my assignment to you is The Meat Industry.

beef, specifically.


EDIT: i just realized this may have sounded sarcastic but i assure you i am being completely serious, and i think this sounds like a great idea. also, you are good at painting.

[Metope]

The Meat Industry? Well, this will be interesting, because I know practically nothing about the subject, and I'm far from being a vegetarian. Seeing how you didn't specify if you wanted me to make a pro- or con-Meat Industry (or completely neutral) painting, I guess it's up to me. Anyway, thanks for the assignment and compliment!


Also (and this goes out to everyone): After reading Khar's superb critique and advices, I've been doing a little thinking and decided that this thread probably wasn't a great idea. So from now on I won't be doing any new assignments. I will do Pants and Scandinavian War Machine's assignments however, because they have been kind enough to contribute, and I'm already looking forward to it.

[michaelicious]

You should read Ruth Ozeki's My Year of Meats for inspiration!