MAKING ART: It’s NOT about your materials!

 

 

 

Do the work that matters to YOU!

When I first started working with polymer clay back several decades ago, I got a lot of flack for my choice of materials.

“It’s just plastic!” was the most common comment.

A lot of art media gets the same push-back. Acrylic paint is not as “professional” as oils.  Stone sculptures are “real art”, clay pots are not.

I’ve encountered people who don’t think women are real artists. (!!!! I know, right?) People who think the ONLY art is painting. The list, it is long….

Okay, most people today now welcome music, theater, etc. as art forms.

But a lot of creative work is still left behind the door.

My go-to speech is, what is the work that you do that makes you happy? That gets you to your best place? And when you share it with others, it makes other people happy, too. And the world is a better place for everyone.

It took me years to figure out how to talk about my preferred medium in a way that drew people IN instead of pushing them OUT.

I think the definition of “real art” for many people is dead white European male oil painters from the 19th century. (Sorry guys!)

But people have been doing creative work for thousands of years. New discoveries of cave art over 40,000 years old in Indonesia shows us that art has been around a looooooong time. And also all around the world. Not just in Europe and Asia.

Many people still believe there’s “real art”, and then there’s “craft”. A dear friend who was a potter cleared that up for me, too. “If I make a sculpture out of clay, it’s called ‘craft'”, she said. “But if I ship it to a foundry to have it cast in bronze, it’s now called ‘art’.” Life-changing insight for me!

A few years ago, I asked to mentor a new member of one of our county-wide open studio tours. The person was a hairdresser who also paints abstract art. Several people in our group focused on their occupation, not their art.

I shared a small version of this with her, because I wanted them to know I have a broader view, not just of their artwork, but of their profession. They agreed, and said, “Cutting hair is like sculpting! You have to know exactly where you’re going and exactly where to stop!”

Which the heart of what I want to share with you today:

We choose the kind of work that works for US!

When studio visitors are ready to engage with me, the most frequent question I get is, “Are your artifacts made of wood? Or bone?”  (I don’t get offended! This means they’re ready for me to talk with them.)

I say, “My hands don’t want to carve. I tried with a piece of bone when I first started this work. It didn’t go well.”

I share the quote from my mentee/hairdresser, and add, “And as you can see, I can’t even cut my bangs evenly!” (Usually gets a giggle, especially if I really did screw it up recently….)

I tell them I realized my hands want to shape things. Clay allows me to add to the mass I’m using, or reduce it. Clay allows me to shape a figure until I get it just right. I can adding markings, or remove them.

And polymer clay techniques allow me to create a surface that looks like bone or ivory. Or soapstone, or pipestone, or serpentine.

It’s about what works for ME.

And your choice of medium should be about what works for YOU.

People who paint in oils can work and rework a section of their paintings, because it takes awhile for the oils to ‘set’. Acrylics dry faster, so you have to work faster, too.  I could go on forever, but I won’t. (Please, no cheering in the background!) 😀

Every art medium has its advantages and disadvantages, its unique challenges, and its unique power of expression. Some processes need precision, others encourage exploration and random outcomes.

It goes on….but….

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to dig deep into the “why” of your choices.

Why you choose the materials you do. Why it matters to you.

Whether it’s painting the Mona Lisa or building houses for others, turning a rock into a sculpture or turning a bowl on a pottery wheel, whether you make something we can hang on a wall or whether you make people feel better, do better, feel safer, feel happier. It can be healing, teaching, cooking, restoring/repairing, repurposing, gardening, writing poetry or writing advice columns for people who are struggling. Whether you make a living with it, or whether you just do it because it helps you deal with what you do for a living.

If it’s done with integrity, with your heart…

It’s. All. Good.

(Still don’t believe me? Watch this video on Pinterest of a guy making huge portraits of animals with…..staples!

I’d love to hear why you chose the media/materials you’ve chosen! Feel free to share in the comments!

I used to get flack about my fiber work, too. Because “quilting isn’t real art…”