Part 1

This Part is an introduction to the program, and addresses primary issues that ever artist faces. As a result of this Part, we begin to understand, on an individual basis, what the important issues are for each of us, allowing us to formulate individual content and comment.

Table of Contents

Objectives of This Program

The following are the main objectives of this program:

  1. To help each participant understand what they want to be or aspire to as an artist.
  2. To help each participant determine what they want to accomplish as an artist and to set appropriate goals.
  3. To help each participant discover what they want to say or express as an artist (content).
  4. To help each participant develop a personal mode and style of expression (process using design and technique).
  5. To help each participant identify what they need to do or learn, to answer the questions implicit in the above statements.
  6. To give each participant the tools, techniques, exercises and practice that will enable them to be effective in self-evaluation and critique of their work and to realize a personal style of expression.

Structure of This Course and Meetings

The following are guidelines for setting up the course:

  1. Our experience is the group should be no larger than 5 to allow for sufficient personal attention. Three is probably the minimum for good group dynamics.
  2. Meetings will be monthly and continue for 4 months excluding any initial information or organizational meeting.
  3. There will be a separate gallery visit if such is feasible.
  4. Generally there will not be demonstrations by the facilitators. This is not a course in technique but a course in directed personal discovery.
  5. Homework will be assigned prior to every meeting including the first.
  6. Critique within the group but not by the group (except with permission) will be an important tool for discovery and teaching, possibly the most important. As such, it will be part of every meeting. The facilitators may include their own work for critique and discussion of problems and their solutions.
  7. The facilitators will assign exercises or projects as they deem appropriate both on a group and an individual basis.
  8. Feedback from each individual on the process used and their perceived progress and satisfaction is essential for the success of the group, both individually and collectively. Please do not feel shy about telling the facilitators what you think and feel.
  9. The facilitators may arrange at most one private meeting with any individual, if in their judgment, circumstances warrant such.

Ground Rules for the Course and Associated Meetings

These are guidelines to help us ensure meetings are productive while individuals’ sensibilities are protected and respected. We will add to and modify these as is appropriate.

  1. The facilitators will create and maintain a dynamic that is positive and allows each member of the group to fully participate. To enable us to do this, we will need your constant feedback.
  2. Unless otherwise agreed upon, during critique sessions, the facilitators will be the only persons to offer comments and observations on the members' work. At the end, the member may solicit comments from the rest of the group while the leaders will monitor the timing of the critique session. Group critique will be with permission only.
  3. All materials given to the group in the form of handouts, emails, electronic documents, etc, are proprietary (copyright applies) and may not be shared with others without permission.

Comments on The Documentation

I will use the masculine singular form of the personal pronoun as a convenience, since gender neutrality was not an issue when the language was invented and we have no general neutral form other than “its”. So please read “his” as “his/hers” or “hers/his”, reading in your personal preference for order of precedence.

Terminology is always problematic in the arts. Since art is so subjective, placing words around our perceptions and understandings can be difficult and every artist tends to develop their own vocabulary. To address this problem we have a glossary on our websites. If you can't find a term we use in it please lets us know. We are always trying to expand and improve our material. Likewise, if a definition is not clear, deficient in some respect or just plain wrong, please let us know and we will try and improve it.

The Science of Art

One way of considering the activity of art is that it consists of four fundamental components, technique, design, content and process. Technique and design can be taught. Content must come from within the individual. Process is the means by which an individual uses technique and design to render content as an image. Content and process cannot be taught. They can only be discovered or developed. This is what art is fundamentally all about.

Content

Content refers in part, to the thematic or conceptual material that grounds the image to be rendered. Simply, it is what a piece of art is about, its meaning to us. It is what we as an individual have to say. It is what is special to the artist, what the artist is passionate about. It is not to be chosen for or constrained by the viewer.

The more important aspect of content, however, is expression. The nuances that we create around our thematic material as a form of personal expression are an important aspect of developing a personal style. As an example, we may exaggerate the warmth of light in the background of a landscape to create a more comfortable and inviting image for the viewer. We are not simply reporting a scene but are expressing emotion in it.

Abstraction as we will see in a later Part, involves extensive personal interpretation and choice in development of expressive technique for rendering an image. At issue is the development of a personal alphabet, vocabulary, symbolism or expressive style that sets you apart from others.

Work may be intentionally void of content, or, more accurately, the content may be voidness. An empty canvas is a legitimate work of art when its intention is to create an image devoid of content.

The art world moves forward as individuals create novel content and styles of expression. The art world generally does not reward with recognition, individuals whose discoveries have an established provenance, although the marketplace often does. In other words, copying only pays off financially.

Technique

Technique is the mechanics of rendering an image or aspects of it. It includes the use of tools and materials. It includes formulas for rendering content such as how to paint a pine tree so it looks like a pine tree. Technique is a skill, easily taught but mastered only by practice. When taught by others, it is devoid of personal content for the student. Only through practice, exploration and adaptation leading to personal discovery, is technique integrated into personal style.

Design

Design refers to the structure of the image and the choice, arrangement and use of the elements composing it. Design is the organizational basis for content. It is a critical part of any preparatory planning. It is a critical part of the painting process. “Design is learned like technique, to deliver your content.” (Alex Powers)

Process

It is via personal process that an artist transforms his initial conceptual idea or content expression into a finished image using his repertoire of design knowledge and techniques. Process is what an artist uses to take that which is inside himself and express it as an external image. Process is the active aspect of our complete artistic nature.

Process uses technique and design to create images, but is much more than masterful technique and good design. It expresses how we feel and think when we are creating, reading about, viewing, and contemplating our work and the work of others.

Process is the hardest of the four components to acquire or develop. It is the hardest component to describe and develop an understanding of. It can’t be taught. It has to be discovered through personal exploration - a repetitive cycle of action, evaluation and application of what was learned, in the next cycle.

Process as a Game of Chess

The painting process may be likened to a game of chess, in which the conscious you, the white player, are playing against the unconscious you, the black player. The playing board is the canvas (paper, plaster or whatever medium you choose). White, by convention, moves first.

The dynamic we are trying to metaphorically capture is the painting process whereby we begin by making a mark. We follow, usually quickly, by making a follow-up mark. But in between, there is a period of unconscious evaluation, possibly with some conscious input. This is the black player moving. The black player represents your entire persona and being. Its decisions are based on your entire life history, associated experience, knowledge and feelings. It is never wrong by definition. It may make bad decisions, but only in the sense that it is not possible for you at this time, to make better ones.

A game of chess ends in a win, a loss, or a draw for white. In a win, white has made a move and black clearly has no possible response. A work in this category has reached a point where you make a move followed by a recognition that nothing more needs to be done. You are satisfied at this time. You know, often with excitement, that you are finished.

In a draw, you find yourself in an interminable chain of minor embellishments and modifications. Nothing moves you closer to completion. Your work just does not get better or move closer to resolution. From this position, you cannot win because black always makes the perfect responding move that maintains the stalemate. You can however, really screw things up if you continue. Realize that many works are precisely in the nature of a draw - just simply ho-hum.

Many pieces end in a loss. Usually, as you play, you sense your position is deteriorating. You make a move and black announces “check”. For non-chess players, this is the state where you have made a move which turns out badly. You look at your work and you (the black player) realize that it was a mistake. The game ends when black announces “checkmate”, meaning that no skill or knowledge you possess will save the work.

In chess, all feasible opening moves have been exhaustively studied. Consequently, the opening moves in a game may be made quickly as the players move through familiar patterns. Painting often opens in a similar manner where we execute the initial moves quickly, often from preplanned studies. Sooner or later, we reach a point where the work fully engages us. Our entire attention and concentration is needed. Failure to provide this can lead to a rapid and surprising checkmate. At this point, we must engage or enter the game.

Of note is the holistic nature of creative work. Fixing a problem alters the entire tableau, often creating one or more problems of a different nature and in different areas of the work. In Part 3, we will address this issue under Working Techniques.

Process as a Dialogue

Another way of viewing the creative process is as a dialogue. A work of art is like a conversation. We may open a dialogue with a statement and some expectation of response. But the part that makes life and conversation interesting is we can never be sure of the response. The conversation may suddenly change and go in unexpected directions. Creative works often develop in a similar manner. The challenge for the artist is usually how to respond to these unexpected turns of event. Another challenge is to remain open and flexible to utilize "happy accidents".

A conversation, to be rich and rewarding, demands our full commitment. We must enter new territory, take risks, open doors that we have kept tightly closed. We must be fully engaged. Anything less yields an experience that is likely proforma, perfunctory and banal.

As a dialogue between our conscious and unconscious selves, our art reflects the quality of the conversation that represents our painting process.

Process as a Sacred Trust

An important part of process is trust or faith in ourselves. Our mind is like an iceberg with consciousness being the one fifth visible and the rest hidden and accessible with difficulty if at all. We must have faith that if we work diligently and smart and persevere, our art will begin to reflect or expose that part of us that is hidden from conscious examination. In other words, we will develop a personal style. Remember that the greatest artists began with no more knowledge about what they would create and achieve than you have about your own future work.

Process As Others Describe It

American artist Robert Irwin's process is described by Lawrence Weschler in his book "Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees" (pp.53-54):

"The process in creating that kind of canvas was like - what? - 10 percent action and 90 percent ass scratching. First you prepared yourself, cleaning up and arranging your palette and tools, sweeping the floors, and then finally, when you were ready, you faced the empty expanse of white canvas and made your first stroke. You were looking for what was interesting and what could be. You went through all the possibilities in your head, edited then down, distilled them, and then you made your next gesture. You'd make a stroke - in there, say - you did something. Then there was a flurry of activity in which you dealt with that. You then lapsed into a period in which you tried to decide about what you'd just done. Was it interesting? Did it work? What demands did it make? So there were periods when the thing moved along like a dialogue, where you'd push and look, push and look, back and forth. Flurry and lapse. And this continued till the painting seemed resolved, whereupon you collapsed in spent satisfaction."

A noted artist we have studied under describes this process for herself as:

"For my work, the black player comes in contact with the white player alternately from the get-go. When I paint, I believe my white player and my black player are in conversation every minute of the way.....as the decision process involves both intuition and analysis. They just dominate at different times......To not allow the black player to dominate, I sometimes allow the white player a little longer time to develop, and not let the black player come in and correct the game too early. But towards the end of the painting, I rely on the analytical part of me to guide the finish...

And none of my paintings are unfinished.  I do not consider either a painting finished completely by intuition is possible (or a success, necessarily) or a painting which is all rational. If by the time the work is nearly done, and I think there is 15% which is not quite right, I would rework it completely, and I might do this several times until the painting is finished...I don't ever throw away a piece of paper or a canvas because it was not salvageable. Salvage is my process itself. And I do enjoy this whole struggle."

We recently spent a week working with Alex Powers. During the week, he did a 15 or 20 minute silent drawing demo of a photographic figure for the class. Twice while he was working in the upper left-hand quadrant of the paper on the figure's face, he made sudden large gestural movements with his finger into the empty lower righthand quadrant. When asked afterwards why he did this, he had no recollection of making it and no idea what he was doing or why.

The point is that although we have described process as an intentional, conscious act on white's part, in the case of most artists who have attained a degree of mastery over technical issues, the whole process occurs without the degree of self awareness that leads to easy recall of what was going on in their conscious minds. Although your personal process has a deliberate, conscious component of choice and action, the process itself may be something you are largely unconscious of.

To understand your process, you have to become conscious of it. This is a separate problem from the problems associated with the issues your process is trying to address - the issues associated with an evolving image.

Generally, in the art world, way too much emphasis is placed on technique. Process, the most important part along with content, is rarely addressed in courses.

Understanding the Artist Within

This we suggest is the fundamental issue an artist must deal with. Our understanding of ourselves as artist will and should evolve over time. Discovery will likely be a lifelong process. Indeed, the knowledge that there are hills beyond hills may be exactly what sustains us as artists. As an aid to addressing the issue, answer these questions:

  1. What do I want to achieve or gain as an artist? Make a list of everything you want to receive such as personal satisfaction, recognition, relaxation, financial success or anything else as a direct result of your life as an artist. This question relates to your career or personal aspirations as an artist. It also may reveal aspects of what you want to be your personal process. The answers may be turned into long-term goals.

  2. What do I want to achieve in or by my art? Make a list of everything you want your art to contain and express. Examples might be thematic content, emotion, specific responses from the observer and your own desires for what the image should contain or say. This question relates to the nature of your art and how it is perceived. The answers may be turned into short or medium-term goals and will likely contain some description of your primary content interests.

  3. What place do I want my art to assume in life? Create a priority list of your interests and activities.

  4. What resources including money, time and effort, do I feel I should devote to my art? Recognizing we all have many calls on our resources, estimate on a daily and weekly basis, how much of each you wish and are able to devote to your work.

  5. How closely do the actual circumstances of my life correspond to my answers to questions 3 and 4? Was any answer to 3 or 4 unrealistic? These last three questions should reveal the basis of conflict in your working life as an artist. The answers will change over time. Use them as a focus to help you address the roots of this conflict that most artists experience. Highlight any major disconnects.

These questions may be revisited from time to time to help an individual assess progress.

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