On writing

As a writer, I often find myself injecting my own thoughts and motives into others' works.

As an artist, I try to find ways to articulate my thoughts without obfuscating the work, and the intension (whether multi-faceted or not) behind it.

So I write statements pretty regularly, if only as an exercise for myself. My most recent works, some of which I have posted here are dealing with the horse both as a culturally iconic and as well as personal symbol.

I think, that in the process of writing, because one is forced to make things clearer, revelations are more easily ascertainable and understood. At least that has always been true for me.

Personally, writing has always been the opportunity I take to attempt to study an issue, a work, or even a person as one might a highly faceted stone. To let half-formed thoughts dwell in the penumbra, until they often unexpectedly pop out...of course these moments of clarity often come long after a blog post has published, an article sent to the printer, or a comment posted. But they remain, and often find themselves worked into new essays.

I'm not really sure what has occasioned this comment, perhaps I am curious as to why others choose to write. For me it often boils down to one tenant: writing helps me know what I think.

ideas beget ideas, work begets work

Sometimes, when I talk to people about art, about what I like, as well as what I find valid, I bump into (and I am pretty sure every artist has run up against a version of what I am talking about) that person who can’t see past technique to understand why abstract/modern/conceptual/performance art is valid. To which I usually explain that for anyone immersed in a field, the foundations of that field, while important, often cease to be of interest after a certain amount of time; Einstein didn’t stop at the Pythagorean Theorem.

As a nascent art historian, I respect Ad Reinhardt not just for his strict adherence to a rigid set of his own rules, but for the absurdity he acknowledged (in his writings) therein.

So when this list made by Sol Lewitt in 1969 floated my way—two years after Reinhardt died--I thought it’d make a fun, (and funny) post:

Sentences on Conceptual Art

by Sol Lewitt

Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.

Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.

Irrational judgements lead to new experience.

Formal art is essentially rational.

Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.

If the artist changes his mind midway through the execution of the piece he compromises the result and repeats past results.

The artist's will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.

When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.

The concept and idea are different. The former implies a general direction while the latter is the component. Ideas implement the concept.

Ideas can be works of art; they are in a chain of development that may eventually find some form. All ideas need not be made physical.

Ideas do not necessarily proceed in logical order. They may set one off in unexpected directions, but an idea must necessarily be completed in the mind before the next one is formed.

For each work of art that becomes physical there are many variations that do not.

A work of art may be understood as a conductor from the artist's mind to the viewer's. But it may never reach the viewer, or it may never leave the artist's mind.

The words of one artist to another may induce an idea chain, if they share the same concept.

Since no form is intrinsically superior to another, the artist may use any form, from an expression of words (written or spoken) to physical reality, equally.

If words are used, and they proceed from ideas about art, then they are art and not literature; numbers are not mathematics.

All ideas are art if they are concerned with art and fall within the conventions of art.

One usually understands the art of the past by applying the convention of the present, thus misunderstanding the art of the past.

The conventions of art are altered by works of art.

Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.

Perception of ideas leads to new ideas.

The artist cannot imagine his art, and cannot perceive it until it is complete.

The artist may misperceive (understand it differently from the artist) a work of art but still be set off in his own chain of thought by that misconstrual.

Perception is subjective.

The artist may not necessarily understand his own art. His perception is neither better nor worse than that of others.

An artist may perceive the art of others better than his own.

The concept of a work of art may involve the matter of the piece or the process in which it is made.

Once the idea of the piece is established in the artist's mind and the final form is decided, the process is carried out blindly.

There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.

The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course.

There are many elements involved in a work of art. The most important are the most obvious.

If an artist uses the same form in a group of works, and changes the material, one would assume the artist's concept involved the material.

Banal ideas cannot be rescued by beautiful execution.

It is difficult to bungle a good idea.

When an artist learns his craft too well he makes slick art.

These sentences comment on art, but are not art

*pictured: Reinhardt’s rules for a new academy and Lewitt’s Sploch #15, 2000

a resolution of truth

Attempting to begin to synthesize one’s own experiences into a memoir; to try an organize the important from the unimportant, to scale down stories, and to view one’s own unvarnished reflection is terrifying.

Not only do you have the opportunity to completely expose yourself as an utterly mundane member of the human race, but to know, really know that nothing you are doing or experiencing is really that different from those who have come before you.

It is frightening and freeing at the same time.

I write this post to explain what some of you may have already discovered, that I have begun a new blog entitled the seduction of suicide. Right now, I am the only person who can read it. The reason for starting it was/is simple, I am attempting to force myself to write in a more autobiographical vein.

The results so far: incomprehensible gibberish that I can barely read back to myself without cringing. As it turns out, I am a petty, vainglorious, creature who delights in using words like quantify and qualify in an attempt to bury the details of my own emotional life.

Anyway, back to the blog. Why such a semi-public forum, why not a diary or just a Word document on my desktop? Simple: those things are too easy to hide. This way, everytime I log on to palaver about artisntrocketscience nonsense, I am reminded of the other task I set for myself.

So, wish me luck, and don’t forget to prepare for Fay...even if that just means a gallon of bourbon and a tub full of cleanish water...

Where the Wild Things Are

I should probably start this post by admitting that I had to shame myself into not titling it “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Jungle Fever,” or “Jungle Gym.” As it is, I obviously couldn’t ween myself off of the idea of wildness.

However, this post isn’t meant to highlight my lack of editorial imagination, but instead to say how excited I am to have stumbled across Shelton Hull’s blog: Money Jungle Safari.

Shelton is one of Jacksonville’s best, most faceted writers whose opinions I always read with real relish. He is smart, and sees connections where the rest of us just see coincidences. It has always been startling to me that the more mainstream publications have never picked him up. On second thought, it doesn’t.

However, it does seem that Shelton, like so many of us, has grown weary of waiting for the imprimatur of establishment publications, and has gone out on his own.

In the coming months, I look forward to reading his thoughts on everything from national politics, to local art shows (and of course, pro wrestling).