In many ways this has been a challenging semester, and one of the ways I have been dealing with the frustration is to work out my problems in art. It is an odd sort of thing, working out ones frustrations in art, primarily because I so often think of art as decoration, something to be enjoyed and appreciated, not to do anything. After all it is not in the nature of art to do anything. It entertains us I suppose, and the best art can impress one sufficiently as to enlighten and inform, but it is difficult to quantify how much work art is doing. After all, most art is an acquired taste, like fine wine, where even the experts seldom agree.
I showed my piece on frustration to one professor and told her that the work was about my frustration in graduate school. That I felt I worked ceaselessly without result, which is why the paintings were stacked and turned upside down. Her response was simply “I don’t see frustration.”
I never know when someone says something like that if they are being the devil’s advocates. I asked her what she did see and she responded that she saw a pile of paintings that probably represented the work of the artist but that the viewer had no access to this work that is they couldn’t see it because it was turned upside down. So I said “wouldn’t that frustrate you.” And she smiled sheepishly and says yes that it probably would but that the idea of frustration was not immediate.
This is what I am talking about. This is what makes me crazy. Even when I spell it out for them and get people to admit that yes, this is what they see, for some reason they still want to deny that they have seen it. It is crazy making. I suppose I could continue making more art about how I am not making any art, but that is nonsense. How can you make are about not making art? So I retreated back into my older pieces from pre-midterm and began to work out some of my ideas on balance.
The other day I had one more thought that might bear fruit on this idea of frustration. What if you make art, and then tear it up, and then make something new with the shreds? Is it still about frustration? If you make something that you know you are just going to throw away it seems that isn’t frustration, it is artifice, and it is why, ultimately I didn’t think the pile of paintings worked the way I wanted it to, but it did make me feel better while I was making it (and showing it around) and so ultimately art did its job: it entertains, enlivens and informs.
Final note- an independent juror picked this work to be a part of the annual juried student art show.
2 comments:
Don't forget why you're in grad school. To learn, not to jump through hoops. So she doesn't get it. That doesn't mean it's not right.
1. I *absolutely* get the frustration. But then, I am currently a grad student too; and
2. Dude that shit is COOL.
Post a Comment