It has often occurred to me during my years working in the arts, that as artists we spend a lot of time beavering away in our own worlds in our own practice, studying, absorbing, honing our craft.
We strive to have our work recognised, present things differently, to stay in touch with new ideas, grapple with technology, justify our existence as artists or arts organisations often to an audience who does not appreciate what we do.
Artists come in all shades but I am guessing that one commonality would be the drive to express and explore the world in a non linear manner.
To make a point, to present something in a different light.
The artist mind or process is to connect the dots between seemingly random ideas, experiences or objects.
This is possibly the difference between art and entertainment. Back in 2009 Arts Qld held a Regional Arts Conference in Beaudesert where I work. The key note speaker was an actor, writer and educator an American called Eric Booth. One of the things that has stayed with me from his speech is the notion of the difference between art and entertainment.
“Make stuff you care about,” he says. “The distinction between art and entertainment is that entertainment happens within what we already know. Whatever our response is – laughing, getting excited – underneath it all, entertainment says that the world is the way you think it is. Art, on the other hand, happens outside what we already know, so that inherent in the artistic experience is this amazing human capacity to expand our sense of the way the world is or might be. ”- Eric Booth sourced from Queensland Performing Arts Centre Creatory
In This Art Life I am going to explore the lives of artists from different backgrounds, practicing their craft in different ways through interviews and find out why they do what they do and how they see the world.
I am going to look at ways we connect with each other through the arts and showcase some great art projects when I find them.
Something I have always loved is a project a friend of mine Jaap Vogel proposed almost 13 years ago and that was to make a large work made up of small works by numerous people. It was to be called Tiles for Trees and would raise funds to support environmental work to protect the Tamborine Mountain escarpment. It was ambitious and would involve visitors to the mountain paying to create a tile that would build the public artwork on completion. The project relied on a lot of resources to make it happen and never quite got off the ground . But the idea to put art to work to express your love of the place you find yourself in and by so doing help preserve it ,is a good one.
A project that has come across my path that utilises the same idea on a digital level is called The Big Picture . The project originated in Canada and is a collective art project where people in the artists local area and from around the world are collaborating to create a big mosaic picture from thousands of drawings and stories. It seeks to outline the connections between individuals from all around the world and can be seen as a giant conversation project taking place between all the participants and the artists through a dynamic and monumental art work.
You can see the simple sketch I did as part of the project and look at countless other contributions and you can participate yourself if you feel inclined.
till next time
stay creative!
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