How does one become a better artist?
by Giff on October 25, 2010
Last night, I was asked “how does one become a better artist? can one only become better at using tools?” It got the mind a-spinning, and the short answer is that it cannot merely be about tools and technique.
These days, my life is almost entirely occupied by tech entrepreneurship and family, but 10 years ago I took some time away from tech to answer two questions: whether I could create artwork that I respected, and whether I wanted to pursue art as a career. I got close to “yes” on the first question, and a resounding “no” to the second. These personal thoughts are borne from that experience.
Technical proficiency is certainly important (this was a failure in my schooling by abstract expressionist teachers that I had to make up for later), but technique is not everything. Too much focus on technique leaves one with sterility.
So what else matters?
First, you must become self-aware of the topic you want to take on. You want to focus rather than visually wander around. You need a mission, although that mission can and should evolve. For some, like Duchamp, it was more about the statement than the art, while with others, like Lucien Freud, it is more grounded in the art itself. Experimentation and dabbling is a healthy way to prevent getting stale, but you want more focus than lack thereof until you are fully satiated. Then it is time for a new problem to chew on.
You must be rigorously self-critical, pushing yourself and demanding improvement. External opinion can be useful but it cannot be your compass. You must strive greatness in your art rather than popularity.
You must learn from your failures. In art, I think you learn more from your failures than successes. I refer not to failures in the eyes of other people, but in your eyes.
You must open your mind to the broader world around you, as well as your context within the history of art. You cannot hide in a closet in a vain attempt at sealed-off originality. History’s art giants all had their own stamp, but they did not worship the god of originality at the expense of everything else.
Finally, I would note that if the question was “how to become a financially successful artist” or a “remembered artist”, the answer would be different. While I believe you need all of the above, there is a whole additional list of things you would need to pursue, much of which is why I decided I preferred the business of tech to the business of art.
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A long overdue makeover
by Giff on September 19, 2010
I cannot actually remember when constable.net first came into being. Maybe 1997 or 1998. This was my blog before anything was actually called a blog. Unfortunately, it has sat neglected since about 2000/2001, as I worked on other projects and other blogs.
I have finally ported it over to Wordpress. Apologies to those of you arriving via search engines and hitting broken links. The “artists on art” art history section has been preserved and can be browsed by clicking on the tab above. I have not yet figured out what I am going to do with the art history chronology tables, given the new layout.
- For first-person writings of artists, click here
- For essays on art, click here
In addition, on this site you will find old painting projects of mine and now some medium-old virtual world art projects. My more recent form of creative expression has been cooking, and that can all be found over at The Constables’ Larder.
Now that this site is on a modern and flexible platform, I hope to be posting more here. But really, all I can say right now is: “it’s about time!”
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Avatar Expression
January 10, 2008In 2007, I self-published a book focusing on self-expression through one’s avatar. I took the photographs in the virtual world of Second Life. Below you can find a few pages from the book and a link to a low-resolution pdf of the entire thing.
SL Creations
January 1, 2008When I first discovered Second Life in 2004, I was fascinated. Over the next several years, I got quite involved both artistically and professionally, the latter with a great team at The Electric Sheep Company. I had always been a painter, and thus focused on painting in art history, but Second Life inspired a [...]
Bridges of Second Life
September 30, 2007Like many others, during my Second Life days, I developed a side-fascination with SL’s many bridges. In the summer of 2007, I photographed 62 bridges around SL. For anyone interested, the gallery is on Flickr.
Second Life Architecture, 2006
March 30, 2006In March 2006, I photographed and compiled a virtual coffee table book on some of the best architectural builds in Second Life at the time. I would say that the sophistication and quality of creations in that virtual world increased quite a bit over the subsequent years, but this was an interesting marker and [...]
Figurist Artwork
January 2, 2002“Undoings” Series, 2001
(photos were taken with an old digital camera, so some glare and color loss)
New York City Subway, 1999
Random Stuff
Surrealist Work, 2000
The Question of Good Art vs Bad Art
January 26, 2001The question was recently posed whether people should feel guilty for calling a piece of artwork “bad”, as if the notion of passing judgement on such an intangible and subjective item was not only impossible but wrong. Being the opinionated artist that I am, I could not resist a little commentary.
People have been defining art [...]
Old Poems
June 18, 2000These are a few old poems from back in 1999/2000. The first poem came about one morning as I sat in the Panhandle in San Francisco sketching these homeless men who kept on flocking to a single bench, never seeming to speak to each other.
The Panhandle, 1999
What is it about that bench
a solid tree-green [...]
Truth in Painting
May 26, 2000Painting is no longer about representation, it is about inspiration. However, painting today is too focused on the creation of the “new” rather than the creation of the “true”. The 20th century was infatuated with new painting styles and materials, which has led to a focus on the mode and medium of expression rather than [...]
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