The Academic Process (part 3 of 3)

The Academic Process (part 2 of 3)

The Academic Process (part 1 of 3)

Art quote of the day

It's so fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas.
-Paul Cezanne

The Psychoanalyst and the artist

I picked up this interesting little book at the Westfield book sale last week and I have to say, for a little book it packs a heck of a punch.

Although I’m only half way into reading the book, I’m already quite intrigued as to the depths in which the Psychoanalyst will go to dissect the artist’s conscious and subconscious thought process.

Apparently there’s a lot more going on inside the subconscious mind of an artists then I could have ever imagined. And although I may not agree with some of the authors theories, there are many here worth exploring that may help to understand art in general and perhaps even unlock some creativity in my own work.

Here is a description of the book with a few passages I found insightful, pertaining to what it is to be an artist.

The major discovery of The Psychoanalyst and The Artist, which pursued clues Freud left us, was and is that human talent-genius configurations have the distinctly and exclusively human capacity - in an infinite number of ways - of 'turning a true dream inside out' and superimposing it and weaving it or interweaving it with the strands of the reality of our everyday life. Hence, in great art (or in quite another way in great science) we 'identify' and 'thrill to the comprehension at all articulate and inarticulate levels' of the thus .universalized dream presented in whatever medium of the seven arts and the innumerable divisions of human sciences.. .Talent has this ability in a dilute and occasional way. Genius possesses it in a steady torrent, though at times blocked and even twisted with frequently disastrous personal consequences, e.g. suicide.

Parallel to this distinction between intent and result is another distinction that must be drawn in the interest of defining what is treated here as art, the product of true artist. A true artist is an interpretive artist, consistently devoting his life to the exquisite and enduring expression of his own individual reality in relation to his world.

Yes you are an artist if you have an awareness of the unconscious and are sensitive to dreaming, above all aware of and sensitive to your own impermissible impulses and impossible ideas; if you Can quite shamelessly and vividly dream in symbols of great economic power; if you can weave together the radiances of those symbols (by design in what ever medium) in such a way and with such an interpretive relationship to reality that you create the elusion of something alive and something manifold so that each who comes to look at, listen to or touch your work feels himself caught in your dream-become-art; if he is stimulated and relieved via identification with your characters or symbolic objects, as you yourself were, in physical pleasures varying from relaxation to orgasmic experience, in spiritual enjoyment of the tragic , comic or contemplative.
But this answer is really only preliminary.

Still life in progress

Just a few things I need to ask myself, while I'm oil painting.

Why am I painting this?

What do I like about it?

What am I trying to say with this painting?

What story am I trying to tell?

What emotions am I trying to stir up?

Am I stepping back often enough to see what the heck I'm doing?

Am I painting the light?

Am I paint all the reflective light?

Am I painting the shadows?

How is the perspective?

Are the values correct?

Is the composition pleasing?

Does the painting read well?

Have I defined a focal point?

Is the color rich enough in the focal point?

Are my contrasts strong at the focal point?

Am I working the contrasts of hard and soft edges?

Am I working the contrasts of hot and cold color?

Am I working the contrasts of thick and thin paint?

Am I working the contrasts of opposite colors?

Am I working the contrasts of darks and lights?

Flip the painting upside down and take a good look at it, is it still balanced?

Look at it in the mirror, does it still look good or is something off?

Is my palette getting too muddy?

Are my brushes over loaded with paint?

Did I take this painting as far as I could today?

Should I stop before you mess it up?

Why the heck am I painting this again?