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Oct. 25th, 2010 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiralngphoenixA little more detail on the planned project I intend to embark on, and why I am curious about using current blogs or a project-specific one.
An artist without a medium
(almost exactly unlike the man without a country, or the horse with no name)
I have a confession to make. I am an artist without a medium. Or really, I’m an artist with the misfortunate problem that my medium is “Ooh! Shiny!” I’ve spent the last 32-odd years of my life (34 if you count the pre-verbal years) desperately trying to find a medium and stick with it. Sadly, I seem to have a.) abysmal luck, and b.) the attention span of a fruit fly that fell into a Red Bull can. I write, I draw, I play piano (sort of), I take the occasional lovely photograph, I make jewelry, I invent alcoholic baked goods, the list goes on… The only real consistency is a neurotic compulsion to share every new shiny thing I find with people. Any people, really. Even strangers who tend to look at me pityingly, very much like one would look at someone who’s a little slow or possibly has a head injury, and then look around hoping to see if my keepers are coming to save them from me. This is usually after I’ve just pointed out the gorgeous pattern the leaves left on the concrete after it rained, or something along those lines, but well they did ask! Probably. Maybe. Anyway…
A lack of medium is also unfortunate when one is having a conversation, and it comes out that you are an artist, and the immediate (and most dreaded) question is “Oh, really? What do you do?”, and you know that if you tell them that the answer is “Yes”, they’re going to look at you very much like the strangers do, as everyone knows that only people with specific mediums that required decades of training and practice are really artists. You are merely a dabbler with delusions of grandeur.
Generally speaking, this isn’t really a big deal, so long as one has no intention of ever making a living as an artist. If one does, though, conventional wisdom demands that you pick a medium, spend years perfecting your art, and then, maybe if you are really lucky and the moon is in the correct phase and the stars are right, maybe you get to be a real, living, functional artist. Heaven forbid you don’t have one, or you do, but it’s not one, it’s several. Everyone tries to tell you all the reasons you can’t do it the way you want to, and to put you in the little box you know to the marrow of your bones is lined with arsenic and the ashes of old, dead gods and is death to touch.
So you see, I have decided to try a little experiment. I’m going to take my little mediums, and a camera, and a notebook, and for the next month I’m going to do whatever it is that we want to do every day. If we want to drive around and take pictures of rusty old bridges, we’re going to. If we want to tell people about the really neat little café in town that has the best croissant sandwiches (with apple slices, ham, salad greens, and dripping with honey Dijon), we will. If we want to spend the day making a necklace out of deliciously carved cinnabar and amber or creating a shrine to Persephone out of a dried pomegranate, gold leaf, and dollhouse sized Canopic jars, we will. Then I’m going to put it onto the Internet, put a donation button on it (the entry, not the piece…that’ll cost extra), and pimp the hell out of it.
I will point out to people that there is no such thing as a minimum donation. If 4 people donate 50 cents, that’s a cup of coffee. If 20 people donate a dollar, that’s a tank of gas and 300 miles of driving (my car is geriatric and doesn’t get as good mileage as she used to…don’t judge her) and a lot of pictures, stories, reviews and what-all. If I can get enough people to support me, not only are you supporting me in doing something that I love doing, but you are also supporting all the other multi-medium artists out there who don’t think they are really artists because they can’t do just one thing.
What do you think? Wanna come out and play?
Why am I doing this? Well, part of the impetus behind this sudden "OMGMUSTDOSOMETHING!" is that well, to be 100% upright and forthcoming, my Unemployment extensions ran out yesterday. I was supposed to have another week. I did not intend to do this project quite this way, originally. As of yesterday, I'm making this up as I go. My knee is getting a little better, but isn't in any way up to regular massage work. It won't be for months, at least. Even if it was, well there's a reason I lost my office space. 4 different staffing agencies can't find me work. I can't seem to find office work for myself, and I can't afford to take more classes to try and get more training that "potential" employers will disregard based on lack of degree/experience/knowledge of Program X/etc., ad nauseum. I need to do SOMETHING, before my bank account empties out. I have a month or less before that happens. After that? Well, then I'm royally fucked. So, I wrack my brain and try things that shouldn't work, probably won't, but well are just crazy and hair-brained enough to maybe do something. I hope. For now, I'm ignoring the alternatives.
An artist without a medium
(almost exactly unlike the man without a country, or the horse with no name)
I have a confession to make. I am an artist without a medium. Or really, I’m an artist with the misfortunate problem that my medium is “Ooh! Shiny!” I’ve spent the last 32-odd years of my life (34 if you count the pre-verbal years) desperately trying to find a medium and stick with it. Sadly, I seem to have a.) abysmal luck, and b.) the attention span of a fruit fly that fell into a Red Bull can. I write, I draw, I play piano (sort of), I take the occasional lovely photograph, I make jewelry, I invent alcoholic baked goods, the list goes on… The only real consistency is a neurotic compulsion to share every new shiny thing I find with people. Any people, really. Even strangers who tend to look at me pityingly, very much like one would look at someone who’s a little slow or possibly has a head injury, and then look around hoping to see if my keepers are coming to save them from me. This is usually after I’ve just pointed out the gorgeous pattern the leaves left on the concrete after it rained, or something along those lines, but well they did ask! Probably. Maybe. Anyway…
A lack of medium is also unfortunate when one is having a conversation, and it comes out that you are an artist, and the immediate (and most dreaded) question is “Oh, really? What do you do?”, and you know that if you tell them that the answer is “Yes”, they’re going to look at you very much like the strangers do, as everyone knows that only people with specific mediums that required decades of training and practice are really artists. You are merely a dabbler with delusions of grandeur.
Generally speaking, this isn’t really a big deal, so long as one has no intention of ever making a living as an artist. If one does, though, conventional wisdom demands that you pick a medium, spend years perfecting your art, and then, maybe if you are really lucky and the moon is in the correct phase and the stars are right, maybe you get to be a real, living, functional artist. Heaven forbid you don’t have one, or you do, but it’s not one, it’s several. Everyone tries to tell you all the reasons you can’t do it the way you want to, and to put you in the little box you know to the marrow of your bones is lined with arsenic and the ashes of old, dead gods and is death to touch.
So you see, I have decided to try a little experiment. I’m going to take my little mediums, and a camera, and a notebook, and for the next month I’m going to do whatever it is that we want to do every day. If we want to drive around and take pictures of rusty old bridges, we’re going to. If we want to tell people about the really neat little café in town that has the best croissant sandwiches (with apple slices, ham, salad greens, and dripping with honey Dijon), we will. If we want to spend the day making a necklace out of deliciously carved cinnabar and amber or creating a shrine to Persephone out of a dried pomegranate, gold leaf, and dollhouse sized Canopic jars, we will. Then I’m going to put it onto the Internet, put a donation button on it (the entry, not the piece…that’ll cost extra), and pimp the hell out of it.
I will point out to people that there is no such thing as a minimum donation. If 4 people donate 50 cents, that’s a cup of coffee. If 20 people donate a dollar, that’s a tank of gas and 300 miles of driving (my car is geriatric and doesn’t get as good mileage as she used to…don’t judge her) and a lot of pictures, stories, reviews and what-all. If I can get enough people to support me, not only are you supporting me in doing something that I love doing, but you are also supporting all the other multi-medium artists out there who don’t think they are really artists because they can’t do just one thing.
What do you think? Wanna come out and play?
Why am I doing this? Well, part of the impetus behind this sudden "OMGMUSTDOSOMETHING!" is that well, to be 100% upright and forthcoming, my Unemployment extensions ran out yesterday. I was supposed to have another week. I did not intend to do this project quite this way, originally. As of yesterday, I'm making this up as I go. My knee is getting a little better, but isn't in any way up to regular massage work. It won't be for months, at least. Even if it was, well there's a reason I lost my office space. 4 different staffing agencies can't find me work. I can't seem to find office work for myself, and I can't afford to take more classes to try and get more training that "potential" employers will disregard based on lack of degree/experience/knowledge of Program X/etc., ad nauseum. I need to do SOMETHING, before my bank account empties out. I have a month or less before that happens. After that? Well, then I'm royally fucked. So, I wrack my brain and try things that shouldn't work, probably won't, but well are just crazy and hair-brained enough to maybe do something. I hope. For now, I'm ignoring the alternatives.
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 05:34 pm (UTC)You might also consider throwing some of the creations up on your Etsy site, as the holidays are coming up, and a few of your creations might well be Just Perfect for someone?
no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 05:46 pm (UTC)Once I get my brain reorganized on this, I'm going to try and see what I can do to make the project a little more, um, user-friendly? (i.e., the more people feel they are involved in something, the more they are likely to be parted from their money. Therefore, making some parts interactive might be worth figuring out.)
no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-25 06:44 pm (UTC)