« The effort involved in appearing effortless | Main | Stoicism v McDonalds »
January 19, 2006
The Perspective Shift
When you’re creating a piece of work you are being highly subjective. Everything is flowing from you and your emotions into the work. Or it should be – if not, stay behind after class.
Unfortunately art doesn’t stop there. There is no point in expressing your emotions if no-one understands what the fuck you’re banging on about. So you need to be able to assess the work and see if it says what you want it to say. To do this you have to look at the work from a different perspective, you have to be objective.
It is not easy [some would say impossible] to switch from subjectivity to objectivity in an instant. Whilst creating the work you are too close to it, too involved with it, have too much knowledge of it, to be able to judge whether or not it will make any sense, or stir any emotions in others.
This has been known for a long time. Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Horace to his friends, said: “Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least”. More recently Stephen King said about writing: “after you’ve written your book, lock it in a drawer in the desk for six weeks, then read it”.
It is important to get some distance from your work. So I tend to work on lots of pieces at the same time, and I’m constantly shifting paintings across to the racks in the studio, there to dwell out of sight for a time. When I pull a painting back out of the racks, after several weeks or months, it’s often clear what needs to be done. It’s sometimes clear that nothing needs to be done.
Posted by john at January 19, 2006 08:36 AM