Art and Fear

Select three quotes from the excerpt that you can relate to and type them into a post on your blog. Maybe they remind you of something that's happened to you in an art class or something you've seen someone else experience. Write about how you relate to the quote and include as many specific stories as you can.

1. "The fear that you're only pretending to do art is the (readily predictable) consequence of doubting your own artistic credentials... fear that you are not a real artist causes you to undervalue your work."

i think that this quote applies more to me from a term and a half ago but i felt drawn to it anyways. it has taken me, however angsty, a long to to be comfortable with myself and the art that i make. the feelings that beliefs portrayed above were almost exactly what i felt. for some reason the last couple art classes have helped me get over them.   

2. "In a darkened theatre the man in the tuxedo waves his hand and a pigeon appears. We call it magic. In a sunlit studio a painter waves her hand and a whole world takes form. We call it art."

i really liked this quote, not because i think that it applies to me really but because i like the imagery that it created. i mostly like the idea of a sunlit studio. Really i like the idea of a sunlit anything. i think that sunlight makes everything much better than it really is.   

3. "hovering out there somewhere cause and effect, between fears about self and fears about others, lie expectations. being one of the higher brain functions, expectations provide a means to merge imagination with calculation. But its a delicate balance - lean too far one way and your head fills with unworkable fantasies, too far the other and you spend your like generating "to do" lists." 

i like this quote because it exactly describes how i feel about the planning part of art. it's like i don't to plan too much but if i don't plan at all i get kind of lost. i think the best way for me to start a piece is to have an image of the final piece in my head and start off trying to get there but allowing things to change and happen as they come. usually i never actually get to the final thing that i imagining but usually i like the final things much better. the two extremes that she says are also right. A lot of the time i have tons of unworkable fantasies but i also find myself making a lot of "to do" lists. both are fine things to do but what matters is being able to step away from both and make real work.