Saturday, September 24, 2005
The Artist’s Way
The Artist’s Way is a modern day Ojai board written by Julia Cameron. The Taoist have had a prophetic text in the I-Ching for centuries and now aspiring artists have a similar book in The Artist’s Way.
Cloaked in the enveloping shadows of this self-help culture I see people all the time with obsequious smiles and incessant ulterior motives. There are so many bands mushrooming around this sprawling suburb of Denver that yields perhaps a mechanical/technical proficiency at their field but lack the expression of their soul. I’m not sure if it’s the fact people don’t have feelings in this modern day or if it’s because they are too busy playing fast Mad Lib harmonies to have a grasp on the fact they have something to say. I’m sure it’s a combination of both scenarios.
I plop open my guitar mag and I see ad after ad selling flashy new equipment to capture “your sound.” This is yet another message conveying an artistic fallacy that a person needs the next expensive toy to be serious about his art. Finally, I get to the contents page and words like, “play like a pro,” “Chops Builder,” “build your ability to blaze (i.e. play faster,) and “improve the mechanics of your pick hand” litter the pages.
Not once do I see the words “express yourself,” “have fun” or “love”…yes that may sound stupid but it is what seems to lack in most people’s life. This process of assimilating to a false picture perfect image being conveyed in a way that is so unnatural and mechanical that I really have to question if normalcy is truly the new term for psychotic.
Too often I find in the world of local artists, people being so fascistly caught up in the technique and complexity of an idea that they truly overlook the most important aspect of art…the feeling. I look at guitar mags, and books, and to teachers all these available resources to help people learn and everyday I see the same mistake of “putting the cart before the horse.” People believe that spending 12 hours a day nailing their sweep picking technique is love of their art. I would argue that an artist is a person who loves and therefore solid technique pours out of him from his necessity to speak within his medium.
The Artist’s Way encapsulates that creatively based on necessity sprit in its 12 chapters of personal growth. Its pages are equipped with tangible chores/exercises called “the morning pages” and “artist dates.” The book points you into all types of creative territories and spurs you to completion of these tasks. My completion and tangible production of ideas, that I created from sticking it though this book, had taught me habits of an artist that apply to the daily sanity of my life. Most important it helped foster the idea that I was capable of pursing my silly artistic fantasies. I am a logical person but I saw the way life took different shapes as let my creative energy flow.
It was akin to the Ojai board in the fact that so many of life’s obstacles have ebbs and flows and answers rest in the power of coming to grips with the question. Imploring such questions almost inevitably manifested the face of my artistic problems in new approachable ways. It’s haunting the way fortune will change once one is willing to explore the nature of his weaknesses. This is usually accomplished by asking a random question out into the open world then following that by pushing your hands over the letters you know are right.
The Artist’s Way is a modern day Ojai board written by Julia Cameron. The Taoist have had a prophetic text in the I-Ching for centuries and now aspiring artists have a similar book in The Artist’s Way.
Cloaked in the enveloping shadows of this self-help culture I see people all the time with obsequious smiles and incessant ulterior motives. There are so many bands mushrooming around this sprawling suburb of Denver that yields perhaps a mechanical/technical proficiency at their field but lack the expression of their soul. I’m not sure if it’s the fact people don’t have feelings in this modern day or if it’s because they are too busy playing fast Mad Lib harmonies to have a grasp on the fact they have something to say. I’m sure it’s a combination of both scenarios.
I plop open my guitar mag and I see ad after ad selling flashy new equipment to capture “your sound.” This is yet another message conveying an artistic fallacy that a person needs the next expensive toy to be serious about his art. Finally, I get to the contents page and words like, “play like a pro,” “Chops Builder,” “build your ability to blaze (i.e. play faster,) and “improve the mechanics of your pick hand” litter the pages.
Not once do I see the words “express yourself,” “have fun” or “love”…yes that may sound stupid but it is what seems to lack in most people’s life. This process of assimilating to a false picture perfect image being conveyed in a way that is so unnatural and mechanical that I really have to question if normalcy is truly the new term for psychotic.
Too often I find in the world of local artists, people being so fascistly caught up in the technique and complexity of an idea that they truly overlook the most important aspect of art…the feeling. I look at guitar mags, and books, and to teachers all these available resources to help people learn and everyday I see the same mistake of “putting the cart before the horse.” People believe that spending 12 hours a day nailing their sweep picking technique is love of their art. I would argue that an artist is a person who loves and therefore solid technique pours out of him from his necessity to speak within his medium.
The Artist’s Way encapsulates that creatively based on necessity sprit in its 12 chapters of personal growth. Its pages are equipped with tangible chores/exercises called “the morning pages” and “artist dates.” The book points you into all types of creative territories and spurs you to completion of these tasks. My completion and tangible production of ideas, that I created from sticking it though this book, had taught me habits of an artist that apply to the daily sanity of my life. Most important it helped foster the idea that I was capable of pursing my silly artistic fantasies. I am a logical person but I saw the way life took different shapes as let my creative energy flow.
It was akin to the Ojai board in the fact that so many of life’s obstacles have ebbs and flows and answers rest in the power of coming to grips with the question. Imploring such questions almost inevitably manifested the face of my artistic problems in new approachable ways. It’s haunting the way fortune will change once one is willing to explore the nature of his weaknesses. This is usually accomplished by asking a random question out into the open world then following that by pushing your hands over the letters you know are right.
# posted by Nick D @ 12:35 AM 
