The trouble with goals is they are so willy-nilly. If you
set one you know you can achieve, like get up at eight tomorrow morning you
don’t get much of a reward and no one will cheer for you and the record books
will stay unimpressed. Set a goal you cannot reach like make a million dollars
before eight tomorrow morning and you are doomed to failure.
Now there is a lot of territory in between those poles and
that is where you should set your goal, but it is human nature to favor
something which you cannot have. That’s why the Lotto and the Tenth Commandment
are doing such good business; you do remember that warning about coveting?
So why are goals so fixed as a part of our culture? Maybe it
is because it is so much fun to brag about them knowing that the person hearing
your boast will never be around to see if you deliver.
Maybe we get sucked in by reality television where any fool
with a perverse lifestyle and a poor command of the English language can become
a “Star” and go on to fame, fortune and an appearance on Letterman.
Maybe it is all of that nonsense we are taught while growing
up. “You can do/have anything you want if you are willing to work hard enough.”
Try getting the US
government to give up an air craft carrier.
Sure it is a good thing to encourage kids to dream big, but
maybe we’ve set the bar too high. Maybe they are so convinced that what they
want if never going to happen they just settle in and give up.
That’s not what dreaming is all about. It is about the world
of imagination and the power of the mind to make the impossible happen.
Artists have that power and they use it to make the world a
strange and beautiful place. But art like many of the other Fine Arts is a
lonely choice. You cannot paint in a flash mob, you need time and place, peace
and setting to find the thread of magic you want to weave into whatever dream you
are sharing.
So how to keep from letting inertia take over and entropy
win, while still finding that mall, still place where you can create?
First don’t toss out all goals just because the Ole Trawler
thinks they are rot. Maybe I’m wrong? It is a new year and there is plenty of
time for me to make a mistake so don’t wait around for the final recap, go out
and do some research on your own.
There are things you can do which do not require goals or
not such lofty and iron-clad goals anyway.
Meet another artist. Art feeds art. This is the part of
theater jargon which actually has grounding in reality. When an actor says they
love theater because they get instant feedback they aren’t spreading manure.
The feedback from a live audience is wonderful.
Now as a conceptual artist you won’t usually have a crowd of
people clapping and cheering, but you can seek out one of your ilk and make a
good faith effort to get into their world and trade ideas. Maybe they do birds.
My pals Kelle Herrick and Kim Wurster do some amazing things with the little
chirpers and I never cease to be amazed with what they can find new and
different after being at the top of their game for all these many long years.
(Kim and Kelle this in no way means that you are old, just that you started at
birth and have developed your talent so quickly that you can be ‘Old Pros’
without actually being old.)
They have plenty to tell me, if I just make time and put in
the effort to ask.
But you don’t like birds. Fine, no one said you had to. Find
another artist, that is the part of the whole dealy that you are supposed to
pay attention to.
Michael William Ousley, S.L. Donaldson and Jean Kyle know a
lot about color that I wish I did and Charles, well Charles knows a lot about
almost everything and everyone. (If you choose to take the latter course don’t
drink anything before hand.)
And yes, there’s the three-dimensional world which Rick Fox
and Ron Wright have a thing or two they can offer and the list goes on and on.
I need to talk to the Dimmocks, Susan and Steve. They do
birds like, well like Kelle and Kim and I sure could use their knowledge. Just
when do those brown pelicans do their annual fly-by?
And there is the whole print making thing, Susan Lehman and
Pat Snyder could do a lot for me n that are and I need to get their input cause
I’m doing more and more digital prints these days.
Set your plans and meet the artists you have access to. This
doesn’t have to be a resolution or a goal. Going to jail is odious and getting
out and making contact with the people in your art community shouldn’t be like
going to jail.
You just cannot fail by meeting and enjoying the people in
your art world and we become better for it.
(Juana-I read a book in which the author says cats are just
not a good subject for photography! What a dilbert. I know you do amazing
things with cats in your art and I have been doing some stuff with my carpet
lions so someone is wrong. Who could it be?)
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