Personal Reflection 4

I frequently become self conscious of my ideas. This happens particularly when I’m trying to express more personal or taboo concepts, such as my struggles with depression and anxiety.  I fear that because of how open art is to interpretation, the piece will be tied into the viewer’s perceptions of me, which I worry will be inaccurate. With pieces as personal and intense as those relating to mental illness, these misinterpretations can lead to people applying stigma to me, and becoming overly concerned or condescending. I also have certain aspects of art, specifically those I consider to be more design oriented that I fear I’m not as good at. This includes things such as layout or color palettes, which I’m afraid people will judge negatively in my work.

In regards to the nothing to lose attitude, I don’t personally enjoy it. While it has its benefits in that you don’t get stuck on any one thing for too long,  and through the production of many works of art you are frequently able to make at least some incredible works, I feel that as an attitude in art and in life it holds no value for me. I absolutely respect those who do hold value in it, but to me this sort of passive, fleeting acknowledgement of the world seems very inefficient in a way. That’s not really the right word, but I feel like without certain areas of strong opinion, and passion, and resistance, we are not able to understand the world in the same way, because we cannot lend significant meaning to aspects of the world. I guess art doesn’t have to mean anything, but I do think it should help people find meaning in something, and I really hope to be a part of that experience, both in the art of others, and in my own.

Personal reflection 3

Something I have frequently noticed and been irritated by is that  I seem to have my best and most inspirational ideas in situations which leave me little access to record or express them. When I try to get back to them later, they seem hollow, as if somehow I am now missing a crucial piece of what had inspired me so deeply in that moment. I then spend a long and unsatisfactory period of time attempting to recreate the idea and failing, until I create a very lovely piece of work that I absolutely hate. I think probably one of the best ways to improve how I form ideas and attitudes about pieces of art is to invest in carrying a sketchbook, which I have many of, and frequently even carry around with me, but which I rarely use even in these moments. I have the ideas and the resources, but I don’t use either efficiently. I believe that instead of trying to immediately capture my end goal, it is important to record my whole process. What inspired, what did I feel about it, how did I get there, what  other thoughts did this one conjure up? Then when I look back I’m not trying to capture a fleeting moment, but instead a series of  ideas, which could lead me to somewhere even better.

Currently a large portion of my creativity is expressed in class. This includes both my formal art classes, such as Clay II or Foundations of Art and Design, but it also includes doodling while listening to lecture. I also do large scale portraits of people I know.

Personal Reflection

From what I can tell, the difference between the artist and the designer is one that could be argued for ages. Any bounds set on the artist or the designer could be argued to pointlessness and undoubtedly broken by some instance of a fusion of the disciplines. This being said, what we can identify  more than a definition are trends in both disciplines. Design is more so done by a designer for a client, while an artists work is typically more of an expression of the self. While artists can be commissioned to complete work, it is still highly discretionary and at the whim of the artist. A design requires more input from sources outside of the designer, and the end piece is something that can be argued down to the last detail. This is something much less frequently found in typical artistic works, which can be discussed and theorized about, but very  infrequently planned down to the last detail. Art is also less focused on functionality, or at least the idea of functionality.

For these reasons, I would consider myself an artist overall. The art I make is something I always try to use to reflect an aspect of my inner self in some way, or to explore alternatives to my own thoughts. I have found recently  however that I am growing more interested in the concept of design, particularly as I have started working with clay. This creation of a more tangible object has made me consider it’s function and purpose for the future to a greater extent, although some might argue that the creation of such an object is not the skill of a designer.