1. How is Warhol able to turn in “off” and based upon the article does he not care about the work? He changes his perspective of his art, essentially. This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care about it, but continuing on despite mistakes or despite things not turning out exactly as you want them to, it seems, inspires different sorts of art that, in my opinion based on what was said, brings it to life in a new way. Letting things happen and looking at how things “fall” essentially, you can find new meaning in things.
2. Why is the article relevant to the last project? Because the attitude that Warhol shows in his interview, “Nothing To Lose,” shows the fluidity that art has, and how meaning can be assigned to something after the fact, the way we did with the pictures – we were instructed to take a large quantity of pictures, pick our favorites, and find meaning in our own photos. This meaning was then going to be compared to what other people thought. Overall, though, the photos themselves were quite “trial-and-error,” and it would be incredibly difficult to actually get a good picture intentionally out of that sort of project. The same can be said about the “100 photos” project. In art, sometimes the creator realizes they have “nothing to lose” and quit trying to perfectly create exactly what they had in mind and end up developing something really good out of their mistakes or general encounters. Art is about keeping an open mind, essentially, which is what that philosophy is all about.
Personal Reflection
1. Do you become self-conscious of your ideas? I always become self-conscious of my ideas. As a budding person, let alone creative mind (I dare not use the term “artist” to describe myself quite yet) I feel that all of my earliest works in the art field will be scrutinized heavily, and I have a prominent fear of failure that extends into my creative mind and can even be, not to sound overly dramatic, incapacitating when trying to create. I don’t wish to fail in my creative experiences because of how much I value art and creativity as a whole, and the fear that sets in makes it difficult to even get up the courage to try to create a piece.
2. What do you think of the nothing-to-lose attitude? What are it’s pros and cons? I honestly really like it. It’s a philosophy that I’ve seen applied to real life at times, with results that are arguably quite good. However, I feel that it’s definitely applicable to art just because of art’s fluid, subjective nature. The fact that any change to a piece can change it into something completely different but similarly beautiful is astounding, and that idea really inspires a “nothing to lose” attitude in and of itself. Anything you do to a piece has the chance to affect a work positively or negatively. Essentially, if you’re almost finished with a piece you can add onto it, even if you’re a bit scared. If you don’t like it, you add more things and keep changing the piece until it’s something you enjoy. Now, this isn’t exactly common practice, nor is it perfect. I understand having a vision and wanting to make a piece exactly how you imagined it, and constantly changing a piece won’t always be a solution – you have the chance to completely ruin a piece if you aren’t careful, but personally, I enjoy the philosophy. I think its main idea makes its pros outweigh its cons.