telling strangers personal things

Prompt: Begin by writing an essay the equivalent of 2-types pages on your blog. This essay should be centered on how art production functions for you personally. What motivates you to make work? Why is it important? What role does it play in your life, academic experience, career plans, etc? How do you view art?


Thoughts:


I am an artist and a scientist. As a scientist, I have a natural desire to define and categorize: I think the thing that distinguishes "artist" from "non-artist" is a recognition that each person sees the world differently AND a concurrent desire to communicate their individual breed of perception to others. Building from this assumption, I hope that my art reflects a desire to communicate visually... whether it be a concept or an experience or something entirely different.  


When I'm thinking about a project, I often get caught up in an inner debate of some sort: is this for me or for others? how is this different and separate from my work in the lab? why should I ask the viewer to spend their time with this piece? Although these are important questions to ask, I often get caught up in the thinking and don't do enough making... In the end, I think (good) art is (and should be) challenging, inspiring, thoughtful and thought-provoking. The process of looking is important in itself and if my work gets people to stop seeing and LOOK, I'll be content. 

My interaction with the art world is fueled by hope and criticism. There is honestly nothing more exciting than seeing a phenomenal piece of work, a work that makes me jealous (check out The Jealous Curator blog!), a work that makes me think (about my work, my self, our world, our assumptions). Yet I feel that as much as I am a part of the art world and community by being an art maker, I'm also an outsider. I'm a scientist. This position pushes me, makes me feel like I need to challenge and discuss things that bother me, an outsider, about "the art world", if only to selfishly work through my own feelings about it. However, I do feel that there can be a lack of honesty or forthrightness that is troubling in our contemporary art society. It frustrates and alienates the "average viewer" (clarification: I'm only addressing the average INTERESTED viewer). Since I view art as a form of communication above nearly all else, I find it more than frustrating.

I like intimate, delicate, time consuming, beautiful work.

The academic side of my art experience is harder to address. The most valuable things to me have often been outside of class and usually involve discussions with others in the studio, at 2am, with a project due the next day. In the future, I think the community I've built will be the most important piece of my art-related side of life. Although I intend on attending graduate school to study biology, art will always be a part of who I am. Ideally, I'd love to have an Etsy business, selling my wares around the world wide web. One of my dreams is to have a print studio that Tim and I run and travel around to craft shows and exhibitions... selling things on Etsy and enjoying it.


 We'll see.