November 1, 2009
don’t worry about being an artist. just worry about getting the work made.
A very respected journalist once told me, “I’m always telling students, if you want to be a journalist, for God’s sake don’t be a Journalism Major. Study something else, like The Classics or Architecture. That means when you start looking for work, you’ll be bringing something to the table besides ‘Shop Talk’.”
Great, great advice. And what’s true for aspiring journalists is also true for artists. We get so fixated on our own shtick– and the shtick of our peers, and whoever is in fashion that week– that we close ourselves up to the very kinds of experience that will make our work deeper, richer and more interesting in the long run, and “Talk Shop” instead [And bloggers are the worst. Why? Because it’s so much easier for a blogger to write about social media than it to write about something more original. I’ve been as guilty as anyone.].
Then again, it’s hard to make a significant body of work long-term, unless you’re totally obsessed and single-focused. Besides eating, drinking and screwing, Picasso didn’t do much else with his time, except make art.
On this subject, the best thing I’ve heard recently came from the composer, Phillip Glass, who my Twitter buddy, Hazel Dooney quoted recently: “I have one secret. You get up early in the morning and you work all day. That’s the only secret.”
My advice? Don’t worry about being an artist. Worry about getting the work made. If you’re any good, the rest will follow. Rock on.
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Very good. I’m reminded of some writer who said that he had greater faith that a person would actually write if they said they planned to write, rather than that they planned to be a writer.
Certainly true for scriptwriters too. The danger is massive — a bunch of films about middle aged / middle class artistic types. Instead people want films about their lives and new ideas. Essentially your blog post could also be called ‘get your head out your own ass’
So true, Hugh. Many professions (and all of the arts) are so hermetically sealed it’s really difficult to breathe, much less think and get work done.
Skip the cocktail party and the gallery opening and spend a few more hours perfecting your craft.
Live, Love, and WORK and let success catch up to you.
Now I’m off to practice what I preach.….
This is true.
This makes me happy.
What? Fill my hours of pouting and feet-stomping and depression and contemplation with work? Oh, man…
Thanks Hugh for this. In such a rainy and sad day. The greatest Italian contemporary poet Alda Merini has just died and I am feeling an orphan.
[…] via Gapingvoid. […]
So good — like warm laundry with special smelling drier sheets.
Very important to remember.
Sounds about right. Thanks for the reminder.
I read about an aspiring writer who went to a writing class being taught by a famous, successful author. Two minutes after class began, the author told all the students “What the hell are you doing in here?! Go home and write!”
Creating one of anything is fun. Having to recreate, weeds out the sissies.
I make art, but studied History. My work involves the studio and the pursuit of great places with a story. Meeting people in their nineties or their children and touring the buildings they lived their lives in informs the work. I am glad I didn’t go to art school.