Isn't that giving away your secret?

A couple of weeks back I was invited to talk about my work to a group of about 50-60 artists at the Beaconsfield Artists Association on the 18th of May. In the weeks leading up to this I have had a lot of comments about this, the most common one being; “isn’t that going to give away your secrets?” I understand where that question is coming from but I do not agree with it. The technique I use in my work is not this big secret I’ve been developing for years and years. It is a technique that can be found in books or online, I myself learned it at a course I took last year. Granted, I worked on it to fit it to my needs and I am endlessly grateful to the man who taught it to me but it is not a secret. The thing that makes my work special is me, I am the one who takes the pictures, I am the one who chooses which pictures to use and I am the one who decides where everything needs to go. It’s not the technique that makes the work, it’s the way I bring everything together that is unique and I don’t think that is something you can teach, or steal for that matter.

When I was in art school I was in a class of about 20 people who at times all got the same assignment and it always surprised me how many different solutions there were, even when working with the same materials or techniques. Afterwards we would all display our work together and discuss it and there would always be pieces that I would envy; if only I had thought of that! But that’s how you learn as an artist, the next time you would consider that idea or technique and run with it. That didn’t mean that you would copy the work of your classmate or steal his idea though. Because a technique is just that, a technique, a means to an end. It’s what you yourself do with it that is going to make it into art. 

Does that mean that I’m not the slightest bit worried? well no. I am worried, I think as an artist you always are, a little bit. But if you are afraid that people will copy you then you should  lock yourself away in your studio and avoid contact with the outside world at all times. Don’t post any of your work online, don’t talk about it, write about it, definitely don’t blog about it and most of all don’t show it to anybody. When you let your work go into the world there’s always a chance that someone will copy it so you might as well not worry about it and if it happens deal with it when it comes or consider it an honor, if people think your work is worth copying it must be really good right?

I see a lot of works by other artists, I go to museums, browse art online, read artist blogs and work together with other artists when doing courses or group activities and I get a lot of ideas from that. It is a very inspiring experience that I wouldn’t be able to do without as an artist, I take away a lot of ideas from that. But I use those ideas in my own way. The artist is like a filter, you can only experience the world in your own way and therefore only create your own artwork. This is something that is especially true for my work, because I show places that I have visited and experienced and I choose to show the elements that were most important to me.

That’s why I will gladly talk about the way I work on May 18th at the Beaconsfield Artists Association and I hope I will inspire a lot of artists to run with my ideas in their own way, wouldn’t you?

On Priorities and Deadlines

Now that my solo show has finished I should have time o plenty, that is not the case though. There are so many things fighting for my attention right now that I have a hard time figuring out which things should have the highest priority and what needs to be done first. 

When I was preparing for my show things were simple in a way, I had a of of stuff to do, true, but everything for my show had priority so I didn’t really have to think about it. Now things seem a lot more complicated. I have several things going on right now. Most important are the preparations for a presentation I will be giving at the arts association of Beaconsfield on May 18th, there is a lot of prep work that needs to be done for that and the 18th is pretty close so this should be on the top of my list right?

Thing is, yesterday I had a meeting with the woman who helps me with my marketing and every time I come back from a meeting with her there are a thousand new things that I need to take care of. We talked about doing a minor redesign on my website to incorporate my web store and make things more organized. When things like this pop up, my mind tells me that they have to be done right away, which is kind of distracting since I need to be preparing for my presentation. Now I know that the changes on my site can be done at any time and I shouldn’t expect them to be done right away but it is just something that keeps nagging me in the back of my mind until it’s done.

On top of that I have decided on my new project, the one on all the neighborhoods on the island of Montreal and I’m really eager to start on that. Especially since I am planning to do a solo show on that series early next year so I should definitely get started if I want to be finished in time.

Earlier today I visited the Viva Vida Art Gallery where I have some work on consignment and they are showing an interest in doing a solo show later this year which means that I will have to create some new pieces for that as well. 

And then there are all the other small things that always need doing, like keeping up with this blog, sending out packages to galleries and entering art shows. All of them minor things but still things that need to be done. 

I have downloaded an app for my desktop to keep up with my to do list, I like a good list, especially when there is stuff I can check off of that list. But still I seem to have a hard time getting my priorities straight. That’s why I still started with doing some minor changes on my site as opposed to starting prep work on my presentation first. But I have decided to leave the rest of the changes for later, maybe I’ll work on them tonight a little. After I upload this blog I will first start work on the piece for my presentation and once I get into the flow of things I will probably be fine, things tend to work themselves out. As long as I get started that is...