Here are a couple of tangles I liked from last week. I always enjoy the over and under designs that look woven and/or 3-dimentional. These have nothing to do with the quotation below but it is a sentiment I often shared with my quilting students because I had experienced it myself:
“If I had one thing to say to artists, it would be to be patient. And to be ignorant of what you think you know. If you don’t get the answer that you were expecting, maybe that’s a good thing. Knowing what you’re doing is overrated.” Pope.L.
You may or may not have some extra time over the holiday weekend, but in case you do, here is a podcast talking about AI and art as well as other things about making art, some of which I had not considered before, all of which I agree with: https://hebfdn.org/echoes/the-echoes-podcast-austin-kleon/
There's also a transcript if you'd rather read the back and forth between the hosts and the guest. Here are a few excerpts:
Austin Kleon: "When we think about art, I mean, lot of people think about art as the finished work. It’s the thing up on the wall. That is the product. But then there’s the process of art. There’s everything that goes into the artist’s life." As my zentangle says - it's the journey and I've always (mostly) enjoyed it.
Austin Kleon: "These are people who really believe in the product of art, and they don’t understand the process of art. I mean, the entire world right now is run by people who don’t know anything about art. Pretty much every tech person has no idea what really goes into it. I don’t think there’s an art lover in the batch, really. They’re certainly not interested in terms of, well, won’t necessarily go there, but I think that’s what people really miss the point with AI work is that there’s no gift there. . . There’s no struggle. There’s no limitations, there’s no, it’s just, it’s all about product. Give me this thing."
Austin Kleon: "It’s like, oh, tension bad. Like, oh, man. I don’t wanna be tense. Like, oh, you gotta, like, loosen up. But I find that tension is this very important thing for creative work, is that in the way I describe it to people is like a guitar string. . . Guitar string is slung between two opposites, two poles. And if you don’t ratchet up the tension on a guitar string, if you would loosen the tension totally, it just buzzes and there’s no music, just makes noise. If you ratchet it too tight, it snaps. And so it is with our spirit. Our spirit needs just the right tension." Honestly, I so tire of other creatives telling me to loosen up. Nice to hear someone say tension is important, but I also take note of the broken string when tension is too high.
Austin Kleon:". . .one of the things I hate about this culture is that the minute you show any proficiency for anything, well, you know, oh, this fried chicken. Oh, you can fry chicken. You know what? What comes next? You could have a food trailer." Camille Hall-Ortega: "You could have it. Yeah. You should sell." Austin Kleon: "It’s the first thing we say. It’s the major compliment we give to talk about. You should take that thing that you love to do that I’m loving right now. You should ruin it by making it your job. That’s exactly what you should do. Right? And so make money. You know?"
Austin Kleon: "Yeah. I mean, that’s one of the first things I tell people is like, if you have turned your hobby into your job, which a lot of the people that I’ve talked to have, guess what? You gotta get a new hobby. And a lot of artists, you know, that some whatever they’re doing that they were loving, you know, and when you turn it into your job, you need something else that’s outside of the market. You need something that’s pure gift." Been there, done that, learned my lesson . . .
And the following quotation describes another thing I've experienced over and over, getting downright testy at times. How about you?
"Artists are people who are driven to make creative work. And when they don’t make it, their quality of life suffers. They suffer."
Sure hope you aren't suffering, but having a great holiday weekend, and perhaps getting a little creative work in as well.
