And so...
I'm at work right now, quietly picking all the almonds and M&M's out of the office trail mix jar. I would feel worse about it if I didn't know that there's a colleague who takes all the peanuts and raisins. I'm just evening things out.
Last night I went to hear the artist Enrique Martinez Celaya speak on his work, which includes paintings, poetry and photography, all of it quite lovely. He was compared to Paul Celan in the intro, which I thought was interesting, as Celaya spoke a lot having to forgive oneself for being an artist in order to get at the "true art", which is self-contained. Celan basically wrote despite the guilt, and, tortured by the holocaust and perhaps an inability to forgive himself for "beautifying" his experiences through writing on them, committed suicide.
It was great to hear Celaya speak -- he was irreverent, funny, stubborn and very intelligent. I liked his ideas on activism vs. art. I think he was trying to get at the fact that painting and photography will never make that much of an impact with so many other forms of influence (television, movies) around, and so it is the responsibility of the artist to get out in the community and make change happen.
That is, in part, why I want to be an art therapist. Because art really is a selfish process, but in the best way. If other people like what you're doing, if it's well made and aesthetically pleasing and fits nicely into what people expect to pay thousands of dollars for, great. But there's always the artist's responsibility to keep it pure for him or herself, whatever that means. For me it's the self-exploration of the process of art, which I constantly battle with. I would love to have everyone love what I do. But I would also like to let go of that and just see where my art can go as a challenge to myself. That's also why I want to work with kids. I think they'll be way better at this stuff than I am.
Last night I went to hear the artist Enrique Martinez Celaya speak on his work, which includes paintings, poetry and photography, all of it quite lovely. He was compared to Paul Celan in the intro, which I thought was interesting, as Celaya spoke a lot having to forgive oneself for being an artist in order to get at the "true art", which is self-contained. Celan basically wrote despite the guilt, and, tortured by the holocaust and perhaps an inability to forgive himself for "beautifying" his experiences through writing on them, committed suicide.
It was great to hear Celaya speak -- he was irreverent, funny, stubborn and very intelligent. I liked his ideas on activism vs. art. I think he was trying to get at the fact that painting and photography will never make that much of an impact with so many other forms of influence (television, movies) around, and so it is the responsibility of the artist to get out in the community and make change happen.
That is, in part, why I want to be an art therapist. Because art really is a selfish process, but in the best way. If other people like what you're doing, if it's well made and aesthetically pleasing and fits nicely into what people expect to pay thousands of dollars for, great. But there's always the artist's responsibility to keep it pure for him or herself, whatever that means. For me it's the self-exploration of the process of art, which I constantly battle with. I would love to have everyone love what I do. But I would also like to let go of that and just see where my art can go as a challenge to myself. That's also why I want to work with kids. I think they'll be way better at this stuff than I am.
posted by Ester at 1:24 PM
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