Your primal joys

Yes… I almost would rather have a root canal than do someone else’s bidding when it comes to what I paint…. A gallery owner told me he wanted thicker paint…… I almost pulled out of the gallery it made me so mad….. Internal motivation has me painting coconut palm trees and beaches at sunset….. My childhood fantasy was to explore deserted islands ….. I now live in Hawaii and celebrate and paint that dream every day…..

My internal motivation hearkens back to when I was 3-4 years old; my mom set up simple still-life objects in the kitchen, having me copy them on my chalkboard easel. Still doin’ it, in oil. My external motivation will continue to exist until I’m 94, when the mortgage is paid off.

Indeed, listening to music from a particularly happy time in my life gets a different kind of creative juice flowing. Have always marched to my own drummer, but sometimes with a bit more dancing than stepping.

Not to be a “Debbie Downer” or anything but not everyone has “primal joys” from childhood that they can tap into nor do they have memories of their pre-teen youth that are pure and unsullied and full of “integrity.” Lucky for those that do but for many their art does originate from a dark place of fear and anger and sorrow and allowing them to tap into that (rather than dismissing the art school exercise you mention as irrelevant to the students’ lives – doubt it, actually, for many it probably was quite valuable whether they were willing to admit it or not) may ultimately result in richer, deeper, more meaningful art. Life is dark and most of us have experienced that to one degree or another, many experienced it as children. There is a place for this in art, indeed, if it is not allowed most art one produces may end up being nothing more than decoration.

Cecelia, I am glad you wrote what you wrote. It takes light and dark…if all is light, you have Necco wafers, you have a lot of tinted cream cheese. These experiences have to be incorporated, not edited out. I think the trick is sublimation, transformation. These are qualities that get you through life and art.

Art should be “felt” not examined.Sometimes with a portrait,Pet or person, the “likeness” must be exact, depending on the client. But otherwise, it’s a “go with your gut” !

God bless the student who commented he/she wanted to learn how to paint, not protest. What a wonderful time in life: young, eager, receptive, in art school knowing their life’s work … and having the insight to realize that particular experiment wasn’t useful to them. If we’re not careful we can allow ourselves to be carried off in lofty ideals and ambition when the mechanics and quiet labor that is essential to art is neglected. I never got around to offering my own tip, but it follows this subject: would I want to wake up and see negatives hanging on my wall? Do I want to paint social ills or see something of beauty? Could I live with this painting? Some art is better appreciated in museums rather than private homes. I’m not hunting to paint an iconic work … I want to paint something that pleases a person every time they walk into a room.

The teach could have hinted to the students to tap into their deep soul by giving a more sophisticated assignment. Negative emotions may be excellent driver to paint enriching art which doesn’t carry on more negativity into the world. Just painting the negative subject is too simplistic and seems pointless to me. There is lot of crap in the world, but what is our duty as artists? To report or to enrich?

Have been there for for more than four decades. My wife and I have no liking for direction from above. God bless as Red Skelton used to say.

Some of you may get the Robert Genn Twice-Weekly free email letter. Though Genn’s audience is primarily painters, I find a lot of relevance for our work in clay. If you do or don’t get his newsletters, his today’s thoughts are especially relevant to what Lisa’s and Natalie’s MW afternoon Advanced Ceramic Design class has been dealing with this semester. It is certainly a support for our class’ teaching-learning experiences this semester at Brookhaven College. I am especially thankful that a fourth of the way into this semester Lisa assigned me just to play the rest of the semester—do the assignments, but play. She knew that my inner child, who likes to come out to play, needed some exercise to keep my get-it-right inner big guy from interfering with the creativity that comes from the playful kid in me. The results have been finding new freedom and whimsy in working with the clay. And in the process more ease and flow have appeared with my thrown vessels. To each of you I send thanks for your help, your insights, your particular ways of looking at the world and the clay with which you work, your inspiration, your risks, and especially your friendship. Knowing it or not, you have been a part of all those gifts. Thank you. We have a very special group of folks in the Brookhaven School of Arts—especially in the ceramics classes. I am enriched by each of you. Here’s my prayer for you this day: May your clay wedge with ease, May you find a good wheel or clean table to use, May you let the stuff in the clay and in your heart rule, May you let your soul be seen, May you find a few who appreciate your unique you, May you find wonder when it works and when it doesn’t, May you risk a little, learn a little, give a little (each day), And, in it all, may you relish the primal joys!

Regarding your last paragraph in today’s letter……..we may not want to do what other people want but it helps to have parameters. When working on a commission I appreciated having some direction to follow. Knowing the size and maybe some color as well as what the customer appreciated in my former work, helped in my decisions to begin. Sometimes that empty white canvas was harder to fill even though thoughts and ideas abound. Esoterica: That was indeed a sad loss as a child but has left you with memories that may be pulled up and remembered all through your life. What a great home you had to be able to wander the forest. When do we see paintings of weathered roots and gnarls?

Robert my first thought when you gave the example of the professor looking for something that angers you…..was lazy. Students pay good money to learn skills not to learn how to protest, I think the prof didn’t want to teach.

I have to disagree with you, Robert. I think the art school instructor was asking the students to tap into a raw emotion, one that can drive the most amazing art, not telling them what to do. Waterlilies may be beautiful, but nothing stirs the soul like a Guernica. There is a lot of peaceful art around that may be nostalgic for the past – but that’s not what I want to be doing in my 60’s. I want to be expressing the depths of my feelings about the state of the world, the environment, humanity – feelings of anguish mixed with hope that I have had since I was a child (although I may not have understood them then). And those depths can be pretty dark. Cathartic Art 101 is for me!

Too bad your parents didn’t know that a mixture (40-60 or 50-50) of borax and icing sugar would get these ants to poison themselves and their hatching young but nothing else. I mix it with water and squirt it into any holes I find in my driftwood.

Painting what other people want, or what you think will sell, is a recipe for disaster. I have seen so many people lose their way in the chase for “success”. Be totally sincere, and stick with your vision. If you can’t do that, than you need to be in another field. Being an artist is to be willing to accept the ups and downs. If you want security…do something else.

We who live in the most beautiful place in the whole world, and have been painting it endlessly for many years tend to get bored with our trees and flowers and mountains etc. Recently, I was challenged to paint rocks – what fun! They are not boring but I just had never thought to paint them. Maybe we all need to have such challenges!

Love your letters Robert! Your words of wisdom and helpful hints teach, inspire and motivate!

Lately I have been in nostalgic mood remembering the simple and uncomplicated life I had with my folks in the Philippines. I thought of my grandmother bowing her head in prayer and following her lead for grace. Around her are my two aunts, two cousins and myself. I imagined how serene she looked, her bowed head and closed eyes in prayer while we children were anxious to satisfy our hungry stomachs, eyes open. Our table was low and we sat on the floor around it and our light is from a petroleum lamp. In the corner of the one room house is the clay stove with a pot on top and and glow from the fire of burning wood. I have been thinking of painting it as I remember it. Another image that I thought of painting is a group of my classmates under the mango tree where we used to sit on concrete semi circular benches before the bell rang for class. Other images are of our our school excursions to scenic places, riding on a bamboo raft or banca (a wooden canoe). These are the images that are inspiring me to paint and I hope one of these days I will.

Your thoughts on preteen, early art cognition are interesting. Just as you had your museum pieces that came to a tragic demise, I’ll bet we all have such occurrences in our early days of creation that more than likely propelled us to create with a vengeance to prove value in our art. For me, it was the brand-new-fresh-out-of-college-I-have-something-to-prove-teacher- Mike Henley’s English Lit I class, freshman in high school circa 1972 and the portrait of Mark Spitz that he tore up before my very eyes because the person in front of me had turned around to look at it just as the bell rang… Poor old Mike is still on my drive by shooting list and probably will be forever. (no I don’t really do drive by shootings) My joy is that while my art has grown in those 40 years, he is still an embittered control freak. Whew, felt good to purge that one.

I read, refer, and share your thoughts with those I know will find the same world of delight as I do. “Primal joy” and inspiration are generally our first intimate exchanges with the earth. Weather, soil, rock, water, and sun fire. My metamorphosis at this stage is the return to my marriage with the artist I knew at a very young age. I have been unfaithful to my creative heart in order to survive something that is completely a mystery to me. Until now. All the anger, sadness, and loss have managed me and I let go of the Nirvana of my Primal Joy. Thank you for the reminder that depression comes from the destruction of innocence in many of our lives. Maturity as a painter recalls the “primal joy”. Columbia Falls, MT

I really connected with your thoughts about ‘internal” and ‘external’ motivation. I was just in an art show which had a youth category, 17 years and under. Most of the entries were delightful and happy but I noticed as the artists aged into later teens the subjects became more intense and depressing–I guess their take on society. Oh to reconnect with that playful, direct, charming,and exciting interpretation of the creativity and joy of our youth! I don’t thing we really lose it. We just have to step back from all the ‘terribles’ of society and find it again.

An excellent column and so true.

It concerns me today how we encourage people to suppress anger. It is unfashionable to express anger about anything. Those who do are seen as “negative”. It has become a social taboo. This comes at a time when there is plenty to be angry about; however, we are told to “not worry, be happy”. Anger motivates social change much better than sitting back and thinking about how happy one is and then never really doing anything about the problems we face. People who are prosperous are relatively safe and happy. People who are victims of poverty, abuse, discrimination, and other social and personal problems are pressured to shut up and count their blessings. This in itself is a sickness in our society. Of course everyone is happy to be alive. That doesn’t mean we have to like everything. I can’t imagine anyone being happy about killing millions of people. I would at least hope they would be sad. This letter is extremely distressing. It shows how suppressed and repressed out society has become But that is being negative. I can not even talk about feeling distressed. I am a counselor and I know what happens hen individuals and groups are told to be happy. They become depressed. They are stigmatized. I do protest art. I think protesting is what America is about. The right to protest. This art exercise was a way to allow students to recognize that they have anger. It is just very unfortunate that they were to afraid to explore or suppress it. By the way, when I was young I was very angry – I don’t really know that everyone had an idyllic life about which they were happy.

I really get a great deal from reading these letters and responses. London and Birmingham

Re: Protest Art and Robin Tondra’s distress at this article. It may not be surprising that a counselor would see the world as a gathering of unhappy souls, since usually it’s when people are unhappy that they finally seek counselors to help them through it. I don’t find it surprising that a person immersed in the struggle of others going through suffering wants to express anger and sadness, along with those others who need to “get it out.” In my own work, I found, during a particularly dark period of my life, that let loose with a canvas to just paint what I was feeling, the painting sort of painted itself, and usually was quite figurative, with nasty characters doing nasty things and making life miserable. It did help me to do these, but I think it was part of the way to get through, rather than a statement of everyone’s realiity. Fear and anger certainly spawn emotionally charged art, and our museums are full of it. But surprise and joy and hope and mirth and awe and love are also strongly felt emotions and our museums are full of that too, and with reason! May we all enjoy with our paint brushes the extraordinary feelings we have about our lives..positive, negative, or just decorative. It will connect with someone who is traveling the same road, eventually, and if it’s beautifullly done, it may end up in a museum. But I did not find Robert’s article distressing, personally. I’m in a pretty harmonious chunk of my life at present and protest is not foremost, though my self-described “rant” blogs will not make it seem so. I just am happy to be allowed to say stuff, good or bad.

I am disappointed with some of the implications of this post of Robert’s. A part of post-secondary learning in any of the arts is learning about context and content of the art form under study, as well as developing techniques in practice of performance. Perhaps if Robert was talking about students of literature and writing in a programme geared to the promulgation and practice of the written arts, he might be bemoaning the fact that “directed” writing themes and forms were utilized in the education of learning writers. Learning just techniques, in and of themselves, is not enough for serious questors for knowledge in any discipline. Post-secondary education in the arts is not intended to be remedial. There is expectation that advanced students have an acceptable level of basic skills upon which to develop further expertise. I for one applaud teaching which stretches the parameters of individual expectations and ideas. To not challenge, on technical, conceptual and aesthelic aspects, is to not educate in a complete sense, and if I were in an art school which emphasized technical learning only, I would feel cheated and short-changed. By the way, what is an “evolved” artist?

The older I have aged the more important my art has become. I don! T paint portraits,or animals, trees rarely. No landscape for me. But my love is the bush, camping, canoeing, hiking, as I have aged I have had to modify what I am able to do with my abilities. Compromise is my position, this includes my friends and family. I devided my life into three thirds. First third is with your parents, second is husband and children and now the third third is about Me. Learning to be really me centered is a real learning curve. Not easily done when you have given over 2/3 of your life to others.i love what I am doing and argue with myself daily that I am worth the effort. Carenie little When friends come over I cover my work, I don,t want input so I remove the temptation from the studio.

I don’t know whether you and/or any other artists must confront to b e included in local or regional exhibitions — juried or not — but I have become aware of many artist discussions regarding the fact that granting institutions (upon whom the organizations but not the artists depend for financial support) have taken absolute control of the content of the art considered. The granting institutions usually name the exhibit to direct the content first of all — and there are some who think that the judges’ instructions may be at play here too. So I was particularly drawn to the following sentence in your letter: “The other alternative is to do what other people want. It’s also been my observation that most of us rugged individualists would prefer a root canal to doing other people’s will.” I know granting institutions are created to support the arts — but I wonder if they go too far sometimes in the controls, instead of providing leadership.

I wonder if my love of house portraits comes from a need to find “home”. I was adopted at 9 months old and do you suppose my drawing beautiful houses is that looking for a perfect home? My grandmother got me started on house portraits.