Dear Artist,
The Cycladic island of Naxos is dotted with white, cube-shaped houses clumped along the hillside in spaced, diminishing lineups or stacked in a town labyrinth, an ever-narrowing grid climbing to a cloudless, cerulean sky. The edges are hard and soft with flat, angular shadows creeping across the summer walls in warm and cool greys. I’m a rubbernecker on the back of the quad bike, grabbing at shapes and inhaling feelings for future art meals.
Linds Redding (1960-2012)
On the neighbouring island of Mykonos is the lively town where a phenomenon familiar in advertising circles is booming, called “the Gruen transfer.” It gets the happy hoards just a little bit lost — acquiesced to the pleasant confusion of impaired spatial awareness. This manipulation — this “scripted disorientation” named for Austrian architect Victor Gruen — is the signature of the modern shopping mall but can work in casinos and art galleries, even in paintings. It sings in this tightly woven stone and marble labyrinth thick with caftans and leather sandals, line-drying octopi and their attendant pussycats. Novel and enticing stimuli — contained in a world — spark the magical “transfer”: our eyes dart, then rest; our body stops, and our pocket money begins to smoke.
But artists don’t acquire with their wallets, trading instead in a different kind of currency. In 2012, an art director named Linds Redding was diagnosed with inoperable esophageal cancer. He left advertising and started writing a blog, gathering perspective on a lifetime in the maze. Redding concluded that creative people are driven by a compulsion to make things and be seen — especially by their peers — and this can make us vulnerable. “Truly creative people tend not to be motivated by money,” wrote Redding. “The riches we crave are acknowledgment and appreciation of the ideas that we have and the things that we make.”
Redding’s was a cautionary tale to would-be creatives considering a glamourous life in golden handcuffs. Having been there, he urged that art is its own meaning. Keep your ideas daring, slow down and get lost once in awhile — the good stuff will come, and this is the real reward. “The compulsion to create is unstoppable. It’s a need that has to be filled.”
A Short Lesson in Perspective
The riches we crave are acknowledgment and appreciation of the ideas that we have and the things that we make. (Linds Redding)
Sincerely,
Sara
PS: “The trick to being truly creative… is to be completely unselfconscious. To resist the urge to self-censor. To not-give-a-shit what anybody thinks. That’s why children are so good at it. And why people with Volkswagens, and mortgages, Personal Equity Plans and matching Louis Vuitton luggage are not.” (Linds Redding)
Esoterica: In the Cyclades, the antiquities of the ancient Greeks and their continuing generations of successors adorn archaeological sites, the landscape and shop windows. Artistic expression exhales from the volcanic dust dunes and whispers amongst the olive leaves. The courage to think out loud demands a safe and nurturing environment, wrote Redding. “It has to be this way, or you will just close up like a clamshell… It’s like trying to have sex, with your mum listening outside the bedroom door. Can’t be done.” More of Linds Redding’s ideas on creativity can be read in his post, A Short Lesson in Perspective.
16 Comments
I had to read this three times to find the gold between the lines. Wow! Art IS Soul searching and you are a true prospector, Sara!
In case your dad taught you what ‘rubbernecking’ is, good on him…it made me smile and think of him anyway! (-:
Yes. Art is its own meaning. And a life spent making Art, something that I stopped apologizing for about twenty years ago, also has its own meaning.
I felt compelled to log in and agree with Carole – Sarah, I throughly enjoy the loose and lyric poeticism of your letters – different in style than your father – but equally insightful and inspirational. Thanks!
Lovely words and descriptions. I am experiencing Greece envy!
Frank Stella once said “what you see is what you see”. I would say “what you see is not what you see but something else … yourself”.
Damn you’re good.
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Love this one! It is so true most of the joy is in the creating and the audience that enjoys it with you!
I loved your comment about the joy of creating and sharing it with others. I had some friends drop over on their way through our St George, UT area Sunday who had not been in my home before. As she went through my home looking and commenting on each of my paintings, I felt truly appreciated and it made my heart sing. It is such a pleasure to share these creations.
Hmm. This is the second time in 24 hours the column “A Short Lesson in Perspective” has been brought to my attention. It’s a longish read, but I encourage anyone who has read this far to read it, too. It’s brilliant.
I- too- ran into that article ‘A Short Lesson in Perspective’ in the last week. Funny- to find it being referenced here!
this one really helps ! I feel inspired to scatter some unexpected sparks into my paintings, stand back and watch the effects….
Breathtaking! I love the lyricism of your comments! Love the cerulean sky …inhaling feelings for future art meals! What poetry!
There’s always one fish swimming against the current. I agree that creativity is a need for an artist but I don’t necessarily look for appreciation from my peers. So often when we have group shows I’d rather enjoy the social time with my peers. I could careless what they experience or enjoy in my work. It just means artists create for the personal growth not for attention or appreciation or accolades or for $$; we are merely here to accept our gift and give it for others to enjoy.
I found this article hard-going. I think art is much simpler than any of this.
Unfortunately, it’s sad to say, this is not news or new except maybe for your specific ad company. It’s the way global corporate has been changing our world now “for the better” with the not so new technical age and explosion of global communication etc. It’s a new world. Progress. Is there a scrap of good in that?