Artists never know how good their art is. Creation of art is an intense and concentrated process which blocks out all other data and senses.
Once an artist gets an idea he is lost for everyone. He is lost to the world. Now he has no world. All he has is his idea as a shining beacon and he furiously, desperately makes his way towards it.
He is restless, uneasy, until and unless his idea has been realized. An idea is something that expresses his innermost feelings, desires or just his pure love of realizing the idea for the sake of using his art.
An artist can never create unsuccessful results. An unsuccessful result is not a result at all. It is just a stepping stone, the beacon is yet far out. An artist stops only when he has become successful, only when he knows, feels it in his guts. That what he created properly describes what he felt.
So, an artist can never hate his art. He is incapable of even disliking or being indifferent about it. Anyone who says he can do that is a liar. No, I wont say he not an artist. He certainly is, for he can use art to create. But he lies about his feelings.
Just as every mother always loves her newborn child, she is incapable of any other feeling, so does an artist feel of his art and creation. The only difference is that he always feels like that while a son might perhaps do wrong and incur his mother’s wrath and hatred.
So, then, an artist always is in love with all his creations. I have seen artists save every bit of paper that holds their art and I’ve seen those who’ve turned all their art to bits of paper. Both kinds driven by the same one feeling – enormous love and an animal passion for their art. Artists destroy art only if it is too precious for novice eyes.
But this intense, blinding process of creation makes them so much one with their creation that they can no more see how a layman will see it. They need a layman to tell them that. They have been blinded, deafened, desensitized all through the time and they can only love their art. They cannot know how good it is by the general layman standards.
This, an artist must deal with from a very young age. Right since the time he learns the powers of expression he commands. And this is the reason why artists are the ones most deeply affected by the pretense in the world.
They rely upon honest opinions of honest laymen to know if they liked it or not. Artists have to look for others opinions since their tender ages and so, they get exposed to the fakeness of others the earliest.
So, they are always the first people to see how people lie to them, to others and to their selves. That is why many artists lose interest in the world.
True.
ReplyDeleteArtists never know hoe gud their art is....? maybe so....but from wat i have seen...they seeek only those who might appreciate them...lk at mordern art or sculpture...isnt it elitist?...do many care about the lay man acttually?...and maybe they r really the first o see the duplicity & the lies of the world...but also da first to build walls against it n escape into thier own realities...
ReplyDeleteHmm.. though a valid one, you take a very very negative view. And thats surprising since i know you to be an artist yourself.
ReplyDeleteWell, firstly, artists seek appreciation and not people who might appreciate them. There is a difference. Saying that they seek people who appreciate makes them sound like elitist, but they are not. They seek for appreciation as innocently as a child would look around for its mother when it accomplishes a task for the first time.
Artists love their work, and always find it to be beautiful. Hence, they think others might like it too, and so, look around if others actually do like it. Its not some elitist conspiracy to form a group who appreciate art and make the rest of the world look like fools.
Secondly, they build their walls against the fakeness and duplicity of the world. But you make it sound as if its equally bad as the duplicity of the world. Its not, its completely different.
The duplicity and lies of the world are the people lying to themselves, and hence to others. Its self deception and malice.
The walls artists build are only their refuge from these fallacies of the world. They do not lie to others about themselves. They do not lie to themselves about their own selves. The only lie, if it can be called one, is that they try to convince themselves that the world might not really be that bad. They go into their own realities. But that is not self deception. They always know the real world is different from their own reality. And that fact actually makes them respect and love their own reality all the more.
But most artists dont even do that. They only go deeper into their art because it gives them a way to express themselves, their frustration and their disappointment. They stay in the reality and use their art to help them survive its harshness. Its not a wall, its just a shield. Its very different from the world's deception and lies.
ah, very true- but do all artists seek appreciation? what about those who create only to escape from either wallowing in sorrows, and such?
ReplyDeleteand can we broaden "artist" to everyone who dabbles in every kind of art- including play of words? in that case, i can say from a first hand experiance, while neither love or hate may exist, a certain fierce attatchment does.
hmm.. ya, there does exist that clan of artists who create just for the sake of creation. well, actually, i guess all the artists have that emotion inside them in different amounts. if you see the reason which drives them to create, its only this: the want to create. the consequent appreciation can never drive the true artist. its just that there are some who absolutely do not care for that appreciation at all, perhaps even dislike it. may be they've reached that stage by getting sick of the falsehood in the world.
ReplyDeleteand as for writers, of course they're included in artists. the people i had in mind when i said i've seen artists turn their art to bits of paper were writers. writing is as much an art as any other. actually, writing and painting are, according to me, the closest cousins. and as for the fierce attachment, may be thats exactly what i call love for your art. i suppose its a point of view..
dude i probably hate nethin i did myself more than neone else once i completed it. while completin it tho, i didnt dislike it n obv'ly liked it bcoz i botherd 2 finish it.
ReplyDeleteHmm.. well probably that tells something about you. I cant believe there has never been a creation that when you created it, you felt that yes, this is that summit i wanted to reach.. that intoxicating feeling of success. And if you hate most of your work after its finished, well, then probably its not really finished....?
ReplyDeleteno idea yaar. im kinda blank these days :(
ReplyDelete