September 2006 Archives
Professional artists, designers and illustrators eventually grow weary of the client Xfactor. The Xfactor, a predetermined intellectual quotient formulated by combining capacity, exposure and education, becomes the grease or grunge of client interface. It’s grease if they have the stuff required to communicate what they need and what they want. It’s grunge if it clogs up communication pores and impedes progress. Even sixth graders know about “constipation of the brain and diarrhea of the mouth.” Those are the clients who prefer to play the game, “Can you guess what I’m thinking?” Eventually creatives wonder if civilians are worth the trouble.
Let’s take Joni Mitchell, a good example of an incredibly gifted, well-rounded creative. She paints, she writes, she sings; or at least she did until the bullshit of money infiltrated her dealings with those who sold her creative product. She made an interesting comment about changing her artform of choice: "I believe a total unwillingness to cooperate is what is necessary to be an artist—not for perverse reasons, but to protect your vision. The considerations of a corporation, especially now, have nothing to do with art or music. That's why I spend my time now painting. When money meets up with art, there is a lot of pain, and it's the pain of ignorance, and I don't want to meet up with that ignorance again." (Los Angeles Times, September 5, 2004) Douglas Eby is my source for that wonderful quote--he's got a site that celebrates creativity so we shouldn't count him as a civilian.
Artistic Content vs. Technique
I was standing near a fellow sophomore’s painting, admiring the near glasslike perfection of her oil application. She had reproduced her student ID on a 4 foot by 6 foot canvas and it was spot on. It didn’t matter to any of us that she had used an overhead projector; it was almost as good as a photograph. No, it was a photograph. I was feeling less than hopeful that day; wondering if my work would ever be that good. It was a sore point with me, especially since Mr. Aschenbrand had just walked past our assignments in creative typography mumbling in front of the class, “I see Kirkland used a mop to render her type again.”
