Technique...or Process
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Text and Artwork:
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 What is this thing which has caused me so much unease? The strong and continued focus on techniques without a simliar focus on art as a process, and product, of expression. Techniques are only tools. Do you focus on the individual letters and words which make up a story, or do you move beyond those tools of speach to grasp the meaning being conveyed by those tools? No, of course not. The whole point of speach is convey the message. The point is not about how well the speaker can manipulate the tools.(...Well, at least that's true most of the time outside of politics and advertising. *grin*) The same is true of the visual arts. Now don't get me wrong. There is always a time to learn how to handle a media in order for you to be able to say the things you want to through that media. That is, after all, the bottom line of what technique is all about. But, when that technique, or set of techniques, is all that the artist is focused on, then there is an intrinsic problem in the work that they will produce. It is the same problem that can face musicians....A violinist works diligently on their bowing technique; it is necessary for them to be able to control their bowing in order to allow the music the fullest scope. But by the same token, if a violinist is so focused on their technique that they forget the motion/emotion conveyed by the music itself, their playing will become flat. The voice of their song will wither like autumn grasses. The same is true for us as visual artists. If we focus on technique, without remembering that the real purpose of art is reach out and touch the viewer, our art will suffer. Our visual 'voice' will be flat, without resonance...and if we are not careful....without true substance. When you are creating that visual piece, what are you saying to your viewer...what are you trying to convey? Expression is, after all, the bottom line in all the arts. |