Barbara Rachko's Blog, page 116
January 7, 2015
Pearls from artists* # 125
Barbara’s studio
* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to a rtists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
My own natural proclivity is to categorize the world around me, to remove unfamiliar objects from their dangerous perches by defining, compartmentalizing and labeling them. I want to know what things are and I want to know where they are and I want to control them. I want to remove the danger and replace it with the known. I want to feel safe. I want to feel out of danger.
And yet, as an artist, I know that I must welcome the strange and the unintelligible into my awareness and into my working process. Despite my propensity to own and control everything around me, my job is to “make the familiar strange and the strange familiar,” as Bertolt Brecht recommended: to un-define and un-tame what has been delineated by belief systems and conventions, and to welcome the discomfort of doubt and the unknown, aiming to make visible what has become invisible by habit.
Because life is filled with habit, because our natural desire is to make countless assumptions and treat our surroundings as familiar and unthreatening, we need art to wake us up. Art un-tames, reifies and wakes up the part of our lives that have been put to sleep and calcified by habit. The artist, or indeed anyone who wants to turn daily life into an adventure, must allow people, objects and places to be dangerous and freed from the definitions that they have accumulated over time.
Anne Bogart in What’s the Story: Essays about art, theater, and storytelling
Comments are welcome!
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January 3, 2015
Q: How important is the feedback of your audience? Do you ever think about who will enjoy your Art when you conceive it?
Painting, subject, reference photo
A: I can’t say that I think at all about audience reaction while I’m creating a painting in my studio. Although, of course I want people to respond favorably to the work.
Generally, I’m thinking about technical problems – making something that is exciting to look at, well-composed, vibrant, up to my exacting standards, etc. When I finish a painting, it is the best thing I am capable of making at that moment in time.
I think about a painting and look at it for so long and with such intensity, that it could hardly have turned out any differently. There is an inevitability to the whole lengthy process that goes all the way back to when I first laid eyes on the folk art figures in a dusty shop in a third world country. Looking at a newly-finished painting on my easel I often think, “Of course! I was drawn to this figure so that it could serve this unique function in this painting.”
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art in general, Art Works in Progress, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Inspiration, Mexico, New York, NY, Pastel Painting, Photography, Quotes, Studio, Travel, Working methods Tagged: art, audience, back, best, capable, conceive, country, creating, differently, drawn, dusty, easel, enjoy, exacting, exciting, eyes, favorably, feedback, figure, figures, finish, finished, first, folk art, function, generally, hardly, important, inevitably, intensity, laid, lengthy, look, making, moment, newly, painting, people, photo, problems, process, reaction, reference, respond, serve, shop, something, standards, Studio, subject, technical, think, third world, time, turned, unique, vibrant, well-composed, whole, work
December 31, 2014
Pearls from artists* # 124
Barbara’s studio
* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to a rtists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
You give yourself a creative life – pursuing those questions and aesthetic conditions that mean the most to you. What are you interested in? Landscape and gender and nuclear power are each worthy subjects and there are plenty more. Do you aspire to exhibit in museums or public spaces or virtual realms? Your job is to figure out how to best engage these distinct contexts. Your studio may be a large industrial space or a second bedroom or the kitchen table, where you can work days or nights while wearing your favorite sweatpants and drinking tea as music blasts or silence is maintained. You might produce five or fifty objects a year, using bronze or oil paint or folded paper, and these can be large or tiny, made to last for centuries or a few weeks. Maybe you’ve been a printmaker for several years and all of a sudden you decide to make videos. OK. You might be influenced by Pop Art or Minimalism or Feminism or Fluxus. How are you using these various histories to your advantage? Does Edward Hopper or Gordon Matta-Clark or Agnes Martin or David Hammons inspire you? If not, who does? Try to understand the reasons for your choices, and if you feel the need to shift gears, indulge that impulse. Grant yourself the permission to acquire new skills, travel to biennials, buy a new computer, start a reading group. Risk not knowing what will happen when you do.
Stephen Horodner in THE ART LIFE: On Creativity and Career
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art in general, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Inspiration, New York, NY, Painting in General, Pastel Painting, Pearls from Artists, Photography, Quotes, Studio, Travel, Working methods Tagged: "The Art Life: On Creativity and Career", acquire, advantage, aesthetic, Agnes Martin, aspire, bedroom, best, biennials, blasts, bronze, buy, centuries, choices, computer, conditions, contexts, creative, David Hammons, days, decide, distinct, drinking, Edward Hopper, engage, exhibit, favorite, feel, Feminism, few, figure, Fluxus, folded, gears, gender, give, Gordon Matta-Clark, grant, group, happen, histories, impulse, indulge, industrial, influenced, inspire, interested, job, kitchen, knowing, landscape, large, last, life, made, maintained, make, maybe, mean, might, Minimalism, more, museums, music, need, nights, nuclear, objects, oil, paint, paper, permission, plenty, pop Art, power, printmaker, produce, public, pursuing, questions, reading, realms, reasons, risk, second, several, shift, silence, skills, space, spaces, start, Stephen Horodner, Studio, subjects, sudden, sweatpants, table, tea, tiny, travel, understand, using, various, videos, virtual, wearing, weeks, what, where, while, work, worthy, year, yourself
December 27, 2014
Q: What’s on the easel today?
Preliminary sketch
A: I’m working on a tonal charcoal sketch in preparation for my next large pastel painting.
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art Works in Progress, Black Paintings, Creative Process, New York, NY, Pastel Painting, Photography, Studio, Working methods Tagged: charcoal, easel, large, painting, pastel, preliminary, preparation, sketch, today, tonal, working
December 24, 2014
Pearls from artists* # 123
“Quartet” with self-portrait
* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to a rtists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
We artists should not underestimate the importance of the stories we tell ourselves about how our art will make a difference. These motivational fictions describe the ways a work might interact with the world to justify our extravagant, and potentially narcissistic labors: that our art has transformational potential. A work might be understood as being critical of society or sanctuary from it, for instance, or a Trojan horse sent to the enemy as a nasty gift to unsettle their deeply entrenched frames of mind. We need renewable encouragement to make fresh work year after year in the face of uncertain rewards.
David Humphrey quoted in THE ART LIFE: On Creativity and Career by Stuart Horodner
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art in general, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Inspiration, Pastel Painting, Pearls from Artists, Photography, Quotes, Studio, Working methods Tagged: "Quartet", "The Art Life: On Creativity and Career", art, artists, being, critical, David Humphrey, deeply, describe, difference, encouragement, enemy, entrenched, extravagant, face, fictions, frames, fresh, gift, horse, importance, instance, interact, justify, labors, make, mind, motivational, narcissistic, nasty, need, ourselves, potential, quoted, renewable, rewards, sanctuary, self portrait, society, stories, Stuart Horodner, tell, transformational, Trojan, uncertain, underestimate, understood, unsettle, work, world, year
December 20, 2014
Q: In the “Black Paintings” you create a deep intellectual interaction and communicate a wide variety of states of mind. I admit that certain “Black Paintings” unsettle me a bit. I see in this series an effective mix between anguish and happiness. Rath
“The Storyteller,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 20″ x 26″
A: I’m sure you and other viewers will see all kinds of states of mind, like anguish, happiness, and everything in between. I think that’s wonderful because it means my work is communicating a message to you. Sometimes people have told me that my images are unsettling and that’s fine, too. I would never presume to tell anyone what to think about my work. As one reviewer put it, “What you bring to my work you get back in spades!”
Some of this is intentional, but some is not. My day-to-day experiences – what I’m thinking about, what I’m feeling, what I’m reading, the music I’m listening to, etc. – get embedded into the work. I don’t understand exactly how that happens, but I am glad it happens. This work does come from a deep place, much deeper than I am able to explain even to myself. After nearly three decades as an artist, the intricacies of my creative process are still a mystery. Personally, I am very fond of mysteries and don’t need to understand it all.
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art in general, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Inspiration, Pastel Painting, Photography, Quotes, Working methods Tagged: "Black Paintings", "The Storyteller", about, admit, anguish, anyone, artist, aspect, between, bit, bring, certain, communicating, contemplation, create, creative, day to day, decades, deep, describing, effective, embedded, enjoy, everything, experiences, explain, feeling, fine, fond, force, glad, happens, happiness, images, intellectual, intentional, interaction, intricasies, listening, message, mind, mix, music, myself, mystery, nearly, paintings, pastel, people, personally., place, pose, presume, process, question, rather, reading, reviewer, sandpaper, series, simply, soft, something, sometimes, spades, states, sure, talk, think, unsettle, variety, viewers, wide, wonderful, work
Q: In the “Black Paintings” you create a deep intellectual interaction and communicate a wide variety of states of mind. I admit that certain “Black Paintings” unsettle me a bit. I see in this series an effective mix between anguish and happiness. Rath
“The Storyteller,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 20″ x 26″
A: I’m sure you and other viewers will see all kinds of states of mind, like anguish, happiness, and everything in between. I think that’s wonderful because it means my work is communicating a message to you. Sometimes people have told me that my images are unsettling and that’s fine, too. I would never presume to tell anyone what to think about my work. As one reviewer put it, “What you bring to my work you get back in spades!”
Some of this is intentional, but some is not. My day-to-day experiences – what I’m thinking about, what I’m feeling, what I’m reading, the music I’m listening to, etc. – get embedded into the work. I don’t understand exactly how that happens, but I am glad it happens. This work does come from a deep place, much deeper than I am able to explain even to myself. After nearly three decades as an artist, the intricacies of my creative process are still a mystery. Personally, I am very fond of mysteries and don’t need to understand it all.
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art in general, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Inspiration, Pastel Painting, Photography, Quotes, Working methods Tagged: "Black Paintings", "The Storyteller", about, admit, anguish, anyone, artist, aspect, between, bit, bring, certain, communicating, contemplation, create, creative, day to day, decades, deep, describing, effective, embedded, enjoy, everything, experiences, explain, feeling, fine, fond, force, glad, happens, happiness, images, intellectual, intentional, interaction, intricasies, listening, message, mind, mix, music, myself, mystery, nearly, paintings, pastel, people, personally., place, pose, presume, process, question, rather, reading, reviewer, sandpaper, series, simply, soft, something, sometimes, spades, states, sure, talk, think, unsettle, variety, viewers, wide, wonderful, work
Q: In the “Black Paintings” you create a deep intellectual interaction and communicate a wide variety of states of mind. I admit that certain “Black Paintings” unsettle me a bit. I see in this series an effective mix between anguish and happiness. Rath
“The Storyteller,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 20″ x 26″
A: I’m sure you and other viewers will see all kinds of states of mind, like anguish, happiness, and everything in between. I think that’s wonderful because it means my work is communicating a message to you. Sometimes people have told me that my images are unsettling and that’s fine, too. I would never presume to tell anyone what to think about my work. As one reviewer put it, “What you bring to my work you get back in spades!”
Some of this is intentional, but some is not. My day-to-day experiences – what I’m thinking about, what I’m feeling, what I’m reading, the music I’m listening to, etc. – get embedded into the work. I don’t understand exactly how that happens, but I am glad it happens. This work does come from a deep place, much deeper than I am able to explain even to myself. After nearly three decades as an artist, the intricacies of my creative process are still a mystery. Personally, I am very fond of mysteries and don’t need to understand it all.
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art in general, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Inspiration, Pastel Painting, Photography, Quotes, Working methods Tagged: "Black Paintings", "The Storyteller", about, admit, anguish, anyone, artist, aspect, between, bit, bring, certain, communicating, contemplation, create, creative, day to day, decades, deep, describing, effective, embedded, enjoy, everything, experiences, explain, feeling, fine, fond, force, glad, happens, happiness, images, intellectual, intentional, interaction, intricasies, listening, message, mind, mix, music, myself, mystery, nearly, paintings, pastel, people, personally., place, pose, presume, process, question, rather, reading, reviewer, sandpaper, series, simply, soft, something, sometimes, spades, states, sure, talk, think, unsettle, variety, viewers, wide, wonderful, work
Q: In the “Black Paintings” you create a deep intellectual interaction and communicate a wide variety of states of mind. I admit that certain “Black Paintings” unsettle me a bit. I see in this series an effective mix between anguish and happiness. Rath
“The Storyteller,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 20″ x 26″
A: I’m sure you and other viewers will see all kinds of states of mind, like anguish, happiness, and everything in between. I think that’s wonderful because it means my work is communicating a message to you. Sometimes people have told me that my images are unsettling and that’s fine, too. I would never presume to tell anyone what to think about my work. As one reviewer put it, “What you bring to my work you get back in spades!”
Some of this is intentional, but some is not. My day-to-day experiences – what I’m thinking about, what I’m feeling, what I’m reading, the music I’m listening to, etc. – get embedded into the work. I don’t understand exactly how that happens, but I am glad it happens. This work does come from a deep place, much deeper than I am able to explain even to myself. After nearly three decades as an artist, the intricacies of my creative process are still a mystery. Personally, I am very fond of mysteries and don’t need to understand it all.
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art in general, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Inspiration, Pastel Painting, Photography, Quotes, Working methods Tagged: "Black Paintings", "The Storyteller", about, admit, anguish, anyone, artist, aspect, between, bit, bring, certain, communicating, contemplation, create, creative, day to day, decades, deep, describing, effective, embedded, enjoy, everything, experiences, explain, feeling, fine, fond, force, glad, happens, happiness, images, intellectual, intentional, interaction, intricasies, listening, message, mind, mix, music, myself, mystery, nearly, paintings, pastel, people, personally., place, pose, presume, process, question, rather, reading, reviewer, sandpaper, series, simply, soft, something, sometimes, spades, states, sure, talk, think, unsettle, variety, viewers, wide, wonderful, work
Q: In the “Black Paintings” you create a deep intellectual interaction and communicate a wide variety of states of mind. I admit that certain “Black Paintings” unsettle me a bit. I see in this series an effective mix between anguish and happiness. Rath
“The Storyteller,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 20″ x 26″
A: I’m sure you and other viewers will see all kinds of states of mind, like anguish, happiness, and everything in between. I think that’s wonderful because it means my work is communicating a message to you. Sometimes people have told me that my images are unsettling and that’s fine, too. I would never presume to tell anyone what to think about my work. As one reviewer put it, “What you bring to my work you get back in spades!”
Some of this is intentional, but some is not. My day-to-day experiences – what I’m thinking about, what I’m feeling, what I’m reading, the music I’m listening to, etc. – get embedded into the work. I don’t understand exactly how that happens, but I am glad it happens. This work does come from a deep place, much deeper than I am able to explain even to myself. After nearly three decades as an artist, the intricacies of my creative process are still a mystery. Personally, I am very fond of mysteries and don’t need to understand it all.
Comments are welcome!
Filed under: An Artist's Life, Art in general, Black Paintings, Creative Process, Inspiration, Pastel Painting, Photography, Quotes, Working methods Tagged: "Black Paintings", "The Storyteller", about, admit, anguish, anyone, artist, aspect, between, bit, bring, certain, communicating, contemplation, create, creative, day to day, decades, deep, describing, effective, embedded, enjoy, everything, experiences, explain, feeling, fine, fond, force, glad, happens, happiness, images, intellectual, intentional, interaction, intricasies, listening, message, mind, mix, music, myself, mystery, nearly, paintings, pastel, people, personally., place, pose, presume, process, question, rather, reading, reviewer, sandpaper, series, simply, soft, something, sometimes, spades, states, sure, talk, think, unsettle, variety, viewers, wide, wonderful, work
