49-54 and Thinking About Art

The Sign Says Yes
49/100
pen and ink, Pitt Artist Pen, gold paint pen, 5x8"
This and all following pictures are from my copy of Wreck This Journal, by Keri Smith


This is what my sign says. What I need to hear. What I need to think. No comes too easily to me.

For instance, I keep wanting to not count these Wreck This Journal pages as art. I don't want to count them in my creative challenge because I think I am cheating, but I am not. I keep thinking that all of my creative challenge pieces should be something to sell, but you know what? That's not good for my creativity. It's stifling. Which does not help the YES that I need.Ivy Likes to Paint, Just Not With Her Tongue.
50/100
tongue, crayola marker, pitt artist pen

My "no" wants to say that this is not art.

Lollipop Trees Directed by Ivy
51/100
Pitt Artist Pen

That this is not good enough or finished enough to be considered part of my creative challenge.

YOU SUCK
52/100
Pitt Artist Pen, hilighter, rollerball pen, diptych

My NO likes to say this a lot. This is one of my NO's favorite phrases. The other being, "I can't."
Time Passes in Moments
53/100
Pitt artist pen, diptych

My NO wants to say that this is just hatch marks so it couldn't possible be art, but then my YES (see first picture) reminds me that some of my favorite artists do not use figurative art. Or they use materials that will deteriorate. Or they write with chalk on public sidewalks. Or they factor graphic lines and casual marks into their work on a regular basis. Or repetition functions as a poetic metaphor.

The truth is, that this Wreck This Journal is about breaking out of the boundaries that we all set for ourselves. It is about taking chances and trying new things that we are not comfortable with. It is about experimenting and failing and making messes that we would never make if we were trying to make Art with a capital "A". Art for commerce. Art that other people will look at and say, now that's Art.
Night and Day
54/100
Pitt Artist Pen, Pen, Watercolor, Gel Pen, shower scrubbie. Diptych

Take a look at how I have squooshed all these pieces into one post, although there is something to say about each and every one. There is something to use in my "real" art. This is the mind working, the subconscious, happenstance, experimentations.

This is what art is about, not always about creating a perfect picture or something on canvas or something with masterful technique and craft.

Where is it going? That is the question, here. What path would this piece take me down? What can I utilize here in the next piece I do. Also, it serves as a survey, almost.

What is here in me? What are my thoughts? What are the marks I keep coming back to? What are the colors? What images, what themes, pull me again and again, and why do they?

This is about the exploration of the self, I believe, at least for me.

I don't know if I will ever do anything again with any of these pieces. they could stay stuck in my Wreck This Journal forever, mouldering away, for all I know, after visiting the book club.

But then again, they could lead to my next breakthrough. They could become the new connection. They could tell me what I should be doing with my life.

They've already gotten me thinking.

What about you? What is your current work saying to you about you? How can you break out of your comfort zone and travel to somewhere new?