{"id":19309,"date":"2022-05-13T16:27:15","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T16:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/musings-on-an-artists-life"},"modified":"2022-05-13T16:51:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T16:51:22","slug":"musings-on-an-artists-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/musings-on-an-artists-life","title":{"rendered":"Musings on an artist\u2019s life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>My friend Andrew is an artist. He makes paintings because he loves making them. Sometimes, someone buys one. Other times, someone pays him to make paintings to order.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s like writers. We like plucking a thought from the swirling fog of particles in our heads and making it discussable.<\/p>\n

Or trying to. If it brings in some bacon, we rejoice. Like artists, writers are expected to be famous. If when people ask what you do and you say artist or writer, they think \u201csomething\u2019s wrong, I\u2019ve never heard of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a problem that plumbers cause, or professors or dentistry. It\u2019s ironic, too, because in fact, nearly all artists and writers are no more famous than their brother who does liquor sales, and their car is 12 years older. Writers tend to feel artists get an easy ride. Arts comes naturally to them, No? At school, they were the kid who drew faces we recognised. They just kept that up. And their critical support is so enviable.<\/p>\n

Their spouse\u2019s two-second glance delivers \u201cthat left eye looks scrunched and furtive\u201d. Next circuit might be \u201ctoo bright now, turn it down\u201d, while our spouses must handle requests to re-re-read Chapter 10 and see if it\u2019s flowing yet. This weekend, I heard Andrew hot on the integrity of art, putting a hole in any idea that the pen has a nobler mission than the brush. I\u2019d never imagined that a painting can be a lie. Now, I must cope with the thought that unless you put a part of yourself into doing it, it\u2019s hollow and fails to grip, cheating even the client who commissioned it.<\/p>\n

If you aren\u2019t a little terrified of what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re being lulled into mediocracy. If you know where you\u2019re going before you get there, complacency is creeping up. Rather look for the upside markers, like when you can\u2019t believe that your brain is telling your fingers to do what your fingers are doing.<\/p>\n

Or like seeing what you\u2019ve done, hearing it speak to you, exulting in it, and not knowing how you did it or whether you can ever do it again.<\/p>\n

A thing I\u2019d never contemplated is the terror of starting a painting, and the factors that go into that. One of these is startingly simple: N$ 130 worth of paper is on your easel. If your opening salvo gives you a wrong stroke at a wrong spot, your work is doomed.<\/p>\n

Morale, ego and confidence trickle off, and lots of N$ 130\u2019s crumple up in a corner.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all heard the standard bourgeois view of modern art, \u201cmy three-year old could do that\u201d. I\u2019ll hear it with harder ears after Andrew\u2019s account of a certain young artist, cruelly disabled, getting in touch with herself and expressing an attitude to the world through her brush. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about, says Andrew. It\u2019s a different scale to price and sale.<\/p>\n

Recalling times I\u2019ve heard artists condemning artists, I am inspired by Andrew\u2019s case that the thing to condemn is a failure to aim for fulfilment. I rethink times that I, thoroughly non-artist, have been quick with dismissal. A bit of a brake comes up there now. That some art means nothing beyond hand-over-the-money please, I\u2019ll never begin to doubt. But that there can be realms of meaning in whether the dark grey blob is this side and the light grey blob is that side, or vice versa, is a thing I behold with appreciatively reopened eyes. And apply the pen in prosaic endeavour to pass that on.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. My friend Andrew is an artist. He makes paintings because he loves making them. Sometimes, someone buys one. Other times, someone pays him to make paintings to order. That\u2019s like writers. We like plucking a thought from the swirling fog of particles in our heads and making it discussable. Or trying to. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,8,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-19309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nMusings on an artist\u2019s life - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My friend Andrew is an artist. 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