From: Jonathan Bailey (quryhous@midcoast.com)
Date: 08/20/02-10:19:10 AM Z
Shannon,
Tillman wrote:
> I hesitate to jump in here (these waters are way too deep for me) but
> my teaching philosophy is..
>
> Everything has been done..but it doesn't count until its been done by you.
> By mastering your craft and stealing from the best, your own vision
> and ideas will emerge
>
> Just do what you want and eventually the rest of the world will catch
> up with you. If you are always following or finding trends your own
> voice will be lost..
>
> just do something.
I have held back here as well - but would like to agree emphatically with
Tillman, and add: The wheel hasn't been invented until *you* invent it.
Now, it may be it's also important to *stop* reinventing the wheel at some
point - but that's another issue.
In my slide presentation about my work I include images I did in the
mid-70's after beginning to use an 8x10. It's fairly standard
"large-formatty" stuff - "surf and turf," pastoral forests, and the like -
and not terribly unique. What I say while showing this work is that I want
to show the kind of images I was making while waiting to see what *my*
images might look like - although I certainly could not have understood that
at the time.
Clarity, if it comes at all, is a luxury of hindsight.
Vision is always ahead of understanding....
As Emmet Gowin elegantly stated - if we are truly about something new, there
is no possibility of understanding it at the time.
Making art is an act of faith.
Fred Sommer said - "images are about images, thinking is about thinking."
Making art is certainly tied up in "ideas" - but ideas in art-making are
nearly always best left for *afterwards.* Ideas "before the fact" rarely
make for compelling art.
We can be in this world primarily through our personalities (our
intellect) - the dominant mode in this culture today; or we can be in the
world primarily through our senses. Personally, I would prefer to have the
intellect serve the senses, and not have it obliterate sense perception with
a lot of white noise....
The light is green - you can go!!
best - Jon
www.jonathan-bailey.com
Tenants Harbor, Maine
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