Check out Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth. I was introduced to this collection of thoughts a few years ago, and I still like to come back and read it when I need a little motivation.
Some of my favorites:
Allow events to change you.
You
have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that
happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for
growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be
changed by them.
Forget about good.
Good
is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not
necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or
may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you’ll
never have real growth.
Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy
is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as
beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take
the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
Be careful to take risks.
Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.
Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.
I have this secret stash of places I go when I don't have any more ideas . . . it's probably time I let them all be free. How about you?
Still searching,
Annie
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The Beginning of a Movement
So, this is the beginning.
For many of us, this time does not mark the start of this journey, for we have been seeking this our entire lives. One thing that I can faithfully say is that for everyone, this project will be a blasting off point that we will one day look back on and revere, thinking, "it all began then."
(as Ken says, "this project is going to be like getting shot out of a cannon. and if we go straight into a wall or over a mountain, I don't care. I'm just going to put my helmet on.")
I guess I should start with what Recherche IS. Recherche is French for research. In English, it's connotation is that of something rare, unique, specifically chosen. A restaurant would have a recherche collection of fine wines, you could say.
Recherche is a group of four (for now) crazy and passionate artists with a taste to overthrow our predecessors. Ken, Jen, Yulia, and Annie. I already said that we are crazy, but we are embarking on the craziest of ventures, one which historically is not usually safe, wise, easy, or successful. We don't mind. We accept, in part or parcel, our success or failure in this mission. Art will always mean passion, expression, growth, communication, and devotion. All of these qualities are gifts from art itself, but now it is time to give back to our muse. She is in trouble. We need to expand her world, the art world, into the lives of every man and woman on earth. To do this, we must first search.
For us, recherche is the hellishly devoted, insanely sought after truth in art. We are looking to deconstruct the convoluted shamble that the art world today has become, and hopefully, with much thought, effort, triumph and tribulations, we can extract a more pure artistic society for us all to live in.
It comes down to this:
-We rebel against being told what (and how) to think about art of any kind, be it ours, or yours.
-We reject the idea that to be a successful artist, you must follow a "path". For example: BFA > MFA > Poverty > Mild Recognition > Death > Fame. We don't have time for that, and neither do you.
-We refuse to believe that "high art" should be exclusive, or reserved for the elite.
- We want to ask society to reconsider how it values art; and just why it matters.
- We want to bring the gallery to the public. We want you to see fine art wherever you go; your commute, your night out on the town, your local bookstore, your grocery store, on your front porch. And it is all yours.
-We want to end the heyday of the "rude artist". The Rude Artist is one who demands that their work be worshiped by public and critic alike, meanwhile shouting that no one "gets it". The Rude Artist is one who spouts out a nonsensical novel of an explanation for their art, just because they have no initial reaction from the public. The Rude Artist is afraid of their audience, and we are not. We are going to kill the Rude Artist.
Before you start thinking that this is a mutiny, an uprising, a revolution, (which admittedly it is, but only in part) be assured that the intent behind this movement is not to dismantle the pillars of our artistic heritage, but to simply shake them. We want to enhance our world, awaken it, open it to all influence and outcome. No longer shall the "high art" world (I hate that term) be the inbred, exclusive sect that it is. In the same way that music, theater, sports, fashion, and design reach everyone on a daily basis, so will fine art.
This is a movement for all of you, for all of us, for all of them. Just watch and see.
Ever Searching,
Annie
For many of us, this time does not mark the start of this journey, for we have been seeking this our entire lives. One thing that I can faithfully say is that for everyone, this project will be a blasting off point that we will one day look back on and revere, thinking, "it all began then."
(as Ken says, "this project is going to be like getting shot out of a cannon. and if we go straight into a wall or over a mountain, I don't care. I'm just going to put my helmet on.")
I guess I should start with what Recherche IS. Recherche is French for research. In English, it's connotation is that of something rare, unique, specifically chosen. A restaurant would have a recherche collection of fine wines, you could say.
Recherche is a group of four (for now) crazy and passionate artists with a taste to overthrow our predecessors. Ken, Jen, Yulia, and Annie. I already said that we are crazy, but we are embarking on the craziest of ventures, one which historically is not usually safe, wise, easy, or successful. We don't mind. We accept, in part or parcel, our success or failure in this mission. Art will always mean passion, expression, growth, communication, and devotion. All of these qualities are gifts from art itself, but now it is time to give back to our muse. She is in trouble. We need to expand her world, the art world, into the lives of every man and woman on earth. To do this, we must first search.
For us, recherche is the hellishly devoted, insanely sought after truth in art. We are looking to deconstruct the convoluted shamble that the art world today has become, and hopefully, with much thought, effort, triumph and tribulations, we can extract a more pure artistic society for us all to live in.
It comes down to this:
-We rebel against being told what (and how) to think about art of any kind, be it ours, or yours.
-We reject the idea that to be a successful artist, you must follow a "path". For example: BFA > MFA > Poverty > Mild Recognition > Death > Fame. We don't have time for that, and neither do you.
-We refuse to believe that "high art" should be exclusive, or reserved for the elite.
- We want to ask society to reconsider how it values art; and just why it matters.
- We want to bring the gallery to the public. We want you to see fine art wherever you go; your commute, your night out on the town, your local bookstore, your grocery store, on your front porch. And it is all yours.
-We want to end the heyday of the "rude artist". The Rude Artist is one who demands that their work be worshiped by public and critic alike, meanwhile shouting that no one "gets it". The Rude Artist is one who spouts out a nonsensical novel of an explanation for their art, just because they have no initial reaction from the public. The Rude Artist is afraid of their audience, and we are not. We are going to kill the Rude Artist.
Before you start thinking that this is a mutiny, an uprising, a revolution, (which admittedly it is, but only in part) be assured that the intent behind this movement is not to dismantle the pillars of our artistic heritage, but to simply shake them. We want to enhance our world, awaken it, open it to all influence and outcome. No longer shall the "high art" world (I hate that term) be the inbred, exclusive sect that it is. In the same way that music, theater, sports, fashion, and design reach everyone on a daily basis, so will fine art.
This is a movement for all of you, for all of us, for all of them. Just watch and see.
Ever Searching,
Annie
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