July 3, 2023

“Whats the artist’s name again,” I asked. “Got it. Thanks. I’m headed back to my studio to work so I’ll check her out as soon as I get settled. I hope her work will give me some ideas.” I write it down on my phone notepad under three other artist names and ideas from earlier conversations. I say goodbye to new friends from my MFA cohort and walk away. As I walk to my studio, the laughter and lightheartedness departs, in place, a sober, serious disposition. It is time to go to “work.”

Creating a new series, establishing a new direction, and new works is a huge undertaking. It requires focus, lots of research, exposure to new ideas, and self-analysis. I’ve felt the desire to make changes major in my work. I haven’t been able to pinpoint what those changes look like, however. This has been very frustrating. I felt an MFA program could help me uncover these changes, discover new ideas, and gain the necessary skills to achieve my goals.

I arrive. My studio is clean and organized. My paints and pens are ready for me to pick up to begin work. “I probably won’t end up working today though,” I think. “I didn’t work yesterday. In fact, I haven’t worked since my arrival.” Instead of making new works, I have been busy working out the why, what and how of my new artwork. This is what my recent days have looked like.

I set up my computer, phone, a notepad and pen, books I’ve been thinking about, and the pile of notes from previous days attempts to solve the puzzle. “Here we go,” I say to God. I pull up the artists names graciously given to me by my friends and research their work. I jot any interesting facts down. These trigger me to research other artists, organizations, or ideas. I write these new ideas out. When this process is exhausted, I revert back to the main concepts and themes I have been spending prior days wrestling with and I plug in the new ideas that came out of my new research. I get up… to get a breath of fresh air, get a drink of water, and give myself a few minutes to soak up any inspiration God may want to add into the mix. I return. At this point, I try to decide if I have achieved enough clarity to sketch up a series of work. This takes time, to write, sketch, write some more, sketch, scrap and start over. Some days the journey ends here. Feelings of inadequacy take over, feelings of frustration, feelings of anger. Today I push through the psychological block that encumbers my progression. Today I decided to silence the negative thoughts and say to myself “It’s okay. It will come. I’ll try again tomorrow.” I close my computer, gather my books, notes and phone. I pack my bag and prepare to leave.

 

So what does my “current work” look like? At the moment, it is looks like pages and pages of notes. I hope this changes in the near future but let me share my ideas as they are. Perhaps, by doing this I may be able to make a breakthrough. First I discuss the “why” of my work. I believe this is the most important question to focus on. This is the whole motivation behind why I make art. It is that I believe art can be an effective tool used to open a person’s mind, even momentarily, to the acceptance of a different perspective that is beneficial for themselves and their community. In my work I focus on social and environmental issues. I want to offer viewers works that effectively accomplish this. “What” I want to focus on is the idea of “disenchantment,” a concept that became associated with breakthroughs in science and enlightenment. Mythology, religion, and even a sense of need for community was lost.  Society no longer looked at nature with a sense of awe or gratitude for its beauty and majesty; instead, society is constantly looking for gratification in diverse and extreme ways and both morals and consideration for society has been lost. I want to create works that reconcile science and wonderment/ beauty and moral through a visual story. This is my small effort to heal society by providing a means of “enchantment.” I want to use science via A.I. to accomplish this. I love finding ironies in art. By using science, the very thing that caused the disenchantment, I will attempt to bring about enchantment. The “how” gets tricky. This is where I am stuck. My work has been limited in the past to canvas and paper. Perhaps this will change with the pass of a day or a week, but today I am feeling like I would like to develop skills using software that enables me to create using Generative A.I. data visualization. I want to explore how the medium can allow me to effectively disseminate imagery to express the story of our day; infused with mythology, psychology, and religion to reintroduce these back into our awareness and appreciation.

In my efforts to prepare to make this kind of work I want to reach out to those knowledgeable in the field of generative A.I. and learn the extents of this tool. Additionally, I want to continually reflect on powerful visual symbols for an effective story.