Saying Much With Little

Friends, thank you to everyone who came out to the Holiday Open Studio last Friday! The night was such a fun way to catch up, share some art and toast the future!

This week I am back to work on holiday commissions. I've told you before how I love the challenge of finishing art under the pressure of a deadline. There is nothing like slapping on the last few brushstrokes, and crossing my fingers that a painting is dry enough to ship in the morning. I relish that adrenaline, but every holiday season I run up against the same problem.

A painting sings when it strikes that perfect balance between giving 'too much' and 'not enough' information. There is a temptation when working on depictions of real people or places for someone else though, to include more detail than necessary. The subconscious thought process goes something like this: "Mrs. X wants me to paint a portrait of her son, therefore I must be accountable for every last one of his eyelashes and freckles."

John Singer Sargent: master of the subtle portrait

Of course this logic is completely ridiculous! A person or place is more than the sum total of its parts. The job of the artist is to shift through mountains of visual information and re-present/highlight only the most  important or interesting details.

Richard Diebenkorn had a genius for conveying the simple. The importance of that cardamon orange plane against the cobalt sky would be completely lost if he had made this a painting about details.

Reading this article from the Greater Good blog, I was struck by words to that effect: 

 (A)n author/artist used his or her skills to convey much with little—to articulate a complicated human condition in a few words, to relay reams of information in a few pictures, to turn a single memorable mental image into a take-it-with-you tool for understanding the soul and navigating change. And that, I suspect, may be the key takeaway for generating and sharing insights: it’s about finding a simple way to help a reader, an audience, a fellow human being make sense of complex things.

I've been awful about posting, but next week I promise to share a few "complex things" that I've broken down a bit!

How to Be the Tortoise

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a talk by Jackie Battenfield, artist and author of the informative book The Artist's Guide, How to Make a Living Doing What You Love. She shared many of the practical tips outlined in the book, along with a few new ones like: Her rules of Three (Take three steps to advance your career every day. Talk to three new people before leaving a gallery opening.) My favorite part of the lecture though was her closing line:

"I'm here to tell you that I'm a BIG NOBODY ARTIST. I have never had my picture on the cover of Art in America, but I am successfully leading a life that I love."

Sometimes I think the idea of artist as 'Art Star' or 'Starving Artist' can hinder us from setting practical goals (financial and otherwise) and leading successful professional careers. It doesn't have to be all or nothing though. We can be the tortoise chugging determinedly toward the finish line, calmly passing the inflated egos on the side of the road, resting prematurely on their laurels.

I highly recommend this book for its practical tips on reorganizing yourself as a professional whose profession happens to be art-making.