Painter Carroll Dunham → “craft-based tool for the study of consciousness”
A visual language, a survival strategy
Step One: You Are a Total Amateur
Let go of being “good” and “making sense” → start thinking about creating
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” — Albert Einstein
Step Two: How To Actually Begin
Start working when you wake up
Just make a mark, start without judging— how can you describe your creations without saying “good” or “bad”?
Make a drawing with only erasure: cover a surface with pencil, chalk, fabric, etc. and use erasers, scissors, etc. to make an image by removing a layer
Make a simple drawing, then recreate it in the style of other artists: Egyptian, Chinese, Cubist, cave painting, Keith Haring, Georgia O’Keeffe
“Art is like a burning bush: it puts out more energy than went into its making.” (idea of ars longa)
Find your voice, then exaggerate it
Step Three: Learn To Think Like an Artist
“Stop fiddling and move on. The work will keep changing itself.”
Look hard. Look openly.
Learn the difference between subject matter and content— for example, Michelangelo’s David: subject matter = young man with a sling; content = grace, beauty, bravery…
Be inconsistent (value = this can bring about “sudden densities”— moments when openings appear in your work, something shows you a new direction)
“Chance is the stunning aurora borealis of creativity—a flickering instantaneity that sweeps across the skies of your work, leaving a trail that can make your work richer and stranger and better.”
Step Four: Enter the Art World
Learn to write about your work: “Instead of quoting the theories of Foucault, Deleuze, or Derrida, come up with your own. All art is a theory about what art can be.”
Step Five: Survive the Art World
“I always tell anyone criticizing me, ‘You could be right.’ It has a nice double edge; sometimes the victim never feels a thing.’
You must prize radical vulnerability (a la Georgia O’Keeffe)