Working from Image
Today's optional assignment/work seeding exercise: working from image.
Agnes Martin, the painter who I've mentioned and recommended previously, waited for the images of her works to "come to her" in "inspirations." These inspirations often came to her in her dreams. She did not paint until she had a mental image and then she worked feverishly to do the math to translate the image she had in her brain (almost always a pattern of stripes or a grid) to the six foot (or, later five foot) square canvases she used.
For her the image was all. It was the object of her work. Her brushstrokes and her pencil work were not pre-dreamed...the process of her work remained an improvisation. But she had a shape that she was making: there was a form that she sought to realize. Martin experienced this work as sublimely peaceful.
Antonin Artaud's cruelty can be described as the human desire to realize form. To consecrate oneself to making the messy system of the body constrain itself as completely as possible to the pure form of a shape. By shape I mean any movement, position, or action. Artaud experienced the pleasure of his cruelty as excruciating, but profound.
There is deep pleasure in both artist's relationships to form or image.
But there are other ways to experience and to work from image.
Beckett wrote a lot of his plays after he was spurred to write in response to a vivid picture: a disembodied mouth; a woman buried up to her torso, then her head; a rocking chair rocking a woman. Photographers start, often, with images that present themselves to them. Poets, too. Other artists find images within themselves, maybe not rare "inspirations" but troves of pictures, from childhood, from the news, from art history, from their imaginations.
Think about the role of image in your work. Journal about that a little.
Select an image to work from. Not the first thing that comes to mind, necessarily. Choose something juicy. Maybe something you've been waiting to explore in relation to your Project but haven't really gotten to.
Spend the day considering that image.
Freewrite from it.
DON'T EXPLAIN IT, associate from it. Let it have the power to tell you stories, to have its own voice and let that voice have rhythms that grow and flow. Let it contradict itself. Let it speak its own vocabulary, not yours. It can speak in another (or its own) language.
Incarnate it.
How can your body BE this image? (Don't worry about making your body look like the image. BE IT in a way that your BODY recognizes.) Live in this physical incarnation of the image. If it moves, move in it. Let time pass. Fifteen minutes at least.
Now consider what you know. About the image. About your incarnation. About your relationship to the image. About...anything else.
Make a landscape.
Let the image occupy physical space. Your body can be a part of this. Make it out of objects that are ready to hand. It can be on any scale. You can craft it. Or you can rough it out. But it needs to be in three dimensions and be big enough that you can be in it if you choose.
Do something in relationship to the landscape version of your image.
Now what? Now where do you want to take this? Is there a piece of work for your project that jumps off from here? (If so, go for it!) Or is this an independent exploration? In which case...what are the next steps? What questions are pressing/urgent from your work so far? What would you need to DO to get more info about that question or to begin to answer it? Once you know, do.
Then reflect. And write.
A resource.
Select one object for each of the years of your life. Let each choice be something that is a little surprising to you and that feels resonant with some aspect of your identity that intrigues you. Stay away from items that are clear symbols of something you understand (the championship swimming trophy that is a testimony to your hard work! The potholder you made your mom to show how much you loved her!) in favor of items you have a tactile relationship to/memory of and have unresolved feelings about.
For the first couple years, you may have nothing or you may have photos of things. If you are interested in this, my advice is to start at age 6-7-8 and work in both directions.
Agnes Martin, the painter who I've mentioned and recommended previously, waited for the images of her works to "come to her" in "inspirations." These inspirations often came to her in her dreams. She did not paint until she had a mental image and then she worked feverishly to do the math to translate the image she had in her brain (almost always a pattern of stripes or a grid) to the six foot (or, later five foot) square canvases she used.
For her the image was all. It was the object of her work. Her brushstrokes and her pencil work were not pre-dreamed...the process of her work remained an improvisation. But she had a shape that she was making: there was a form that she sought to realize. Martin experienced this work as sublimely peaceful.
Antonin Artaud's cruelty can be described as the human desire to realize form. To consecrate oneself to making the messy system of the body constrain itself as completely as possible to the pure form of a shape. By shape I mean any movement, position, or action. Artaud experienced the pleasure of his cruelty as excruciating, but profound.
There is deep pleasure in both artist's relationships to form or image.
But there are other ways to experience and to work from image.
Beckett wrote a lot of his plays after he was spurred to write in response to a vivid picture: a disembodied mouth; a woman buried up to her torso, then her head; a rocking chair rocking a woman. Photographers start, often, with images that present themselves to them. Poets, too. Other artists find images within themselves, maybe not rare "inspirations" but troves of pictures, from childhood, from the news, from art history, from their imaginations.
Think about the role of image in your work. Journal about that a little.
Select an image to work from. Not the first thing that comes to mind, necessarily. Choose something juicy. Maybe something you've been waiting to explore in relation to your Project but haven't really gotten to.
Spend the day considering that image.
Freewrite from it.
DON'T EXPLAIN IT, associate from it. Let it have the power to tell you stories, to have its own voice and let that voice have rhythms that grow and flow. Let it contradict itself. Let it speak its own vocabulary, not yours. It can speak in another (or its own) language.
Incarnate it.
How can your body BE this image? (Don't worry about making your body look like the image. BE IT in a way that your BODY recognizes.) Live in this physical incarnation of the image. If it moves, move in it. Let time pass. Fifteen minutes at least.
Now consider what you know. About the image. About your incarnation. About your relationship to the image. About...anything else.
Make a landscape.
Let the image occupy physical space. Your body can be a part of this. Make it out of objects that are ready to hand. It can be on any scale. You can craft it. Or you can rough it out. But it needs to be in three dimensions and be big enough that you can be in it if you choose.
Do something in relationship to the landscape version of your image.
Now what? Now where do you want to take this? Is there a piece of work for your project that jumps off from here? (If so, go for it!) Or is this an independent exploration? In which case...what are the next steps? What questions are pressing/urgent from your work so far? What would you need to DO to get more info about that question or to begin to answer it? Once you know, do.
Then reflect. And write.
A resource.
Select one object for each of the years of your life. Let each choice be something that is a little surprising to you and that feels resonant with some aspect of your identity that intrigues you. Stay away from items that are clear symbols of something you understand (the championship swimming trophy that is a testimony to your hard work! The potholder you made your mom to show how much you loved her!) in favor of items you have a tactile relationship to/memory of and have unresolved feelings about.
For the first couple years, you may have nothing or you may have photos of things. If you are interested in this, my advice is to start at age 6-7-8 and work in both directions.
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