Do you want to write? Or do you wanna publish?
Do you want to draw? Or do you wanna shop for art supplies?
Do you want to paint? Or do you wanna gallery?
Do you want to direct? Or do you wannan Oscar?
Do you want to be in a play? Or do you wanna be in a magazine?
Do you want to do? Or do you wanna dream?
Danny Gregory 
You can do both, baby. Do & dream. Right now, I think process rocks harder than product. But I am aware that Process will at one stage demand to see its gorgeous little brother, Product. At least one of its little brothers… Some time. Sort of soon.
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If we didn’t dream, none of us would be artists!!–cause I ain’t paintin or writin for the money and fame baby!
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Right on!
X
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I love the process. I love waking up after being caught in the fictive dream, or seeing that I’ve spent four hours painting plums. I do know that creation requires feedback in order to evolve. My plays are changing in rehearsal and even while I’m biting my nails from my spot behind the lighting director when they are being performed. I can’t wait to see what anyone will say when I post a new sketch at skool. Would I still create if there was no production – yes, I would! I do know that it doesn’t work if I have the perceiver in mind while I create.
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I love the process, too–and the product, and the communication defines it’s real success. I love it when I see someone come back and view a thing again, then I know it’s not just a pretty picture, but it’s communicating something I’ve put into it that hits as a subconscious level and deserves the time to examine and think. I’ve also harnessed creativity any number of ways to make life better at a number of levels (feed a family for decades, keep them clothed, know how to move the family vehicle across town a half dozen ways that respond to driving conditions–it’s all creative work, even stretching a dollar) but the practice of fine art presses me to communicate a different level of thought, and sometimes the skill process obscures it as well as sometimes reveals it.
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Thanks. I needed that.
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Right between the eyes, Danny. Right between the eyes.
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The important thing is to do, whatever it may be, and nothing more.
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Yes . . . .
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You are MY HERO!
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Ha, that is what my list looks like. More simply put: I want to dream…then Do the Dream. Cheers-Darlene
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Action alone isn’t enough, though it’s a start. Action without an audience is not art. It’s just not.
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All aphorism aside, my art doesn’t require an audience. If I create a piece in my sketchbook and nobody else sees it, it is still art and I know it as such. If I pass away and you discover my sketchbooks, you will know them to be art. On the other hand, I agree that it is better when someone else sees it. There is something ineffably complete about that closed communication circuit.
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Or as the lovely Virginia Woolf said: “So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.”
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Thanks for the gentle reminder today. It’s easy to helicopter around the creative work itself when you’re uncertain which I guess is always the case when it’s time to create.
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A good process will produce. If the process is not producing, then the process needs work, and that is what the work is at that moment. The core of my process is this: It’s fun to draw, I enjoy it as a thing in itself. It’s even more fun to ask myself “How do I improve my drawing?” There is that 20% work part that makes the 80% fun more fun, plus an element of inquiry. The improvement part is almost a separate, overlapping second process. Time to finish the email and go draw.
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Well…writing another book, this time on Postural Correction, I love the entire process, from putting together the initial submission idea, to researching the material, doing the actual tippity-tappity-tippity-tappity writing-and-thinking-and-writing-and-thinking bit, addressing the editorial comments, reading the proofs and of course, opening and smelling (yes, we can’t help ourselves can we) and flicking through the pages of the final product. The 3a.m. tea breaks when I wonder how on earth I’m going to explain tibial torsion or the mechanics of nutation in the sacroiliac joint are all put right in the end. And of course, the exquisite pleasure of the royalty cheque arriving is an added bonus because by that time I am onto my next project and forgotten entirely that I actually get paid to do this. Yummeeeeee.
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For me it’s so easy: ALL…almost ALL starts with a DREAM! Already as a youngster I dreamed to become an artist – one day. Without that “ol’ youngster-dream” I wouldn’t write a single commend in Danny’s Blog today! – All starts with a DREAM! 🙂
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