ITSA volume 10 issue 2

            Inside the Starving Artist ©

                         Volume 10 Issue 2

Like the cruel friend she is, inspiration never seems to be there when I need her. Never arriving when I call, she keeps me waiting, abandoned, floundering, and staring off into space, and wondering why I volunteered to write this column. Slowly but surely, she arrives, usually well after midnight, knowing that there is nothing left to watch on tv and so my attention must be completely focused upon her. Today, however, I refused to be ruled by her poor sense of timing and so off I went looking for her, searching for something to fill up the emptiness of the white page I have been staring out these past few hours. Fortunately, my old pal hunger, which never ventures too far from me, showed up and caught my attention. We decided it was time for some food, so off we went to my favorite spot, a back, dark table at Charlie’s Chamber of Cheeses. I ordered a huge hunk of cheddar and a root beer. Devouring my food I was distracted from the stress of waiting on inspiration. While biting into a chunk of orange deliciousness, I noticed something odd, something new, something interesting on the wall right in front of me, a poster advertising an art show for sculptures, paintings and drawings currently taking place a few blocks away. Without anything else to do, and refusing to wait on inspiration any longer, I finished my cheesy goodness and off I went. As I entered the big brick building, the familiar smell of paint and clay grabbed me like a calculator at a calculus exam.  As I explored deeper into the gallery, I was informed that theme of the art show was “Inside Outside”. Disturbingly, in the middle of the studio a movie screen was set up and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window was playing. Two unfamiliar people were part watching, part debating with each other about intent of Hitchcock’s cinematography with respect to certain selected scenes. While not violent, you could tell that these two people had definite and distinct views on the subject, neither one willing to yield to the other. I was intrigued. As I cautiously approached these two individuals it also became clear to me that each of them had created pieces of art on display in the gallery. Being the shy guy that I am, I approached these artists, and told them that I had overheard some of their conversation and asked if I might be able to ask them some questions and possibly settle their dispute. Despite looking at me like I had two heads, they agreed.

The first artist that I interviewed was Michelle Li. Her slight stature proved a sharp contrast to the power of her art. She directed me to the sculpture she created.  Visually, it was difficult to find the right words to describe it. Suffice it to say that it was a traditional house with its exterior in as the interior and interior out as the outside. The change in perspective was different for me and interesting. Linking these two perspectives was the wall in the middle.   

I was fascinated by this inside/outside concept. As you may recall (and I hope that you do) I spent considerable time discussing this concept in my last issue using the works of Marc Chagall and Alfred Hitchcock as examples. To me, inside outside art changed from my initial perspective of voyeuristic creeps peering around corners into and out of windows.  It is a powerful way to visually represent introspection and outside perspective within one piece of art.   

Michelle told me that as a child she was an exclusively a washable watercolor’s girl, mostly because she wanted to beautify ever inch around her with paint.  This did not really sit well with her parents as she beautified their living room couch!  Now that she is growing up, her art did as well.  She said that as her values and morals have changed, so have her symbols and styles of art. When she was younger it was all manga and anime, now it is more realism and sculptures.  But I am off the topic and I wanted to get back to this inside outside concept. Michelle admitted that she had to push herself to be motivated to do her inside outside piece for the art show, and that she even fell asleep during Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (she lost some credibility with me on this).  As Michelle opened up to me, I began to understand.   Michelle admitted that art is an evolutionary experience involving both physical and emotional effort.  Michelle explained that she sometimes struggles to balance both her Asian and American identities both as an artist and a person, a struggle between herself on the inside and on the outside. As she struggles with for her identity as a person and artist she uses this as a significant influence in her artwork. 

When I asked Michelle what she wanted her audience to experience when they viewed her art, her answer was simply, “that’s up to them”. Sorry Michelle, I don’t buy that. An artist must communicate something through their creations. It is not acceptable to me to passively say, “it is up to you”. This really undermines the power of persuasion and passion of art.  I believe that an artist has a responsibility to communicate through their art. An artist should have something to say and communicate that to the world. Sometimes that communication may be difficult to see or comprehend but art should have a message or a statement, even if that message is “I won’t conform to your view of art and so my art is without a message”.

            Michelle then left in a hurry. I either insulted her or I think I heard her muttering about something called Comicon, but I could not make it out.  Standing alone, again, I wandered toward the second artist who Michelle had been speaking with earlier. Her name was Sarah Robinson.

            Sarah had painted a picture of herself as a lion and it was on display at the art show.  My initial reaction was that this was a little Wizard of Oz ‘ish, but nonetheless this painting made me curious to find out more about the artist.   I asked Sarah why she painted herself as a male lion inside a room. She said, “I just liked lions“.  While that may be true, I think that this initial response was based upon her unwillingness to candidly discuss her work, as much as it was about her affection for lions.  Was the lion an inward reflection of herself or an outward statement as to how she perceives herself or how she wishes other perceive her? These are questions that will for the moment go unanswered, but in using Michelle’s theory, “its up to you”. I see the lion as a sign of strength and confidence. I also see her painted lion as a visual representation of her inner self or at least the inner self that she wants the public to believe she has. 

Just like Michelle who said her art continues to evolve, Sarah sees her own art as an ever changing process of self discovery tied directly to her emotions. Interestingly, I never considered the possibility that the more information you know about an artist the more you can learn and discover from their art.  For example, Sarah did not fall asleep during Rear Window, but embraced the film.   She said that she constantly tries to incorporate the Hitchcock concept of surprise and spontaneity into her art. Although the depth of Sarah’s responses to my questions was relatively limited, the depth of her images in her art was in sharp contrast to this. Sarah incorporates different perspectives and planes, instead of one flat image. She said that believes that “we should incorporate ourselves in our art and that her art is a reflection of herself or her inner perceptions about herself.  In admiring her recent painting, I think she communicates this very effectively, more effectively in fact, than through her spoken words.  As I thanked Sarah for her time and answers, she apparently forgot all about her recent disagreement with Michelle and bounded of with her to some Comicon thing…At this point I realized it was also my time to venture off, still in search of my illusive inspiration.  My friend hunger telling me it was time for me to go back to Charlie’s Cheese Chamber, for a late afternoon snack.

Until next time.

                                                                                    Adios,

                                                                                    AU5TIN