IT'S ALL CONNECTED

In recent weeks I have been immersed in coaching and supporting artists in connecting with and clarifying their vision for their work. The Vision + Voice Program, led by myself and my co-coach Kerry Schroeder, guided artists in an 8-week process of self-discovery and exploration into what it means to work from a creative position, one that is informed by a clear vision for the work. 

It was a richly rewarding experience and truly validated just how much this kind of discussion and learning is needed in an artist’s development. We heard from many of the participants that this was the missing piece they had been seeking. 

One of the common concerns that artists have around committing to a direction, or focused approach in their art-making, is that they’ll be unable to grow and develop in their art – that they will be restricted in some way. It’s true that most artists want to experience continual forward movement in their evolution as an artist, and not to be limited or trapped by that type of focus. So it can be a confusing aspect of art-making. 

This very real concern, or consideration, was one I also struggled with in my own growth as a developing artist. I needed to understand this part of the creative process and path, as it was actually limiting me from achieving what I wanted in the work, and from myself. 

In the book ‘Bound by Creativity: How Contemporary Art is Created and Judged’ by Hannah Wohl, I found some important pieces of understanding for myself. I was particularly inspired to read about the focus of many art collectors, as well as the regard they hold around the artist’s creative vision for their work.

In the discussion around what informs an artist’s vision, the book states, “During the creative process, artists’ particular emotional responses to their work influence decisions about whether to repeat, further contemplate, or abandon elements. Through a cyclical creative process guided by these emotional reactions, artists produce certain formal and conceptual consistencies within their bodies of work that they recognize as interesting and relevant to their creative visions.”

The author also outlines how the experimentation process that artists need to engage with is essential to an artist’s development and process.

“Cognitive scientists have argued that artists rarely make discoveries in dramatic “eureka” moments. Instead, they find that experimentation is driven by both “divergent thinking,” during which ideas are widely generated, and “convergent” thinking, during which certain ideas are selected for further exploration. Artists use divergent thinking when they consider a wide array of source material and test these possibilities in low-stakes experimentation.”

So our creative vision is a result of consistent engagement with our work that allows for experimentation and discernment, as we pursue and abandon various elements within our art-making. If an element is meaningfully related to our creative vision it stays with us and becomes a through-line that upon reflection you’ll clearly be able to see and feel in your work over time. 

The book tells us more about this, “Artists observe and reconsider past works to articulate to themselves which consistencies are most fundamental to their work and how they can make further iterations of these consistencies that will interest them.”

So here the author is identifying consistency and interest, along with a further evolution of those elements to develop the work, while still remaining connected to that overall vision.

“...artists associate the emotion (ambivalence, excitement, or boredom), the evaluation (interesting and/or relevant), and the artistic decision (pause, repeat, or abandon) with one another. Emotions provide a charge, an affective motivation that gives direction and force to the artistic decision. The evaluation of relevance and interest offers a justification for the decision, which gives the decision staying power. Artists lean on this justification to make sense of why they paused, repeated, or stopped producing a particular element.”

This is the process of developing your creative vision and having it gain a strong foothold within you. This creative vision then becomes your offering, as you place your art for public consideration through exhibitions and selling opportunities.

Interestingly, art collectors also have a creative vision for their collections, and they are looking for artists that have a clear creative vision for their work. 

In considering how art collectors select work to purchase, the author followed the process with one significant collector and shared her insights with us. I found this reassuring in many ways. 

“Collectors assess artists’ creative visions, rather than discrete works. Although collectors often like certain series more or less, they rarely buy an individual work that they like unless they admire the artist’s body of work more broadly.”

The author further adds, “More importantly, collectors view consistent bodies of work as representing mature creative visions in which artists more fully understand and can speak in their distinctive languages. They associate enduring consistencies with artists’ commitments to developed creative visions.”

Another really interesting aspect to this was understanding a collector’s relationship to an artist’s growth and development. Artists can often feel limited by the idea of consistency, thinking of it much like unification or sameness, when really that is not what collectors are after as they search for artists with a creative vision. 

Here’s more on that topic, “Collectors often speak of artists whom they view as changing enough, but not too much, as having “beautiful trajectories”—in which each new series incorporates new elements, while maintaining visible threads of consistency.” 

“When collectors perceive too much consistency, they believe that artists are sellouts who favor branding their work over innovation; when they perceive too much variation, they think that artists lack a distinctive creative vision and an authentic commitment to this vision.”

So we can see that they are looking for a trajectory, not stagnation. They want to grow with you and at the same time feel connected to your vision. 

As artists we know that one of the essential things that we can do to support our creative process is to allow for experimentation and variety to engage us. We need to innovate. And, at the same time, we want our new work to be both distinctive to what has come before and show a progression of our creative vision. 

This is the challenge that we face as we move from being an emerging artist – learning our craft and developing skills and understandings about the creative process – to one that has a creative position to work from. 

Essentially, when you develop your creative vision for your work, you build a solid foundation from which you can make your work from. By recognizing that your art is an offering – to yourself and others – you can share it, exhibit it, and market it with that as your driver. You can make authentic work and market it authentically as well.

Regardless of where you see yourself along the art path – from emerging to having a creative vision – honouring your work is essential. 

We honour it with our compassion and patience as we learn and develop. We allow ourselves the freedom and space to try many things, experiment and make big messes.

We honour it by taking it seriously - taking our time with it seriously. As research and developers of our own vision, we have to attend to this time with concerted focus and commitment. And, once again, we meet ourselves tenderly for the demands this places on us.

It is all connected, and we can choose to follow and trust the process of our inevitable growth. 

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