photograph from ann texter
finding myself in a creative slump as of late, i've taken to re-reading a lot of my creative self help books and i'm now reading drawing on the artist within by betty edwards. a lot of the book focuses on self evaluation, an invaluable tool and one that we are always grappling with to learn, re-relearn and use effectively. here is a short exercise i've paraphrased from the book; while in your studio, put yourself in a fantasy that there is a knock at the door and when you answer it, it's your critic. allow them in to critique your work. (i know this may seem ridiculous, but actually go through the motion of going to the door, opening it and allowing someone in.) who is the critic? how do you answer the criticism? this kind of fantasy puts you in the position to see your work for the first time-as an outsider. having a conversation with the critic, may also allow you to answer to some of the difficult issues you may be facing in your work. most of us naturally have some internal conversation while working in our studios, but pretending that there is another person there may give you an alternative to this otherwise one sided conversation. let me know if you try this and if it works for you...
No comments:
Post a Comment