Idea

Thinking has been the focus of this week. The last two artist lectures I went to, Finch and Umbrico, were really inspiring to me and sent me into a whirlwind of mental activity about what I am doing a how I can make it better. The main idea that I kept coming back to was that I think I am trying to over complicate my work in a visual sense. I focus way to hard on if it is going to be visually awesome and spend less time thinking about what it is going to make the viewer think. As I spoke about in my lecture blog I feel that the best work becomes naturally beautiful when the right idea and thought process is behind it. Both the lectures gave me that feeling and made me start to think about what my process is and if it really is successful.

The windows project is a perfect example. I love the images, and I know that they are aesthetically pleasing, but when I go to try and take them to the next level all I can think about is how to add more interesting visual aspects to them. I'm not saying that this is wrong, but I'm starting to think that this way of thinking will only serve to over complicate the image. I think that only when I can address the where this work needs to go at a basic, conceptual level will I be able to push this forward, or take a new direction. Why am I doing this? What does this mean to me? What is drawing me to working like this?

Now I know that this will be a challenge for me because I usually do not work this way. Generally I have a random idea or vision and just go for it and see what comes out. I'm not saying that I am going to stop doing this but I feel that it is time to challenge myself and really find out what it is that I am thinking about deep down. I guess I am a little scared of that kind of deep inner thought, I just never make the time for it. I'm going to give it a try and see what happens and if nothing positive comes out of it then I'm going to reevaluate the situation again. I've also noticed that I am putting way to much pressure on myself, basically all aspects of my life. I think that this pressure has been seriously inhibiting my works progression, but over last few days I had some talks with some friends and am starting to look past it and get over this unnecessary stress.

Deep breaths