"Get out of whatever situation is making you feel as though you have to justify your creative time/self by making a monetary return, it is death to your creative being. Trust me. One of my graduate school advisors used to tell us all the time, “do nothing”. When you are ok with doing nothing, the good stuff comes. Get out of whatever situation is causing the unneeded and unhealthy sense of urgency. No quicker way to killing your authentic voice than by silencing it with the pressure you put on yourself, or others have placed on you, to produce. Not everyone who seems interested in you and your work is someone you should be talking to about your work. The more we talk about our creative work, the less creative work we make. Sit alone by yourself, with no destination, and make some shit, as if there was no importance to the outcome or resulting art object."
<3, Mrs. Lendquvist Tabatha Lendquvist-Grace, Artist/Owner Lendquvist Studio *Originally published on Wordpress May 4, 2019
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“I have been observing from a distance. I wanted to know what your ideas and thoughts on craft and art were without influence. I also find that it is an important discussion to have first with yourself, then to introduce new thoughts. What we see here is many of you will have arrived in two similar places: Either Art and Craft are one and the same OR Art and Craft are inherently different in some way. Art and Craft both manipulate materials into new forms, are ideas manifest in physical form, require an investment of time, involve many layered processes to reach a finished product, are considered skilled work, use the formal elements (line, color, shape, texture, contrast, unity), and can involve personal and emotional expression. Craft and art, especially with new and contemporary forms, have started to blur the lines of distinction. Therefore it is possible for art objects and craft objects to have a function, exist as aesthetic objects meant to be admired, have a history of production, become part of the everyday and are accessible to all. Art and Craft need to be studied, both are a learned skill taught by instructors, mentors, or by oneself. They now sit side by side in galleries, museums, and outdoor art spaces/environments.
The distinction then lies in the intent of the artist. When they come to form their object/non-object object, is the intent for it to become an art object. The Italians were the first to define Art and art objects, they began a language for describing and setting standards for art objects. Then other European and American art galleries, museums, historians, lecturers, the academic elite were those who made this determination. Artists have slowly been working to break down the walls, blur the lines, give art back to the people. There exists now Fine Craft, Outsider Art, Street Art, Guerrilla Art, Temporal Art, and on and on, there are artists who have Art/Life practices. The definition is always changing and progressing to involve new genres, schools, styles, forms. My point being, every person and each institution will have established their own idea for what art is or is not. For the sake of this class, we must follow and agree to the language of the text. This does not mean to say that any one person is right, wrong, or that there is even a right or wrong. I encourage artists to make and make freely, but make from the uniqueness of you. There may be good art, there may be bad art. There is art that is revolutionary, there is art that is derivative. But artists are not artist geniuses, this is a myth, there are only those who have dedicated their time, efforts and resources to expanding their knowledge and refining their practices; those who make art as a hobby, and those who live and breathe art. It is a study of the human experience, and therefore as richly layered and complicated as any person (or community of persons) could possibly be. This is my response to all your responses.” <3, Mrs. Lendquvist Tabatha Lendquvist-Grace, Artist/Owner Lendquvist Studio *Originally published on Wordpress December 22, 2017 Collaboration. Speed sketching. Painting in the dark. These are my secret weapons, and I’ve used them over the last several years to bring on new ideas and to bring me back to my creative self. They are all ways I’ve devised to push my creative boundaries. Creativity is often where most artists today are lacking: Gimmicktry, the well-made object, and spectator sport is where the art world seems to be dragging along. As a professor I do preach the importance of craftsmanship, and I adore work that really challenges… you know those pieces that require you to think. But I often wonder, where is the creativity in it all? How do you reinvent, refresh, reimagine your work so you can continue growing and evolving as an artist?
You are looking to start a new body of work, and you have a vague vision of the impression you want the work to make. How do you get there? Try learning not to judge, most of the time we don’t even know we are doing it. Thinking critically, making aesthetic decisions, solving visual problems; especially for trained artists (those of us who were consistently pushed to approach our work with a critical eye), all seem to be at the forefront of our process. However we have to remember “crit” happened after the work was completed. Somewhere along the line we start to integrate the process of critique into our art-visioning process. We try to predict the outcome and adjust our work before we have even attempted it. Sometimes making mindful decisions, whether based on formal aspects of art-making or perhaps in order to push the perception of a specific message, can make the act of creation somewhat oppressive. Oftentimes it is apparent in the final product. This is not always the case and as professionals we want to make work that is intentional. Yet if you are not happy with your work, or you are trying to reach new ground you may need to get over yourself. Shake it up. Try to get lost! I spent the better part of graduate school trying to unlearn what I had taken away from my studio art undergraduate experience; where all my professors had very specific ideas about what “art” was and what it was not. I needed a recovery program! So I began my Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Art, and I soaked in the amazing depth and breadth of experiences and the different kinds, styles, and approaches to art. There was a constant intermingling, and we learned how to engage with art and more importantly learned how it flowed through life and our personal experiences and histories. To enjoy such diversity in the arts, I had to learn to lose control. Lose control! There is a magic and undiscovered treasures to be found in losing control. Not everything is meant to be, nor can be, intentional. The idea of the artist as genius, if it holds true, is only so in the moment where the artist discovers, accepts, and then declares as their own the "unexpected". The unexpected is an artist’s work. It is intentional, in that, they were willing to do the work knowing they would not be able to fully predict the outcome. There was a searching, a realization, and then a thoughtful engagement with the materials and the concept(s). They were willing to EXPERIMENT. You can make the decision to create, choose your materials, your surface, your palette, etc., but there is a point where you must make without judgment to manifest that which you otherwise could not. Whether these discoveries were born from your unconscious or whether they are gifted from the Universe, something outside of ourselves has become known. These unknowns are the building blocks for a new place to sit. If getting lost is not a practice you are well versed in, it does take some patience and practice. There are many great ways to get started, for example, having someone else make some of the decisions for you. Let someone pick the subject, colors, medium. Collaborate! You cannot control what flows from another being. Setting up experiments for myself has been the catalyst for a number of successful series. Another way to break through to the unknown is to work as fast as possible; literally and figuratively, put on that No Regrets t-shirt and make things… How you get there does not matter, and it may not be pretty or easy. Many successful experiments are at the end of a road littered with failures. However you can forget yourself and rediscover the joy of art, which is found in the making. Gift yourself. Tabatha Lendquvist-Grace, Artist/Owner Lendquvist Studio *Originally published on Wordpress December 3, 2017 It is two parts exciting and three parts nightmare managing social media as an artist. Exciting to have your work and process out in the world inspiring others and hopefully engaging other artists, or art lovers, but as an artist the additional energy and time needed to create and maintain such accounts after making and documenting your work can take us to our limit. Everyone has their own recipe for social media management success, but it doesn’t change the simple fact that it is one more item on the list of To-Do’s. Last year I attended more than one workshop that addressed social media for artists. I, myself, have signed up for and tried them all, almost… as it seems that there is one more social media app lurking around the corner, promising ultimate exposure and immediate access to “your” public.
After attending the workshops and recovering from all the “exposure”, I have gained a bit of advice and personal insight. I went in deep… here is what I have learned from my adventures in social media. They may appear seemingly obvious, but after taking a vacation from our alternate, web-based reality and returning with fresh eyes, I wonder how many of us are actually using these simple rules as a structure for crafting our social media presence. How often are we overlooking these important suggestions?
What I have found most useful is to decide what I want to showcase then find the social media platform that suits the content. Each platform then has its own specific “identity”, purpose, or function. Facebook is for Newsworthy information; events, finished products, some production information, personal milestones and achievements, content appropriate for sharing from other Facebook posts from related businesses and organizations, etc. Keep it professional and on topic. Twitter… I can’t say that I was a fan, as most users do not Twitter responsibly. It is too likely that your posts and even you will get easily lost and carried away in the current that is a Twitter feed. Others enjoy it, you may. Instagram is delightful. This is where I share work in progress, “in the studio” snippets, me doing what I do. This also includes the unfinished, the rough around the edges, the stuff without a place; including, what I do outside the studio that relates to my art-making, such as learning and teaching. It is a wonderful place to share your process. Remember to document as much as you can! Wordpress as a blog platfrom is what I have found to be the most comprehensive and professional. I have tried Blogger, Tumblr, Weebly, and Wordpress. The blog should be personal, insightful, introspective... This is the place to connect to your audience outside of the professional scope of being an artist, and I consider it a virtual/visual journal. It is a collection of personal thoughts, points of interest, an online document of inspiration, experimentation, and other musings; albeit digital and publicly available. This is for letting your audience into the mind of the maker, a place to share all the beautiful about art-making that happens behind the scenes. What I also enjoy about Wordpress is the ability to link accounts like Instagram, and your images appear in the sidebar of your Wordpress site with no extra coding skills or unneeded headaches. After numerous trials, reinventions, and relaunches of both my studio and artistic image, I can leave you with these suggestions: o Stay uniquely you! Don’t worry about adopting a bigger than life, big business online personality. You won’t be able to maintain it. We, as humans, evolve. Let you shine and your business will evolve with you. o Use social media accounts responsibly, your audience will thank you and your sanity will remain intact. You are one person, and more than likely not in a place to hire someone to Tweet their tits off all day long. Stick to what’s important and what truly relates to your art and practice, and your audience won’t feel burdened just trying to keep up while they desperately attempt to not miss anything. o Keep consistent and fresh. Provide the same character of content, but introduce new things along the way. Don’t feel obligated to keep anything around either. Take it for a spin, if it isn’t working don’t buy it. And if anything… just keep working, sometimes persistence is the only thing that determines success or failure. Tabatha Lendquvist-Grace, Artist/Owner Lendquvist Studio *Originally published on Wordpress June 6, 2017
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AuthorTabatha Lendquvist works from her private studio located in Walker County, AL. She is an Interdisciplinary artist working in various mediums to include painting, bookmaking, and poetics. Archives
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