Back to Where I Started the “Defining”

There are always two directionos to choose from. And you have to choose. You can wait, meditate, but in the end you have to choose. Someone might say there are endless options, but I think that it can always be narrowed down to two before making the final decision.

So I chose to write about art, and developing as an artist. But it’s not always going forward. Sometimes progress is going backwards. And in the end, if you can face the world with a sincerity of a child, you are truly strong. Then you can feel the things happening around you and in you. Really feel, go through the emotions.

I try to be sincere. But sometimes you have to be an adult and sharpen up to deal with the world. You have to make heavy decisions. So to become harmonious, you have to be able to be both child and adult. If you can really be like a child, feel like a child, your feelings can be true and you can feel as a whole. Sometimes it’s just so great to really break your heart and go deep inside your emotions. It hurts, but as laughter is good for the heart, crying is good for the soul

Defining

For Starters

In this text I’d like to bring out new ideas about how to face the earth and society. Also to discuss about what are the reasonable terms to define art and to define if it is even worthwhile to determine such thing as art i.e. to define what is art and what is not art. As well as what is “good art” and what is “bad art”. I also would like to present some thoughts about individualism, originality and copying.

This essay is combination of stream of consciousness, memories and profound thoughts about the (art) world surrounding us.

Ideology and Indivisualism

First I would like to present a cartoon about individualism and do a little analysis based on it.

I met this picture while studying sociology in the university few years ago. The one thing I like about studying to be an artist, is that you have to base your ideology on your own thoughts. Of course you can study history of art and read articles etc., but when you are making art, there’s no-one else but you to rely on. At first this might feel like a burden. But it doesn’t, because it won’t hit you in the start. The mind develops towards individualism while doing art and all the time questioning your doings and motifs. So one way to think about it, is that the more you study yourself, the more you take responsibility of your own opinions and thereby grow your own ideology and individualism. I will conclude this subject after the Defining-chapter.

Defining

What is art

Why ask the question

Is there good art and bad art

Is there art and no-art

Is human art

Is life art

Can we define a feeling. No, we have to feel it to understand

Can we define art. No, we have to feel it i.e. do it, art

Can we define life. No, we have to live it

Can we define mind. Can we think what it is to think.

What’s left after emotions, mind and body. soul?

How to define soul.

Do I have a soul

Which have soul

Does art have a soul

can we feel art

art is a mean to extend soul

art is a mean to create a soul

soul is something we cannot describe

like feeling, we can only feel

analysing is not doing

not doing is to die

art analysis is to consider a suicide

when we go too far, we loose the meaning and the meaning is what… what is it.

art is in life

life creates art

nature is art

art is to repeat

entropy

continuing

all we do is copy

everything is done

but everything is new

there is no old

there are only new

when we look too much what others do, we forget what we are doing

why to copy

why to not copy

is anything unique

our body inherited, genes copied

emotions, language, copy, copy, copy

copy is good

we want to assimilate

we need secure

anonymity is personal

seclusion is originality

we are truly original when we are secluded and yet we do the same things by coincidence

world is a supermarket of ideas

ideas are free

ideas are all around us

media is making our minds collective

the shadow, subconscious is both collective and personal

are we personal

are we collective

similarity is richness

we are human

we are not truly individuals

we are same

we do same, we think same

it is good

so we copy

and we copy

even when we think of something new and unique, we already have a common purpose for it

we do not innovate, we discover

there is no good

there is no bad

there is only me

me is for everyone alone

so the individualism is an illusion

conceptualizing is simplifying

like categorizing

that is the way the mind works

everyone’s mind

everyone thinks

but no-one owns a tough

no-one owns anything

owning is illusion

own ideas are illusion

own art is illusion

we copy to fit in

we fit in because we copy

truly unique is found only when it becomes popular

same time something is found, it’s no more unique

there are no unique thoughts

so there is no unique

unique is an illusion

we live

we do not own a life

it’s a matter of consequences

causal conclusion

Living without definitions

This chapter could also be titled as “living with endless number of definitions”. So what I wanted to bring out in the Defining-chapter is that the only thing that blocks us from seeing things whole is the restrictions that we ourselves develop in our minds. I think that if we start by defining something like what is art, our order is wrong. I think that first we have to do something. Try something. It’s like a feeling. Anyone who has been in love can describe the feeling. But regardless of how much you gather information and stories about love, you won’t know what it is until you have been in love. So, to know what is art, instead of asking people what is art, we have to start doing, what we think is art.

I have drawn from when I was a child. But it took over twenty tears before I got to understand what could be art. And after realising more and more about art, my mind became more open. I consider art as a process. You cannot base your idea of art only by the result, finished work. To understand the outcome, in my opinion, you have to understand the beginning, the process and the conclusion. In order to do that you have to have done it yourself. You have to have started a piece of work, gone through the process and finished with the final touches. Then you can understand the result. And this continues. When you do art more and more, you develop. You go through different ideas about what is art, your technique gets more profound, your subjects get more profound. But as there is progression, there’s always regression. You get to some point, then you have go back. And next time you get further away. Same as with life generally.

Development is never a direct way. And when learning, the view broadens. When you see a piece of art, you can almost instantly say, in which phase of technique the artist is going through. But when someone is further than you, you can just wish that you were as learned someday. But while working with art, you get more and more unprejudiced, and you can see deeper in a piece of art. Although the technique might not be so advanced, the subjects can be more than what you have achieved in your career. This for an example. There are endless ways to see a piece of art. Some things you like, some things you don’t. But in the end, no-one has the right to decide what is art, what is not art, what is good art, what is bad art. It’s only a way to narrow the comprehension of the world. But it’s so sad that time to time everyone falls into this delusion. Myself included. But in the other hand, it’s always good to notice this aspect and deal with it. That’s progression.

Pysähdy ja mieti mitä olet tehnyt

Sain pitkän puhuttelun ja provosoinnin eräältä opettajalta. Näytin grafiikan töitäni, jotka koin onnistuneeksi. Se ideologia, joka minulla oli vahvasti mukana, kun hain kouluun ja aloin kiinnostua taiteen tekemisestä on muuttunut. Nyt kun olen kolmannella luokalla päässyt tekemisen makuun. Ja tajunnut sen, että ainoa tapa tehdä taidetta, on tehdä, tehdä ja tehdä. Se on muuttunut minulle työksi. Ajattelen, että se on työtä. Menen aamulla koululle ja teen, lähden illalla kotiin lepäämään. Elän rikasta ja minulle mielekästä elämää.

Grafiikkani on esteettistä, sommitelmat hyviä, hyvät värit, ideaakin ja merkityssisältöä löytyy. Mutta se ei ole sitä mitä ajattelin taiteen olevan. Tai en oikeastaan ole koskaan tiennyt, mikä on taidetta. Tai millaista on elää ja tehdä taidetta. Nyt kun tunnen saaneeni itsevarmuutta ja sijaa todelliseen työntekemiseen, aletaankin kyseenalaistamaan tekemiseni järkiperäisyyttä. Onko tuo mitä teen liian myyvää. Kaupallista. Onko sanomani minkään arvoinen, onko työni minkään arvoista, olenko minä minkään arvoinen. Onko minulla sanomaa, onko minulla työ, olenko minä.

Tottakai olen, mutta näkyykö se töistäni. Ajoittain. Teen töitä paljon intuition pohjalta. Merkitykset syntyvät kuin itsestään, vaikka aluksi niistä ei ole selkoa. Tove Janssonin isä sanoi, että taide on sitä mitä me emme vielä ymmärrä. Se on osuvasti sanottu. Sekin taide mitä teemme itsestämme, tapahtuu tekoprosessin aikana. Voi olla, että nyt tehdyn työn merkityksen ymmärtää vasta vuoden kulutua, kenties ei koskaan. Kenties sen ymmärtää joku muu. Ja hän ymmärtää sen omasta näkökulmastaan. Minä opettelen. Opettelen väreistä, muodoista, tekniikoita, kaikesta. Olen oppinut uskomattoman monta eri tekniikkaa tehdä kuvia elämästä.

Haluaisin osata maalata. Ja maalaamista oppii vain maalaamalla. Haluan edelleen sitä mitä halusin aloittaessani. Haluan vaikuttaa, haluan kertoa ihmisille maailmasta, avartaa, opastaa, tulla opastetuksi. Haluan ilahduttaa, haluan vedota tunteisiin, haluan kertoa itselleni itsestäni, haluan kertoa ihmisille ihmisistä, haluan kertoa itsestäni ihmisille, haluan samaistua, haluan samaistaa, haluan elää, haluan olla onnellinen, haluan, että ihmiset ovat onnellsia.

“Pyähdy ja mieti mitä olet tehnyt.” Minä pysähdyin. Olen tehnyt työtä. Olen opetellut. Olen koulussa, opettelen. Imen kaiken tiedon ja tuotan lopputuloksia. Minusta on tullut automaatti, mutta inhimillinen ja ihminen. Mutta ei kai vuodessa voi luoda itselleen uraa. Ei kai vuodessa voi löytää omaa juttua. Jos en kokeile kaikkea, saatan hukata juuri sen jota etsin. Tai löytää sen vasta kun on liian myöhäistä. Kuten elämässä. Se koostuu pienistä asioista, mutta on aina läsnä. Myös silloin kun haluaisi karata. Emme elä häkissä, ja täytyy varoa rakentamasta häkkiä ympärilleen. Jos taiteeni myy, ei se ole itseni myymistä. Se on näkyvyyttä, ja sitä kautta voin vaikuttaa maailmaan. Ja kuitenkin rikastuttaa omaa maailmaani. Ja aina muistan, että joku on aina, joka rakastaa jokaista. Jokaista pientäkin.

Ps. Kuvassa syön muroja koleana aamuna New Yorkin hostellissa. Nostalgia valtaa.