Philosophy in snippets

When I did a week long summer school in sculpture at the art school some years ago,  I was lucky enough to have Alan Gier as my tutor. A group of 12 would-be sculptors with varying degrees of aptitude and experience did a clay sculpture working from a live model for 3 hours. We produced reasonable figurative work which we were then asked to destroy and start again this time heading towards a more abstract interpretation of the pose.

Some of the group found it impossible to destroy their work. One guy said he was an art teacher and he had promised his class that he would show them what he had done. The reason for destroying the work Alan said was to avoid making the same mistakes as the first time. I had great fun doing the second study and was advised to exaggerate those aspects of the works that I liked the best. For me it was the undulations of the reclining female form.

Ah, yes! That is the question" he said. I have never forgotten that. It is the question each artist faces at critical points in the creative process. At this point, he was saying, I was on my own. Nobody could tell me what to do or where to go, except me.

I think it was a valuable lesson for me; to trust myself, to push the boundaries, to take a risk, to fly!

And I think you are at a critical point in your creative life. Where to from here? It is easy to say, go with the flow, but it is another thing to do it. Which is where faith comes in; faith in your own talent and your inherent goodness.