The Spark of Art

I was trained (and according to my MBTI profile) have a propensity to critique, tear down, find the faults, identify weaknesses, see the problems and take action to fix them. This move, exacerbated by my scholarly interests in social sciences and interdisciplinary fields, embodies the microcosm of the larger 21st century academic project especially evident in our postmodern turn. The process of writing a dissertation hinges on identifying a scholarly gap, where there is a problem that can be explored with your research, your analysis, your bringing together of others’ work to carve out new pathways of thinking on any given subject. A lot of that theorizing emerges from a place of what it is not. This is not that, this is in opposition to that…this takes that and corrects it. I suppose our propensities for binaries - oppositional hierarchical categorizations - also lends to this. I’m not X, I’m Y on any given category of interest. Theorizing by focusing on what one is trying to say by not comparing to something else is difficult without frameworks and languages that challenge the status quo, the normative formations, the systems and structures to which we often adhere. As I’ve continued to find more embodied ways to be, explore new lineages of thought, and live queer theory more fully in my life, I am finding myself attuned to the ways that creativity counters the categorizing and critiquing ways that are constantly trying to keep me boxed in. My commitment to creativity helps deflects processes attempting to revert me back to factory settings.

To fully embrace one’s creativity, one has to be open to what will come, an alchemizing of materials that are not so invested in a way that is supposedly meant to be. To make something is so much more difficult than to tear something down. Think about it. Packing for a trip is always so much more difficult than unpacking upon your return. Popping up the tent is always more strenuous than packing up camp. Installing the kitchen cabinets takes more time, mental energy, skill and tools than sledgehammering them out. To consume the entire bag of Cheetos is way easier than to even take stock of everything that had to happen to get those Cheetos to my mouth. To build anything materially, or even ideologically is routinely more difficult than the take down.

Here’s a painting example. Have you ever tried to make an abstract painting? I’m talking the movement of paint on a surface that appears random. Something made up of splatters and large swaths of color maybe thrown directly from the bucket or from a heavily loaded brush onto the canvas or wood board. Works like those of Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Mary Abbott are easy to take down. “A child could do that” is often the charge, or even more boldly “I could do that” passes through the lips of a person who has never held a brush in their hands or faced the blank canvas surface. Of course, to make a compelling abstract painting probably does take a little bit of luck, a lot of confidence, but more skill than not. Try it and you’ll see, there’s much more to the abstract mark making when you’re the one making instead of just talking about it. Painters contemplate color schemes, and positive and negative space, they wonder about repetition of marks, what materials to use, they spend time connecting with the focus on shape, on thickness of the paint application, on the method of layering to name just a few considerations that come from the mental area of production. There are also embodied knowledges that find way onto the painting surface that defy language’s ability to fully capture. A child or true amateur simply moving pigments without academic knowledge of color theory, or the best practices in applying paints may end up with a brown smudge, or at best a mediocre constellation of paint that’s fine to look at. Perhaps, they could channel a masterpiece, though I find it unlikely that they would be able to do it again. But who knows, maybe I take our painterly knowledges too seriously, as I am bound to do. The kid would probably get closest to something fun to look at because children can access freedom much more readily.

I, on the other hand, have tried to make an abstract painting, and I can tell you first hand it is no where as easy as it looks (see above class project painting from ArtofKCF archives ca2019). But even in the way I’m presenting this here, I’m starting to creep into an either/or thinking with the paintings. They’re either good or bad, masterpiece or mediocre, even that they are either abstract or figurative. I do not wish to do that. Figurations appear in abstract works, some even argue that the process of abstraction is loosening up an identifiable object until it no longer appears like what it was. Figurative paintings can have moments of abstraction in them. While the whole work might not be a masterpiece, perhaps there are masterful moments along the surface that impress the viewer. Paintings are inherently subjective, while there are some shared understandings of what makes something good, it’s more a feeling, a deeper knowing not tied to language. And even our notions of bad limit our imaginations for evaluative purposes. There is no use for me to create categories that have strict boundaries. I am not about that life.

What I am about is trying to get to why it is so difficult to create in these times, in our world. Why some feel more compelled than others to do so. Why our structures and systems create barriers for some to access opportunities, means, or resources to make. I’ve been thinking a lot about how creativity functions in our society and how we can better value and cultivate it everywhere. Not just through the spark of making something from our minds onto the picture plane as painters do, but also in allowing people to explore creative solutions and/or even ask more creative questions to challenge the ways things have always been done. So much of our world demands adherence or compliance to rules rarely questioned. So much of our lives are spent deep in the monotony of efficiency. As such, so much of our world is structured so as to condition us, and keep us in this way of being. I recognize that freedom is a difficult value to truly embody under these conditions. It is a difficult concept to hold and live because so much of our world is about making sure one sticks within the confines of the rules that we have complicitly agreed upon. Each time someone steps outside of the expectations we are met with resistance, with attempts to police us back into shape so that we do not become mirrors to those unable to break free. I’m not advocating for lawlessness, hmmmm... or maybe I am in a way. A call for creative anarchy. These questions are as much for me as they are for you. What would it look like if there were no rules when you begin to create? What in your life could use a creative reckoning? A deep questioning of why and how you have been conditioned to see the task ahead of you?

Creativity is like a flick of a lighter; that spark that sets the fire aflame. It’s the striking of a match, the lightening bolt emerging from a dark cloud; that burst of energy that leads to something else. It is our job to foster that spark in ourselves and for each other. When I take all my troubles down to this point I feel less overwhelmed. Like, oh, my job today in the studio is to just keep this flame lit. I just need to blow on the embers a bit and see if I can get something to catch. I lived so long thinking I didn’t have a flame. I carried the burden of hearing that I wasn’t anywhere good enough, talented enough, fill-in-the-blank enough to even consider adopting the term artist to describe myself. If this happened to you too, I’m sorry that happened. Let’s vow to ensure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. And let’s redirect our energies toward valuing those who build, those who dream and then live out the change the best they can. Those who are chasing the flame inadvertently making this world a bit better by the sharing of their light.

What I’m Reading

We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold

I am thoroughly enjoying this work of love and care collected in the memoirs of the incredibly talented narrative painter Faith Ringgold. It’s made up of three parts tracing her growing up years in Harlem and then Sugar Hill, NY, her experiences with “men, marriage, and motherhood” and then the largest section which includes a deep dive into the creation and reception of her artistic works. There are several color plates highlighting her works in the book and the writing is clear and accessible. Archival family photographs adorn each section, bringing deeper access to understanding the people, times, and places Ringgold describes. Living in someone else’s world has been helping me make it through my daily studio practice especially as I think about the works I want to make and how I want them to be received. A feminist artist icon who we should all be studying more - it is a true pleasure to witness her personal history and how it informed some of her most influential works like her story quilt paintings.

Artist Offerings

• This profile on the very under-recognized Chicana muralist from LA is a must read - Judy Baca deserves her flowers!
• Speaking of Chingona Chicanas - this amazing and beautiful interactive website honoring Gloria Anzaldúa is live - make your offering on the digital altar
• Have you seen the terrifying (and sometimes funny, sometimes both) grids of two subjects merging popping up on your socials? This is where it’s coming from
• This profile on The Cheech (opening in just a few days from now!) and Cheech Marin’s extensive and Chicanx art collecting passions makes me so so excited to visit!!

Creative Ritual

I’m finding I'm still getting back into the groove after my late May trip to LA, however I am painting daily and making steady progress on canvases. The guild stretched a new one and will do that process again this week so I can start on my next loose diptych for the series I’m working on. I’m like so so close to finishing the third set as I type.

Questions to ponder

What it is making it difficult for you to create in these times?
What would it look like if there were no rules when you begin creating?
What in your life could use a creative reckoning?
How have you valued the creators, the makers, the artists, the creative problem solvers lately?

Thanks for journeying with me. I hope, as always, that you take what you need and leave the rest for someone else, or for another time.

-KCF

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