As we near the end of the Fall semester at VISA there is much whispering in the hallways about how
hard and time consuming it is to make art. I am seeing a lot of exciting good work being made, so I pay little heed to the various bemoanings. However I do wonder about why people are surprised that art is hard work. Is it because people who are not involved in the practice of art, see it as being fun and easy and that art students bring these sentiments with them to their initial art classes? As an instructor, I am still surprised (and yet have clear memories of experiencing this myself), when students get so upset that they are on the verge of weeping because something didn't turn out as they wanted it to. Where does this need for immediate perfection without doing the hard work come from? How can people be convinced that giving up the desire for perfection, combined with many hours of practice, is what it takes to make a good artist?
Whenever I feel discouragement as an artist, I find it helps to study other artists and learn about how they became successful artists. An important mentor in my life is Ann Hamilton, an American installation artist who is currently having a major exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle called
the common SENSE. As unlikely an art subject as this may sound, her work involves scanning the bodies of dead animals and making hundreds of copies on newsprint, with an invitation to the public to help themselves by tearing them off the hangers. Hamilton's installations are usually all encompassing in a sensory kind of way, often containing layer upon layer of metaphoric meanings. A more detailed explanation of the current work can be found
here. It is interesting to see how artists deal with the concept of failure, and in the case of Hamilton's recent exhibition imminent failure is embedded in the exhibition's structure. If the artist's intent is realized, then not only will all the animal images disappear, the exhibition itself will no longer exist.
There are two main components of achieving creative success: accepting and working with failure as a given component of the artistic process, and doing the work. Of course when we are looking at a successful artist's work, we are only seeing the work that turned out. As someone developing an art practice you must realize that with every piece that works, there are several failures in the wake. In blog post called
22 things creative people do differently and #5 says "They will fail, and you can be sure they will try again". Successfully creative people are not deterred by failure. They take it on as a challenge how to do better. For a very insightful take on creative work, check out this two minute video by
Ira Glass.I admire Ann Hamilton because she does not shy away from very immense and intense installation projects. She tries things without knowing for sure how the results will turn out. Here is a short video on a recent installation in New York:
The Event of a Thread. I suggest that anybody who needs to be inspired by the artistic output of one individual go to Seattle to check out Ann Hamilton's exhibition at the Henry. If you can't do that, explore her
website and the
Art 21 segment devoted to her work. Her subject matter might seem diverse and bizarre to the uninitiated but I think she is a fantastic example of a truly creative mind, and well worthy further investigation.
The focus of this talk will be on detection of light by the eye and processing of visual information at the level of the retina. During early development the retina forms from the developing brain, and
program at VISA. We are aiming for a zero waste program so please understand that most things can now be recycled. 
