Inspiration or Competition: Artists Living Together

Eat up this great art discussion on The Connection . As you can tell, I listen to the radio while working in my studio. I am quite addicted to public radio. This art discussion kept me awake listening one night. Originally about Painters and Partners, the discussion beautifully rambled into aspects of art and life that artists love to discuss when they are not in their studio or dealing with the intricacies of family life. Guest painters, Selina Trieff and Robert Henry, had the same teachers, Hans Hofmann and Mark Rothko. They have been married since 1955 and have produced excellent bodies of works on canvas and paper, as well as two children. If you are keeping a list of artist that are good role models, add them to your list.

Freedom and commitment. Their commitment, both to art and to their relationship, was a strong theme. One caller commented on the wonderful freedom that artists have to be themselves, to know themselves, and to figure it out. Both described painting as a personal search. Selina's advice to young artists summed this up. "The process will give you strength."

While both do figurative and abstract work, their paintings are very different, reflecting their unique personalities. Follow the link to find images.

Drawing

Peter Steinhart discussed his new book, The Undressed Art: Why We Draw with Lynn Neary on Talk of the Nation. Is drawing a form of meditation? Artists display heightened forebrain activity when they are deep in concentration. Scientists have measured brain activity that is similar to that emitted during Buddhist meditation. Those who draw, however, experience an enhanced sense of space.

The answer to "Why we draw?" remains complex. It does not have much to do with earning money, for the book reports on drawing clubs where groups of people gather to draw from a model. Most of the drawings are considered failures by the artists. Most go into the garbage. Few people display figure sketches in their homes. Steinhart describes artists who draw as having the ability to envision their future efforts as fruitful while finding fault with their current products. Steinhart calls drawing a haunting obsession.

There were many questions from listeners about talent. While Steinhart expressed the view that drawing is a skill that can be learned, the answers to callers nuianced variations of the talent question suggested a need for talent. How would we answer those questions if our society held the ability to draw in the same category as the ability to read? What if we spent as much time and resources teaching children and adolescents to draw as we do teaching them to read? What if we had remedial drawing teachers? Then, maybe, we could truly answer some of the listeners questions.

Anna Quindlen who has had successful careers as both a journalist and a novelist talks about the writing process on To the Best of Our Knowledge. The author of the novel Blessings said that she can write for seven hours at a stretch, but not when working on novels. The reasons? After a number of pages, the characters a writer creates in her head become more real than people she passes on the street. She can also write a real news story using her notes when she becomes stuck and keep going. After several hours work on a novel, however, the creative ghosts dry up. Writing novels is also difficult because the gap between the ideal and the real glares at you once the writing has begun.