Did you know making Art is a very scientific process?
Think about it.
- Artists go on expeditions. (This is my favorite part about being an artist!)
We’re always on the look-out for something even if we have no idea what that ‘something’ is. We’re seekers with insatiable curiosities who love thinking outside the box. We know we might find ‘it’ if we just look long enough or search far enough for it.
- Artists look for clues and do experiments. (This is another favorite of mine!)
Sometimes we only find ‘pieces’ of the ‘something’ – usually in the form of thoughts or ideas or memories. We have to spend a lot of time daydreaming (its official business) in order to coordinate it all, to keep all those thoughts and ideas together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle – arranging and re-arranging until something works.
- Artists do research. (I think this may be my favorite!)
After we’ve gathered all the clues together and experimented with them, we study what we’ve come up with. We spend hours and hours and hours reading about techniques, watching tutorials, pouring over work we’ve already created, and networking with others, whether through on-line meetings, workshops, or retreats to try and figure out how we can improve upon the process. It’s a very time-consuming (but thoroughly satisfying) process and one not to be taken lightly.
- Artists report out.
We do this in many different ways. We may submit our work for gallery consideration, or give our work as gifts. We might donate our work for fundraising purposes, or sell our work to collectors. We may simply publish our work on-line, share it with friends or other artists or post our work in a blog (yet another favorite!).
Artists are explorers. We go on expeditions, look for clues, do experiments, research and report our findings. And most importantly, we share our discoveries with the world.
And then we start the process all over again!!
Artists can be very tenacious individuals (but I bet you knew that already).
“Discovery consists in seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”— Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi (1898-1986) Hungarian Biochemist 1937 Nobel Prize for Physiology