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RANDOM THOUGHT
While I believe that anything can be art, I strongly disagree with the idea that everything is art.
10/31/2008
10/24/2008
COMPULSION OR DISCIPLINE
I find that I must make myself create art. It is not a compulsion, but a discipline. Many of the illustrators, painters, and artists that I know react the same way. I love drawing in my sketchbook, creating ideas, observing, etc., because it is for me (although I choose to share my sketchbooks with others). They are meant to be utilitarian.
I seem to want to do anything but start a painting: that's the hard part. I know that each time I work, I am in for a battle. Every successful painting that I have created has gone through an "ugly" stage. If it comes out on the other side, then it has passed the test of trial by fire. If it does not come out of this ugly stage, then it is a failure. This happens more than I would like to admit. Time is no friend of mine...
A blank canvas means judgement, especially if the work has an application. I know that others will see the work, good or bad. Getting myself into the studio takes true will power, and I find that establishing some kind of schedule can be of some assistance. I used to keep office hours when my studio was outside of the house. Nowadays, my studio is in my home, and the line between personal life and work is blurry indeed.
I seem to want to do anything but start a painting: that's the hard part. I know that each time I work, I am in for a battle. Every successful painting that I have created has gone through an "ugly" stage. If it comes out on the other side, then it has passed the test of trial by fire. If it does not come out of this ugly stage, then it is a failure. This happens more than I would like to admit. Time is no friend of mine...
A blank canvas means judgement, especially if the work has an application. I know that others will see the work, good or bad. Getting myself into the studio takes true will power, and I find that establishing some kind of schedule can be of some assistance. I used to keep office hours when my studio was outside of the house. Nowadays, my studio is in my home, and the line between personal life and work is blurry indeed.
10/19/2008
STARTING OUT; WHAT TO EXPECT
Q: What advice would you give a student entering the field of illustration (image making)?
A: In school, the idea that I might not find success as an artist never entered my mind. I found illustration my second year in art school, and I fell in love with the visual problem solving required in the discipline. I was aware of the horrible attrition rate of professional artists, and I would shrug off the doubts as if they were other people's concerns. Reality set in when I graduated. I began asking the tough questions- What am I doing differently than the thousands of other students graduating from art schools across the world? How to I begin? How good is my product? Who will by my product?
I waited tables, worked at a gym, taught a bit, worked retail, and somewhere I found the courage to look above the mire that my life had become. I found a community in the Illustration Academy, and I committed to a total immersion of my life in art- much as it had been in school.
Be sure to embrace your arts community. You are not above it, better than it, etc. An artist can't live in isolation. The period immediately following school can be very depressing. It is the first time that you aren't punished, or rewarded for doing/not doing your work. You aren't required to be anywhere, or to answer to anyone. The lack of parameters can be very difficult for the undisciplined. You must set goals, set a schedule, and follow them. There will be more on goal setting next post.
A: In school, the idea that I might not find success as an artist never entered my mind. I found illustration my second year in art school, and I fell in love with the visual problem solving required in the discipline. I was aware of the horrible attrition rate of professional artists, and I would shrug off the doubts as if they were other people's concerns. Reality set in when I graduated. I began asking the tough questions- What am I doing differently than the thousands of other students graduating from art schools across the world? How to I begin? How good is my product? Who will by my product?
I waited tables, worked at a gym, taught a bit, worked retail, and somewhere I found the courage to look above the mire that my life had become. I found a community in the Illustration Academy, and I committed to a total immersion of my life in art- much as it had been in school.
Be sure to embrace your arts community. You are not above it, better than it, etc. An artist can't live in isolation. The period immediately following school can be very depressing. It is the first time that you aren't punished, or rewarded for doing/not doing your work. You aren't required to be anywhere, or to answer to anyone. The lack of parameters can be very difficult for the undisciplined. You must set goals, set a schedule, and follow them. There will be more on goal setting next post.
10/16/2008
Online Store Now Available!
[NEWS]
My Online store is now up and running! I plan on updating items for sale, as they become available. Something that you don't see available (prints, sketches, tshirts, etc.)? You can email us at forsale@sterlinghundley.com, and we'll see if we can make it available.
forsale.sterlinghundley.com
My Online store is now up and running! I plan on updating items for sale, as they become available. Something that you don't see available (prints, sketches, tshirts, etc.)? You can email us at forsale@sterlinghundley.com, and we'll see if we can make it available.
forsale.sterlinghundley.com
10/12/2008
ILLUSTRATION, FINE ART, AND HIERARCHY IN THE WORLD OF ART
Do you find commercial illustration to be confining?
No, I don't. The idea of illustration is confining. The reality is that the medium allows the artist who can think, and manifest those thoughts as pictures and words, to move laterally, indefinitely. My aspirations to create personal work for gallery walls deals more with the close-ended nature of illustration. The illustrator is limited in both time and space in which to make an impression on the viewer. As a result, they have to do a lot of the problem solving and heavy lifting for the viewer. Art in galleries is afforded the luxury of both time and space. The viewer has made the effort to seek out the work, hence they have plenty of time to consider it. As a result, fine art can be much more open ended. There is a hierarchy in the art world that no one ever speaks about. Fine art is white collar, even royalty in [some] people's eyes. Illustration is blue collar. Other artistic disciplines flesh out that spectrum somewhere. People get bitter about this. I'm not trying to change the natural order, only figure out how I can live in as many of those places as possible.
No, I don't. The idea of illustration is confining. The reality is that the medium allows the artist who can think, and manifest those thoughts as pictures and words, to move laterally, indefinitely. My aspirations to create personal work for gallery walls deals more with the close-ended nature of illustration. The illustrator is limited in both time and space in which to make an impression on the viewer. As a result, they have to do a lot of the problem solving and heavy lifting for the viewer. Art in galleries is afforded the luxury of both time and space. The viewer has made the effort to seek out the work, hence they have plenty of time to consider it. As a result, fine art can be much more open ended. There is a hierarchy in the art world that no one ever speaks about. Fine art is white collar, even royalty in [some] people's eyes. Illustration is blue collar. Other artistic disciplines flesh out that spectrum somewhere. People get bitter about this. I'm not trying to change the natural order, only figure out how I can live in as many of those places as possible.
10/10/2008
10/05/2008
STYLE, TECHNIQUE VS. POINT OF VIEW
Q: How did you come up with and develop your style/technique?
A: I don't believe in style, and technique is nothing more than surface treatment, if it is not paired properly with the right visual solution.
I prefer to think of this in terms of personal voice, which is actually, a personal point of view. I define this simply, as deciding what you like and dislike about your work through trial and error.
You keep what works and discard what doesn't. In short, a personal voice is something that develops over time and it is a difficult thing to think your way through. The answer is in the action of doing. It is important to focus as much attention on what you paint, as how you paint it. As much as we need to know the fundamentals of picture making, we must understand the fundamentals of visual problem solving. Picture making can be addressed through the big questions: How? (technique), What? (subject matter), and Why? (visual problem solving/personal philosophy). These are all things that are encompassed in the idea of Personal Point of View.
If you subscribe to the idea that an artist's responsibility is to record the time in which we live (and I do), then your work should be ever-evolving, as the world changes around you. My approach is grounded in philosophies that change. These grand ideas become the thread that links a body of work together. The first time that I was aware of this, I was trying to combine line and tone. It took me some time, but all of the work was created towards that common goal. That helped to make it cohesive. Recently I've been attempting to show process in the finals. Currently, I am searching for ways of combining the narrative and the conceptual in my images, as well as a more painterly approach to conceptual work.
An artist who does not change and mature throughout their career is looking inwards at themselves, and they are not looking outwardly at the world. After all, aren't artists supposed to have curious minds?
A: I don't believe in style, and technique is nothing more than surface treatment, if it is not paired properly with the right visual solution.
I prefer to think of this in terms of personal voice, which is actually, a personal point of view. I define this simply, as deciding what you like and dislike about your work through trial and error.
You keep what works and discard what doesn't. In short, a personal voice is something that develops over time and it is a difficult thing to think your way through. The answer is in the action of doing. It is important to focus as much attention on what you paint, as how you paint it. As much as we need to know the fundamentals of picture making, we must understand the fundamentals of visual problem solving. Picture making can be addressed through the big questions: How? (technique), What? (subject matter), and Why? (visual problem solving/personal philosophy). These are all things that are encompassed in the idea of Personal Point of View.
If you subscribe to the idea that an artist's responsibility is to record the time in which we live (and I do), then your work should be ever-evolving, as the world changes around you. My approach is grounded in philosophies that change. These grand ideas become the thread that links a body of work together. The first time that I was aware of this, I was trying to combine line and tone. It took me some time, but all of the work was created towards that common goal. That helped to make it cohesive. Recently I've been attempting to show process in the finals. Currently, I am searching for ways of combining the narrative and the conceptual in my images, as well as a more painterly approach to conceptual work.
An artist who does not change and mature throughout their career is looking inwards at themselves, and they are not looking outwardly at the world. After all, aren't artists supposed to have curious minds?
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