I’ve been a visual artist for much longer than I was a musician, and I’m probably a much better painter than guitar player because of it. However, because music came first professionally, I’m not sure I ever changed the way I approached the creative process and its presentation.
Visual artists are often expected to have a “signature style” that doesn’t stray much over the years. While this might work extremely well for artists who are highly focused on a specific theme, idea, or concept, it can have a restrictive effect on those who want to explore possibilities. I believe these differences may also be influenced by art school training, or the lack of it.
As someone without the urge to follow certain rules that extensive training or deep knowledge of art history might instill, I embrace the freedom of exploration, perhaps with a bit less guilt than some of my formally trained colleagues. This, however, doesn’t always go over well with the public, which has been conditioned to think this way by the commercial side of the art establishment. It is likely easier to sell an artist’s work if it resembles their last successful exhibition. It’s a “once you figure out what sells, keep doing it over and over” syndrome.
This brings me back to music. Last week, I found myself listening to Linda Ronstadt while working in my studio. Whether you like her voice or not, her accomplishments are impressive, not just because of her hits and awards, but because of the extraordinary range of musical genres she tackled. From rock to country, soft punk/new wave, big-band standards, traditional Mexican folk songs, R&B, and Latin boleros, she managed to master them all and find audiences that embraced her various pursuits. She may be somewhat unique in her success across so many musical styles, but it is far more common, and far more acceptable, for a musician to release an album that sounds completely different from the previous one, or to create an entirely different concert experience, than it is for a visual artist to do the same without encountering significant pushback or criticism.
I’ve personally heard it all: “You’re all over the place,” “Did you really make all of this?”, “Are you having a midlife crisis?”, “This is so different,” and my favorite, “Are you ever going to decide on something?” While these comments can be annoying, and occasionally sting a bit, none of them could ever dampen my urge to create and explore. I never want to phone in a painting simply because it follows a formula that happened to catch on.
I currently have 22 wood panels in progress that continue the exploration begun in the last two cohesive bodies of work I created for solo exhibitions, and I am very excited to see them through to completion. If there is more to explore within that idea, the work will continue to come. But if I feel I’m forcing it, or if the concept no longer excites me, it will be time to find a different branch of my creative idea tree and get out there on that fucking limb, even if I fall.
