Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

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French artist Camille Claudel also explored the subjective human experience in her work, this time in the form of sculpture. Having arrived in Paris aged 17, she was denied entry to the École des Beaux Arts which was male-only at the time. Nonetheless, she went on to become an accomplished artist. I go to a modern art museum. When I look at some of the pieces that cost thousands — maybe even millions — of dollars for what they did, it encourages me to go home and paint. — Marilynn K I have to admit to mixed feelings about Art & Fear. I liked that it was attempting to encourage people, me, to make art despite the uncertainty involved. It recognises that creating art is different to other “jobs” in that, if you do it properly, you put yourself on display at the same time as your work. All this is good to know, but is perhaps somewhat self-evident. But the book is annoyingly full of aphorisms and a lot of them are rather banal. Take “When you act out of fear, your fears come true” as an example.

This book was recommended to me and to all of my fellow art students by a professor, whose every word is normally golden. I must say this was the exception. In Art and Fear, Paul Virilio traces the twin development of art and science over the twentieth century. In his provocative and challenging vision, art and science vie with each other for the destruction of the human form as we know it. He traces the connections between the way early twentieth century avant-garde artists twisted and tortured the human form before making it vanish in abstraction, and the blasting to bits of men who were no more than cannon fodder i nthe trenches of the Great War; and between the German Expressionists' hate-filled portraits of the damned, and the 'medical' experiments of the Nazi eugenicists; and between the mangled messages of global advertising, and the organisation of global terrorism. Making art now means working in the face of uncertainty; it means living with doubt and contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward. Paul Virilio is one of contemporary Continental thought's most original and provocative critical voices. His vision of the impact of modern technology on the contemporary global condition is powerful and disturbing, ranging over art, science, politics and warfare. By witnessing the art, the therapist gives the client the experience of validation and acceptance of their feelings.Just keep going and let the fear stand in a far corner. It may ONLY watch but NOT interfere! — Andrea D Take other people out of the equation. Make for yourself first. Find what makes you happy. Because when you are happy it shows in your work. — Cheyenne G

I soaked up the first half of this slim guide with frequent shouts of "Yes! THIS!" and skimmed the second half with a bit of a shrug and a *meh* Isn't it odd when that happens? It's really okay, though, since I found so very much solace, empathy, and inspiration in the parts I did absorb. Things like, This event is part of the three-part series: What Makes Us Human: Conversations on Art and Philosophy. I put it on my canvas and work around it and add layers to mold it into something more confident. Otherwise, my anxiety takes over and I won’t get anywhere with the piece. — Dottie TWhile social media amplifies anxieties in a public forum, giving rise to new forms of anxiety and antagonistic behaviour (FOMO, cyber-bullying, the initially fictional condition of video-physiognomic- dysphoria (VPD) or aversion to one’s online video image), and feeds new obsessions and related art forms, the concept of anxiety has been with us for centuries. Most of the time I try not to think about it because I know I am as good as anyone else. Sometimes, though, the fear is paralyzing and stops me either from creating or communicating to an application because I anticipate a rejection of my skills. When that happens, I have to set aside the day and look through all my media presentation and just send out the info, regardless of the outcome — basically muscling through. — Iris G

PERFECTION The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work-and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.” Artists come together with the clear knowledge that when all is said and done, they will return to their studio and practice art alone. Period. That simple truth may be the deepest bond we share. The message across time from the painted bison and the carved ivory seal speaks not of the differences between the makers of that art and ourselves, but of the similarities. Today these similarities lay hidden beneath urban complexity -- audience, critics, economics, trivia -- in a self-conscious world. Only in those moments when we are truly working on our own work do we recover the fundamental connection we share with all makers of art. The rest may be necessary, but it's not art. Your job is to draw a line from your art to your life that is straight and clear.”

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Sometimes I have to remind myself of the journey I embarked upon to get here today. It was a brave step to follow my heart and ambitions. I proved myself worthy every step of the way and reached my goal of a master’s degree in painting. That’s something. Every painting is better than the last, so get to work! — Kim H

Apparently, a good portion of the Artists Network community craves vulnerable conversations, too. (Are you surprised?) How do you deal with fear as an artist? I was also rather perturbed by the authors' description of entertainment as mass produced, clearly meant derisively. They barely reference commercial art and then rag on how there are very few paying opportunities for artists. It seems like they're missing something there. Q: [...If each person made their best work, wouldn't] the more gifted make better work, and the less gifted, less? Now, at the start of the twenty-first century, science has finally left art behind, as genetic engineers prepare to turn themselves into the worst of expressionists, with the human being the raw material for new and monstrous forms of life.In the first chapter, the authors claim that that art came before consciousness and that prehistoric cave painters were not conscious beings. When they painted a bison on the wall, they had no idea what they were doing or why they were doing it. They didn't even know that they or the cave painting existed. The seminar will be led by Dr. Sacha Golob, Dr. Emma Syea and Vanessa Brassey from the King's College London, Centre for Philosophy and the Visual Arts. Participants will have the opportunity to contribute to a research article on the relationship between philosophy and their experience of the All Too Human exhibition. I once had an art teacher tell me that if I got one frame-able painting out of 10 attempts I could consider myself an artist. I get confidence from that and from the joy I feel when an attempt is successful. — Candice K In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive. Unlike fear, which is a biological ‘fight or flight’ response to a present threat, anxiety is ‘fear without a definite object’, as the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard established in 1844’s The Concept of Anxiety. Fear subsides when an external threat is no longer present, while anxiety festers internally but may latch on to objects in its path.