Really hate that most people donāt understand the difference between āself-expressionā and āartistic-expression.ā
I say this as someone who sells pottery, and many people who see my art assume I am using art as an outlet to āexpress myself.ā
I use art to challenge myself. A lot of what I do is the equivalent of doing a hard sudoko or a half marathon, answering the question of ācan I do this?ā
I use art to question things and explore ideas. Finding physical synthesis between concepts and working out a design to its end state.
I use art to make money. I make some things just because I suspect theyāll sell well, and I keep making them when they do.
This idea that an artist is āputting themselves out thereā every time they create is not only stupid, but harmful, and it kills critique and analysis.
Yes every creative work is influenced by its creator, but the most preliminary step of analysis is to define the purpose of a work of art (functional, narrative, entertainment, persuasive, decorative, ceremonial, etc.) and a vanishingly small percentage of that is self-expression. Even then, itās generally tied to the selfās relationship with something elseāperception, society, etc.
Itās very tiresome to have people assume they know you because they like (or dislike) your art, to make assumptions about who you are and how you approach the world. Itās nothing newā people called the Impressionists insane and the Fauvists degenerate. And now people are expected to hand out their identities and traumas to prove they have the right to explore certain subjects.
But to actually understand art, you have to contextualize it beyond assuming itās just what the artist felt like making at the moment and itās somehow coming from their deepest soul, or youāll badly misinterpret most art you come across.
