Monday, September 6, 2010

Adrienne Rich

once said...

"There is the falsely mystical view of art that assumes a kind of supernatural inspiration, a possession by universal forces unrelated to questions of power and privilege or the artist's relation to bread and blood. In this view, the channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist's concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle."

Here's to making work that's unclouded by that "mystical view".

3 comments:

  1. here here! how can you Not incorporate your own life into your work? i find that artists who do not, may be living some sort of removed existence, or perhaps attempting to show us that their art is "pure" and unadulterated by "bread and blood", as rich states.

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  2. I go back to this quote when I am stuck. You know that feeling? The one where nothing seems important enough to make work from and you wait to find the "right" thing to create?

    Rich's words are always there to remind me to get over "it" and make things from the gut, to not worry about what the art is during the process and to simply focus on the real. I feel like everything else falls into place when one can get to that point in the creation process.

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