Reaction to Art & Fear, by David Bayles & Ted Orland

Quotations:

• "We have met the enemy and he is us" (Pg. 23)
• You can be your own worst enemy sometimes. Thinking too much about things and not letting your creative mind flow without any interrupting outside thoughts.
• "When you act out of fear, your fear comes true" (Pg. 23)
• Fear gets in the way, in fencing sometimes my reaction to the other person's blade is one out of my consciousness because I am afraid that they are going to hit me and get a touch and my initial reaction is sometimes what enables them to get the touch.
• "What art making is" (Pg. 25)
• We have been talking a lot about this, to me it is all just personal preference. One shouldn't be judged on what they think art is or what it is suppose to be. There shouldn't be just one definition of one example of true art. It can come in all different forms.
• "By definition, whatever you have is exactly what you need to produce your best work. There is probably no clearer waste of psychic energy than worrying about how much talent you have." (Pg. 26)
• People have told me that I have had talent but my response is, "Is that cheating? Do I want to have talent? Or do I want my work to be mine just because I worked for it?" Talent sometimes can seem to be a way to say, "Oh, they have talent." Like it is some reason why you are good at art and the only reason on why your art is good. It's not yours, it's your talent's.
• "Artists get better by sharpening their skills or by acquiring new ones; they get better by learning to work, and by learning from their work." (Pg. 28)
• For some reason art is their mistakes and the process in which they go through to make their art becomes their art. Many times I have started off with something in mind then later end up with something totally different but better than I expected.
• "Art is human; error is human; ergo, art is error." (Pg. 29)
• I can be a perfectionist in art but lately I haven't been which has been worrying me because sometimes I feel like that perfectionism made my drawing skills better. But now I only draw the general shapes in quick strokes which was the opposite way I used to work before. But in reading part of this book I'm thinking I should worry less.
• "You have – or don't have – what other artists have, but rather that it doesn't matter." (Pg. 34)
• This is a new idea for me but I like it. If other people have this "talent" or "style" that I don't particularly have to have their style to become the artist you want to become. You have to find your style. Because if you steal someone else's then it not yours.
• "Your work tells you about your working methods, your discipline, your strengths and weaknesses, your habitual gestures, your willingness to embrace." (Pg. 36)
• That's what makes it your art! All those variables that make you make your art. It isn't that your art is you but it like another form of you, like your child (as they put it) a relation.
• "You're not like us; you're weird; you're crazy."
• Safe to say that I hear that a lot. In a good way. I think. (Pg. 39)
• "After all, artists themselves rarely serve as role models or normalcy." (Pg. 40)
• That's what makes an artist an artist. They think differently from other people, or at least that is what it seems. 
• "When your work is counted, will it be counted as art?" (Pg. 41)
• Again, I think it is personal opinion. "Another man's trash is another man's treasure." As they say. 
• "At any given moment, the world offers vastly more support to work it already understands." (Pg. 43)
• You take what you need to use and let the bad ideas go. This quotations interests me because I don't totally understand it but I want to keep in for the day that I do wrap my head around it.
• "The far greater danger is not that the artist will fail to learn anything from the past, but will fail to teach anything new for the future." (Pg. 44)
• For some reason when I read this I think of the United States constitution and if our founder fathers would realize how big our country would become and would these same "sets of rules" still apply. And shouldn't the people from the future realize what needs to be filtered and what needs to be executed? Maybe I've been listening to too much NPR.
• "When your horse dies, get off." (Pg. 45)
• I'd rather not ride a horse at all but I like this quotation.
• "The real question about acceptance is not whether your work will be viewed as art, but whether it will be viewed as your art." (Pg. 45)
• We analyzed this before with the idea of reproducing art and remixes. In my opinion if an artist thinks that they can create something new or better out of something that is already made, why not? Does it matter who the original is? Perhaps, because knowing people they want the credit.
• "Either you can play or you can't" (Pg. 47)
• This is definitely and "black and white" theory but in some ways it is true. You can't really be "kinda an artist."
• "The only pure communication is between you and your work." (Pg. 47)
• It could be a way to communicate to others, to get a point across but the conversation between you and your piece is what makes your artwork. If that makes any sense.

Families of Fear:

1. Predictability
2. Thought of not a real artist
3. Worry when work isn't going well
4. Perfection
5. Pretending
6. Fear about yourself
7. Annihilation
8. Magic
9. Expectations
10. Fears about others
11. Understanding
12. Acceptance
13. Approval

My Questions:

• What makes a "real artist?"
• Can you fake being an artist?
• What defines the perfect are piece? Why is the Mona Lisa considered to be the epitome of art or the highest standard, or example?
• Can being to attached to your work prohibit you?
• What is the difference of completing a quota and a goal?
• How do you know if you have talent or not?
• Doest art need to be painfully personal?
• Does art need to be understood?
• Is it easier now, in the year of 2014, to make art? Not with Instagram, coding, and a little more acceptance? Do we think of Instagram as art?
• Do people need to approve you art if it is yours?

Notes:

• Dynamics
• Investment in energy (lots of it)
• Trying to understand art takes energy as well
• Being the "extra-ordinary"
• Quitting all too early
• Blocks
• Self-consciousness
• Self-doubt
• Self 
• Art of working spontaneously
• Something you are used to and too comfortable with, the "safe zone" (which is not good)
• Getting feedback on your art (a fresh look)
• Talent doesn't come easily
• It is a gift
• Something you are born with
• No room for improvement
• Commitment
• Work shouldn't come too easily
• Fear of perfection
• Quality VS Quantity
• Needed to make the mistakes first to realize what the problem is to over come
• Or is the problem the solution?
• WE ARE HUMAN!
• Imperfection is a common ingredient, essential ingredient
• Clinging tightly to what you have not what you can do
• Perfection leads to quitting
• Perfection is a flawed concept
• Existing in your art
• Working out of fear?
• Completing a quota
• Art VS Magic
• It doesn't come from magic
• No need to prove anything
• Becoming paranoid
• Your own process
• Don't need someones else's magic
• Fantasies and expectations
• Work making itself
• No emotional expectations
• Staring to listen to that inner voice
• Mechanisms of academics can be too constructed no room for creativity
• Being that black sheep
• Learning lessons with vengeance
• Art being able to be understood
• Some people don't like change
• Timing
• Being able to understand ones one art
• Being dependent
• The viewer making connections the artist didn't make
• Perspectives
• Accepted as art
• Not getting recognition for making art
• Wanting to be excepted for doing your own work
• Public consciousness
• Controversial images
• The "post card image"
• Reproduction
• The audience
• The environment