Friday, March 22, 2013

Destruction vs. Documentation


Last night, I was in an apathetic, destructive mood. Like the "take a baseball bat and mindlessly break everything you own, then set fire to the rubble" kind of mood. No, you don't need to call a doctor for me; I'm blaming this one on hormones. Anyway, instead of decimating all my worldly possessions, I decided to try something more productive, purging old sketchbooks.




This is the first time I've sat down and gotten rid of old sketchbook drawings; I found myself a bit conflicted at times. And, since I seem to be having a really hard time putting all my thoughts into readable, blog post form, I'm going to write a vs. list instead.

1. Shredding badly rendered images is therapeutic. vs. All art, even the bad stuff, has some inherent value.

2. You can't keep every single thing you ever drew. vs. Documenting your progress as an artist is helpful, encouraging and may be interesting to others someday.

3. The world does not need to see ever single mistake you've ever made. vs. Bad artwork is an honest refection of your skills and ideas at the time it was created.

4. Destroying bad art work boosts your artistic average. vs. Bad artwork is part of who you are.

Like I said, conflicting stuff. In the end though, it's all about balancing the two mindsets and coming to a compromise. I got rid of some of the more pointless sketches while still keeping the stuff which reflects my artistic development, good, bad and ugly.

sincerely,
Bethany




No comments:

Post a Comment