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

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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. The first half examines the core elements of existentialist thought, and its relation to anxiety as a vehicle for self-discovery and ethical change. The second half will look at artistic depictions of emotion more broadly: how can a painted surface express happiness or misery? And who gets to judge whether it succeeds? Sacha Golob is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at King’s College London and the Director of the Centre for Philosophy and the Visual Arts; before joining King’s, he was a Fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He has published extensively on French and German Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Art. His current research explores contemporary conceptions of virtue and degeneration.

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.”

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First of all, there were a couple of gold nuggets in the book. I rather liked the anecdote of an artist who took dancing for fun, excelled, then had to relearn how to dance for others when the chance arose for her to be part of a performance troop. It was just interesting that she had to relearn a skill she already had with a different motivation. 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 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. pg 5 "The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your work that soars." By witnessing the art, the therapist gives the client the experience of validation and acceptance of their feelings.

Encouraging client to express their feelings in art is something that I have often done as a therapist, in many different ways over my years as a therapist. For example, I have asked clients simply to “draw or paint what you’re feeling today.” I have suggested that they draw what anger, depression, or anxiety look like to them. I have done art about feelings and needs. I have tried feelings mandalas (draw what you’re feeling in the inside of the circle and then what is going on in your life on the outside). I have done feelings hearts and pie charts with kids who have trouble opening up about feelings. I often suggest that overly anxious or angry kids make a monster to represent the feeling. With that notion in mind, the authors explore different forms of fear that lead people to stop making art, and explain concisely why each one is silly, surmountable, and ultimately up to you to overcome. It's a beautiful piece of quasi-self-help that offers only blunt and useful considerations without any of the fluff and hand-holding with which self-help, as a genre, is infested. When I’ve done this in a group setting, there is the additional benefit of experiencing one’s emotions accepted and witnessed by the whole group. Group members are often able to relate to each other and enjoy discussing the common connections that they see. 6 image art sequence to help with expressing emotions 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. The Dutch Northern Renaissance artist Hieronymus Bosch has puzzled historians for decades. The true meaning of his work may never be fully understood. One aspect that is certain, however, is that the nightmarish scenes depicted in his works reflect the religious fears that pervaded society at the time. The 16th century was a period of widespread religious protest and reform in Europe, sparking the separation of the Church into Protestantism and Catholicism. Like many during this period, Bosch was deeply concerned about the end of the world and humanity’s eternal punishment for its sins.The book makes it clear that it is the product, and less the product, the artist's original conception of the product or the audience's review, which matters; hence, it is the process, sittin down and practicing, which matters most. As everyone who has ever written a paper realizes, the end result has most often made so many steps away from the original conception that it is more firmly rooted in the world for having been worked over and made real than in the writer's mind. Bosch’s artistic visions formed the basis of how Hell has been imagined throughout history. In his typical style, Tondal’s Vision features a chaotic mix of naked figures and strange objects and animals. Dispersed throughout the fantastical setting, souls are punished in various ways for the sins they have committed on Earth. These punishments, which recall aspects of the artist’s famous triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, are shown to a sleeping Tondal by a guardian angel in what appears to be a dream. The 1800s: Romanticism and the human condition

As part of the community, there are a couple of “book clubs” running and this book is the first book we are discussing together. Yet viewed objectively, these fears obviously have less to do with art than they do with the artist. And even less to do with the individual artworks. After all, in making art you bring your highest skills to bear upon the materials and ideas you most care about. Art is a high calling -- fears are coincidental. There is no ready vocabulary to describe the ways in which artists become artists, no recognition that artists must learn to be who they are (even as they cannot help being who they are.) We have a language that reflects how we learn to paint, but not how we learn to paint our paintings. How do you describe the [reader to place words here] that changes when craft swells to art? Using the art process to help clients express and explore their emotions is at the core of art therapy, but there are many different ways to do this. As a consequence, to quote the title of a brilliant manifesto-style essay by the Institute for Precarious Consciousness, We Are All Very Anxious. Anxiety is now the dominant emotional experience of our time, precisely for this reason: anything and everything is on show, for sale and attainable, but (for too many people) perpetually withheld, out of reach. Whereas historically people were condemned to misery or boredom, anxiety becomes pervasive in conditions where free choice is unfettered, and yet at some level illusory.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 could really relate to the first third of this book and found it very motivating as an artist. After that, it got less and less interesting and more and more vague. My favorite quotes/sections from the first part: For an artist, the book is captivating in parts, especially in the beginning as it concerns execution and vision, and a discussion of common fears in the art making process -- excellent insights. But that's maybe a 1/5 of the book, the title is a bit misleading... There really wasn't any excuse not to reference more women. There are so many wonderful, talented, brave artists out there who would have made for better material than "a friend of the authors". Dr Caterina Albano is a Reader in Visual Culture and Science at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. She is the author of Memory, Forgetting and the Moving Image (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016) and Fear and Art in the Contemporary World (Reaktion Books, 2012), of journal articles and essays on the history of emotion (fear and anxiety), on memory and contemporary art, and curating.

Finally I was really put off by the author's text in boxes. Basically from time to time, they'd have a small aside to "explain" something, but it really seemed more like snarking than anything else. For example: Embrace the oh-my-God-I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing feeling. And just enjoy the DOING and the surprise at the end. — Jean A Finding Perspective I ask for my friends’ opinions on my artwork because I know that they will tell me honestly if they think that my artwork needs something. I am 20 years old and have been doing artwork for four years. — Kelsey B I basically go out of my comfort zone by pushing and selling my wares. I’ve met many interesting people and will continue to try to make connections to gather exposure and sales. — Dee S 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 KThe session will provide a concise introduction to the core theme and its significance for philosophy and the arts. We’ll then break into smaller groups for a guided discussion in which participants can explore the ideas and develop their own take on them in relation to the exhibition and to contemporary events. For more ideas and tips about art in therapy, be sure to sign up for the newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bOu5yj At other times, the therapist might want to more directly encourage the expression or exploration of emotions through art. They might set up a directive in a way that will enhance affective processing or will directly give clients a prompt to make art related to their feelings. Why is it helpful for clients to express emotions through art? 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.