Under the Influence of Ideas

The medium serves the idea, not the other way around.

Working on a new installation for paper, light and tape.

This is my great achievement of the summer of 2019: realizing that the idea, the concept, is The God which is served by any means necessary. Quite often, artists are doing the opposite of that: they spend their lives perfecting a craft, a skill, trying desperately to come across the idea that will connect them to something big in their universe, maybe even connecting them with the outside world. So we slave away, working on what we do. And there’s a great benefit to that, of course. There are many great qualities that come from trying to master something. But what I’ve come to realize is this: why not master the idea? If we put in our 10,000 hours hoping that at some point along the way there will be a convergence of skill and idea, could that mean that the idea isn’t at the core of what we’re doing? In other words: why not start with the idea?

I came to this conclusion thinking about the artistic devices I normally use, which has always been a growing and changing list. I started out creating sounds as a teenager on my brother’s classical guitar. Years later I got into university to study the piano. I sang in choirs. I wrote lyrics. I wrote plays. I wanted to do sculpture. I wanted to be a printmaker. I made sound, video and light installations for art spaces. I started podcasts. I made street art. And whenever someone hears this brief history of me, a few perceptions might arise: here’s a creative person.. or here’s someone who dabbles a lot... or here’s someone with artistic-attention deficit syndrome. All those are wrong. I realize that now. I’m not trying to become anything. I’m not trying to fit some definition of a renaissance person or be disrespectful towards any skill. What I think is happening is simple: I’m chasing ideas and carrying them out.

I’ve already hit my 10,000 hours in some of my mediums, but that doesn’t really matter. What actually matters is that I hit 100,000 hours in thinking of ideas and then finishing on them. And when an idea comes, I no longer want to force it to live somewhere within my limited range of abilities using particular mediums. Why would I ever limit myself? Why would I limit the ideas? Of course, technique and experience have a major impact on one’s ability to carry out artworks. You want to be able to bring the work into existence the way you envisioned them and with the qualities the ideas deserve. But I’ve come to believe that, if I have an idea for a new work, and I envision that work as existing in any artistic medium, then I’m going to execute it in that manner, regardless of my history with that craft, and without any fear of criticism. Those days of feeling confined are over. I’m a new believer in movement and in my ideas. And I’m going to embrace respect for the ideas, and respect for personal evolution, over anything else.

This is my great achievement of the summer of 2019: realizing that the idea, the concept, is The God which is served by any means necessary. Quite often, artists are doing the opposite of that: they spend their lives perfecting a craft, a skill, trying desperately to come across the idea that will connect them to something big in their universe, maybe even connecting them with the outside world. So we slave away, working on what we do. And there’s a great benefit to that, of course. There are many great qualities that come from trying to master something. But what I’ve come to realize is this: why not master the idea? If we put in our 10,000 hours hoping that at some point along the way there will be a convergence of skill and idea, could that mean that the idea isn’t at the core of what we’re doing? In other words: why not start with the idea?

I came to this conclusion thinking about the artistic devices I normally use, which has always been a growing and changing list. I started out creating sounds as a teenager on my brother’s classical guitar. Years later I got into university to study the piano. I sang in choirs. I wrote lyrics. I wrote plays. I wanted to do sculpture. I wanted to be a printmaker. I made sound, video and light installations for art spaces. I started podcasts. I made street art. And whenever someone hears this brief history of me, a few perceptions might arise: here’s a creative person.. or here’s someone who dabbles a lot... or here’s someone with artistic-attention deficit syndrome. All those are wrong. I realize that now. I’m not trying to become anything. I’m not trying to fit some definition of a renaissance person or be disrespectful towards any skill. What I think is happening is simple: I’m chasing ideas and carrying them out.

I’ve already hit my 10,000 hours in some of my mediums, but that doesn’t really matter. What actually matters is that I hit 100,000 hours in thinking of ideas and then finishing on them. And when an idea comes, I no longer want to force it to live somewhere within my limited range of abilities using particular mediums. Why would I ever limit myself? Why would I limit the ideas? Of course, technique and experience have a major impact on one’s ability to carry out artworks. You want to be able to bring the work into existence the way you envisioned them and with the qualities the ideas deserve. But I’ve come to believe that, if I have an idea for a new work, and I envision that work as existing in any artistic medium, then I’m going to execute it in that manner, regardless of my history with that craft, and without any fear of criticism. Those days of feeling confined are over. I’m a new believer in movement and in my ideas. And I’m going to embrace respect for the ideas, and respect for personal evolution, over anything else.