Happy Holidays

This is my last blog for December. From tomorrow I'm taking a month off with the family.  Thanks to everyone who has been following my musings and work. I really appreciate your time, the feedback and the work that has grown from it.  I'm looking forward to sharing more next year. Hope you all have a great Christmas. Lots of love.

Brendan

Balance vs Harmony

Mind and Flow are integral to creativity.  There is a time for thinking through the idea - conceptualising and planning. Then there is time for doing the idea - being in the flow of the work.

Take my costume sketches of the past two days as example. I begin by reading the play. Then the mind works hard and fast visualising ideas. I draw quickly. Loosely I capture those ideas as best I can. The mind exhausts quickly. It's not particularly sustainable for long periods of time.  I give it 20min to an hour then I'm done.  For the next few hours I rest the mind and get into flow. For 5 hours I work on those rough doodles. I don't tire. I focus on details, line quality, texture, shade.  Of course I'm making decisions constantly but these are unconscious rather than conscious. Less mind more doing.

The process cycles continually through my practise, weekly daily and down to the moment.

I have often heard artists suggest the importance of balance.  Balance isn't quite the right word here. Balance suggests an equality of proportion.  Equal proportion of mind and work can not be balanced. They're not meant to be.  I prefer to use the word 'Harmony' rather than balance.  It is important for an artist to have a harmony within their practise. Not a balance. Harmony means giving things their appropriate space within the composition of the whole.

This extends to all our work and lifestyle.  By always trying to achieve work/life balance we are actually fighting ourselves. We are creating unnecessary resistance. It is far better to pursue a work/life 'harmony'.

Ambition

Ambition and ego are almost inseparable from youth. With time we grow beyond a 'me' focus, become empathetic to others and put self second. As ego fades what becomes the place of ambition?

Ambition for an artist is often a distraction. Artists work best when they are in the 'flow'. Flow is when the 'act of the task' offers all the fulfilment the artist needs. Fulfilment doesn't exist in achievement or recognition later down the track. Flow is where artists make the richest creations.

What of ambition then? What is its place? Ambition is not connected to the work of the moment. It is connected to the future. It is connected to foreseeing where work will lead. For this reason ambition is important to identify and use wisely. It is naive to discard it simply as ego and render it useless.

I recently heard of 'Tohunga' or 'master practitioner' described as someone who recognises signs and events to track what future outcome lays ahead. This person is skilled in leading others along this path without explicitly giving away the path. Giving away the path would of course render the journey pointless for the student.

Connecting dots toward a future uses all the same skills we learn from youthful 'ambition'.  It is certainly a skill we have come to expect of the ambitious stock trader or entrepreneur. A master artist then is not one who is without ambition. Quite the contrary. The master artist is one who has conquered ambition.  A master artist can work in the moment, be in the flow, without distraction of the future.  In conjunction with this the master can use ambition as his tool.  This tool allows the master to see where things will lead. This tool will also lead others in their journey toward becoming a master themselves.

Recognise ambition for its worth.

'Earthquakes in London'

Toi Whakaari is producing 'Earthquakes in London' in 2013.   Oliver Morse will lead the production design and I will work alongside designing costumes.  Kaarin Macaulay will head costume construction. Jonathan Hendry will direct and lead this great team.

I had a first read of the play today.  It's a great play! Relevant and ambitious.

My background though is in spacial design. Costume is something new.  What am I doing leading a costume department?

The relation of costume to performer, set and story is new territory.  Exploring form, character, movement, colour, textiles and texture as a way in to story is not. I have drawn on these tools many times before. There's no better way to enhance the depth of my knowledge than to try these same tools in an unfamiliar field.

I have not changed, what I bring does not change but the task I bring myself to has. This shift of skill to foreign role is a great way to innovate.

Artists often specialise. Specialising is dangerous. Artists need to be feed by information but also by problems. The more diverse the problem the better for innovation.  By being open to learning and shifting our skills into new areas we can come at problems in ways others might not. What better way for everyone to learn? What better way to create exciting, innovative work that audiences haven't seen before?

Response is creation, not judgement.

Response is creation not judgement. Or at least it should be.

The strongest response we gift as artists is to create something. A recent example. When I shared a piece of work with another artist they didn't respond with, 'I like it' or 'I don't like'. Their response wasn't one of judgement. They responded by describing a world they imagined. It was neither criticism or praise. Their response was to create. What followed in me was a wonderful burst of ideas. Because of their gift I immediately moved into making more work.  Would I have had the same reaction had they said, 'It's good, I like it'?

The response of creativity is the gift everyone can give, not just artists. In the practice of responding with creation we grow stronger bonds and better work.

'Liking' something on facebook or in person is of course a wonderful encouragement. So is a panel of judges selecting those with talent. This is a great thing. It has it's place. Judgment alone though doesn't take work or relationship forward.  To create better work we need judgement with a little room for creative response.

Hank The Wrestling Shark

If you get the chance check out Gerry's website and buy this great book and CD for the little one or the family this christmas. He's making wonderful work :). Finn Jade and I had a great ol' dance along to this!  Awesome to see local artist making great work!

http://www.hanktheshark.com/

Only half the story

Blogging is a wonderful tool for sharing, connecting and developing thoughts on craft and practise but it is only half of the story.  The other half is making work that inherently holds your methodology and process but stands alone as art.

Sketchbooks and tests are wonderful steps in the practise of doing. They lead toward an end product. The thing with them though is they are safe. This is important to identify...There must be an end product! A film, a book, a print, an exhibition, a performance. 

A product is the greatest gift of all for an audience. That audience take ownership of it. Share it. Creativity grows.  That is our goal. 

An end product is also the greatest gift for the artist. It focus's the artist to bring all their skill and practice together. It forces the artist to move past any walls of anxiety, expectation or ambition because they have to let the art stand alone and the artist has to stand alone.  This is the most generous gift of all. The gift of self. This is when we truly grow.

Building on work

Jamie and I got together yesterday to make work.  A few months ago I took one of my sketchbook drawings into photoshop and rendered it up. The next step was to take the composition into a live action format.  Jamie got into town this week so we thought we'd have a crack at it.  

Here are the results.  Watch the minute long video here.

https://vimeo.com/54883233.

The next step in the work is to find a place to project a looped track into a public space. Can't wait to see how scale and place effect the reading of the work.  Lots of fun :).  

It was great to take a drawing into a collaborative work like this. Working with another I became all the more aware that jumping into something without knowing where it was leading is scary. Good scary. We had to figure things out on the spot. What are we doing and why?  We didn't have a plan and sometimes thats okay.

Sonik Boom & Piers Gilbertson

Piers Gilbertson of 'Sonik Boom' led the sound capture and design for 'Night Storm' as well as performed, recorded and mixed the music.  A massive piece of work!  He is beginning work on a new website. I've just written him a short testimonial for it and wanted to share it here. His current site is below and I'll keep you posted for the newer, shinier version :).  Sonik Boom is Australian based but I for one would love to see Piers making more work back here in NZ.

"When directing a film or producing an artwork I always look for connection.  I relate to story and character through what I see. Working on set with Piers I noticed his was a different approach. Piers wasn't looking for story he was listening for it. When most were distracted by the business of a film set Piers remained focused on the subtleties. The sound of water, birds, a car door opening or bicycle peddling all became characters and voices in their own right. Piers energy was of someone discovering a sound if not a whole world for the first time. When an individual brings so much value to their craft it is infectious for the whole." 

"The sound scape of the film was an enormous challenge. The film was not following any obvious narrative structure. We entered this film as artists and poets. We would not know the film until we had it. Piers and Micheal approached this work courageously. Their design was not held in any preconceptions of the story but rather became a response to performance, movement, composition, rhythm and the shift from interior/internal to exterior space. As a director I wouldn't want to work in any other way. Their understanding of the film grew with the sound scape they created and in turn the sound took on depth. The intelligence and exploration they brought to this process was integral to forming the powerful, unsettling and lonely mood of the film."

"I am ever grateful to the contribution of Piers and Micheal to this film and look forward to making more work together soon."

http://www.sonikboom.net/

Summer Sketchbook P.3