Dear F,
When making art (Mostly applicable to physical objects) you have to deal with materials. The material, color, shape or texture of something can impact the end result quite heavily. And yet you canât always control those decisions.
One example came up last week while working on my school project (expo soon, you are invited). I needed a desk. More specifically, I needed a black desk as simple as possible. And I needed it within a week.
I could have gone to IKEA and bought a desk, that would have been the simplest and most expensive option. But what I ended up doing was riding my bike to all corners of the city to collect:
- 4 black table legs (second hand via internet)
- A bucket of black paint (super cheap, drys super slow but works)
- A tube of wood filler (should have bought the more expensive one)
- A white door.
A door yes, I could have bought a big piece of wood at school, but no. In front of the house of a classmate there was a big container, and in that container was a blank white door. So with two bikes and a lot of coordination and patience we moved that thing to school where I sanded it down, filled the holes for the hinges and the keys and painted it black.
Than sanded it again, and painted it black again.
Than sanded it again, and painted it black again.
Than sanded it again, and painted it black again.
...
I should have bought better paint.
But thatâs the point. I went the cheap route, spent less than âŹ20 euroâs on a table. Not because I donât have any money, and not because I donât want to invest in my art. But that decisions felt logical to me and was available.
But was it right?
It looks good now, but it looks different than when I would have bought a table, or made my own wood to size.
The door makes an impact, because thatâs what there was.
The books I got from a secondhand store have an impact but thatâs because thatâs what the store had.
There are all these things that I didnât completely control but that got decided by money or luck. And yet those things have so much impact on my work, and how it looks. So as a designer, is that a problem?
Non of these decisions are inherently bad, and there not a compromise, they just could have been different. So that means my work could have been completely different.
I donât really know where this artlog is going. I guess it comes down to a few questions in my head that arenât necessarily questions to you, but feel free to think about them.
- Should every bit of your art be your decision and what part should luck play in the look of the end result?
- Is spending more money on your art by buying more things better (if getting something from a dumpster is not a statement you are making)?
- Is dumpster art unprofessional?
- Is dumpster art more unprofessional than I am, or am supposed to be?
- Am I going to get this project finished in 3 days?
I donât know.
W.
  Â
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