(re)discover Reflections
A Post About Practice
We often hear the word practice bandied about in current culture, frequently associated with a yoga practice or a spiritual practice. This usage is typically intended to remind us that yoga is an ongoing pursuit, one without arrival or perfection. Spirituality is similarly understood as a journey rather than an acquisition. But rarely, outside the confines of an arts-focused training program, do we hear mention of Artistic Practice. In fact, my experience working with undergraduate performing arts students is that this concept is generally left out of undergraduate training programs entirely. Artistic practice is included by way of rehearsals, preparations, performances, reflections – but it is rarely defined or contextualized as such. And, to only have artistic practice include these particulars is to diminish the myriad activities that can be fruitful additions to our artistry.
This past Saturday, IFCAP concluded its first hosting of (re)discover, a urban artist retreat. The workshop focused on three questions:
Who are you as an artist? Why are you making? What are you making?
Each exercise we did fell under the umbrella of one or more of these inquiries, intended to fortify the participating artists with a renewed awareness of their already existing artistic identity and purpose and to further focus the actions and intentions that stem from that identity and purpose.
This can be intense work. It can be joyful to declare oneself anew, to discover links and articulations heretofore less distinct. It can also be daunting to face a large white paper with the task of distilling oneself onto it by way of historical and aspirational influences; to articulate why art matters; to share one’s art-in-progress with a room full of strangers.
Recently, Peter Hocking, one of my graduate school advisors, wrote about his experience showing work in a gallery. He eloquently articulates the need for dialogue around art, stating, “My students sometimes chafe under my insistence that they learn to write and speak about their artworks. Some say that the work should speak for itself. I have no doubt that the artworks have a voice, but I also believe that artists (and galleries) have a responsibility to invite viewers into a dialogue with the processes and thinking that guide art’s creation. Invitations to dialogue cultivate relationship, and it’s through meaningful, on-going relationship that art will enact its power. And art’s power is one way we cultivate our individual powers of imagination and critical engagement with the world.”
The kind of work we do in (re)discover makes this invitational relationship possible. It is part of a developing artistic practice.
Our workshop concluded with a generative exercise in which we articulated together the many ways we engage with our artistry in our lives. I recognize that this is a big inquiry and suspect this will be one installment of many on this topic. Our list (pictured above) is particular to this assembly. I share it not to define artistic practice through its contents but to illuminate the many ways artistic practice can manifest. This dispels the myth that only through rehearsal, publication, performance, or production are we being artist in the world. Artistic practice is a mindset, an approach to being, interaction, observation, as much as it is an actual process of making, refining, exercising. Once we recognize that we are artists engaged in meaningful practices throughout our day, the possibilities for growth are unbound. Our art stands a better chance of creating space for dialogue in the world, as do we.
