March 06, 2009

Scribbling in the Margins

Ever have one of those days where you need to carefully swallow around your tonsils? Yeah, it's one of those. Oh, and my grandmother is in the ICU. Whee!

Luckily, I have prepared...something for you over at Quiche Moraine. I used to know what it was supposed to be, but I got sick, which shuts my brain down, before I finished it. As in, I completely forgot to link to it until Greg did. Did I mention whee?

Go tell me whether it still makes any sense, please.

Perfectionism is only one behavior that’s encouraged in art but needs to be set aside if the artist wants to be fully accepted in “polite society.” Artists need the obsessiveness to see a project through with little feedback (or despite feedback). They need enough pride to believe that their ideas are worth executing. They need to be mercurial enough to suit their thinking to a new and very different project from their last. They need to ask uncomfortable questions and set aside polite fictions. They need to be willing to upset people. They need to be willing to manipulate their audience.

In many ways, art is antisocial behavior.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds quite a bit like a scientist too.

Stephanie Zvan said...

That might even be a little bit on purpose. Hard to say, though, since I was feverish when I wrote it. :)