Tonight I went searching for examples of online support structures for artists and authors; initially looking for something my “Dawn of the Deadened” concept. The Artist’s Way, is pretty close, although the focus is on writing (understandably so). Here’s a short list of my findings:
http://theartistsway.com/forums/ Forums where people use the book as a take off point for discussion and supporting each other’s process of creating and re-creating.
http://chicagoartistsresource.org/ A practical resource for artists mostly in chi-town, but applicable to other artists. The artist stories section is revealing.
http://www.artquest.org.uk An even more practical and (I think) much better resource than the chicago art list. Some of the information is understandably UK skewed, but much of it is very helpful for all artists.
Yahoo Answers: How do I get rid of artist’s block? http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080106192534AADh1hq Great discussion.
About.com Tips from Painters on Overcoming a Creative Block http://painting.about.com/cs/inspiration/a/artistsblock2.htm Another one – had no idea these Q&A sites could be so rich.
And this provoking piece, linked to from Rizome http://rhizome.org/discuss/view/46414 was closest in tenor to my own point of view when I stopped making art.
Trajectories: How to Reconcile the Careerist Mentality with Our Impending Doom: http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=394 Addresses the ethical implications of continuing to choose the career of an artist in the twenty-first century. It is a manifesto of sorts, written from the personal perspective of a young UK-based artist looking to identify worthwhile reasons for continuing down this ‘self-interested’ path, given that the future we are likely to face as a result of climate change, is so different from how we dreamt our careers might pan out whilst growing up under Thatcher and New Labour. It explores how we should aim to evolve our roles as artists, in light of this, and what form a new ‘reconciled practice’ might take.
