I’m incredibly proud to write for deviantART’s interactive, beautifully designed depthRADIUS community.  Especially as my initial article’s on a topic close to my creative heart– collage.  Writing about art is walking a spiderweb-thin fine line between impulsive, childlike joy and serious critical thought.  

Amalia Pica’s 54th Venice Biennale: ILLUMInations, 2011

See, every child is an artist.  Every kid can draw.  Creating a personal world without fear is standard behavior.  Anything can inspire, and no child is held to a specific format. Except for when growing up starts, and the rules begin.  

Stefan Sagmeister’s The Happy Show, 2012

As humans, we need structure, rules, social norms and education.  Chaos doesn’t look good on us.  But as society evolves and evolves over and over to an industrialized state: eating salads out of plastic bags, sleeping with our cell phones, staying up all night on electric light– we start to lose that connection to universal rhythms that children access so easily.  

Jason Evans’ Pictures for looking at, Paris Photo Exhibition 2013

So, we shut off our minds and dive into our art.  Creating in a void of expectations is a determined goal, a practice now, instead of instinct.   But we can’t help it when real world rules seep in to our works.  When we acknowledge the need to tell a story in three acts, or apply standards of composition and depth, or make a conscious statement about our society… And this is a good thing.  It’s a balance.  It’s interpretation.  It’s communication.  It’s grown-up art.  

Museum of the Moving Image, prosthetic legs from the film Black Swan, 2011

As a deviantART member, this is the mindset I took on when writing for depthRADIUS.  Linking my personal inspiration with real world happenings.  Allowing the kid in me to explore the process of creation with an adult’s critical thinking skills.  

Frank Pollard’s Agency Observation (ongoing series)

To repeat a well-known phrase with mysterious origins:

Writing about art is like dancing about architecture.  (Some people will think you’re crazy, but it’s really fun.)

xo,
suzymae