A Revelatory Manifesto ~ Patti Smith, Just Kids & Why I Make Art

mJUST KIDS by Patti Smith - a set of artist revelations

This book really touched me. Some incredible ruminations on being an artist, creating, love, collaboration and innocence:

'The creed we developed as artist and model was simple. I trust in you, I trust in myself.'

'Robert trusted in the law of empathy, by which he could, by his will, transfer himself into an object or a work of art, and thus influence the outer world. He did not feel redeemed by the work he did. He did not seek redemption. He sought to see what others did not, the projection of his imagination.'

What is the soul? What color is it? I suspected my soul, being mischievous, might slip away while I was dreaming and fail to return. I did my best not  to fall asleep, to keep it inside of me where it belonged.'

'I didn't feel for Warhol the way Robert did. His work reflected a culture I wanted to avoid. I hated the soup and felt little for the can. I preferred an artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it.'

'I wondered if I had really been called as an artist. I didn't mind the misery of a vocation but I dreaded not being called.'

'In the war of magic and religion, is magic ultimately the victor? Perhaps priest and magician were once one, but the priest, learning humility in the face of God, discarded the spell for prayer.'

'In my low periods, I wondered what was the point of creating art. For whom? Are we animating God? Are we talking to ourselves? And what was the ultimate goal? To have one's work caged in art's great zoos - the Modern, the Met, the Louvre?'

'Robert had little patience with these introspective bouts of mine. He never seemed to question his artistic drives, and by his example, I understood that what matters is the work: the string of words propelled by God becoming a poem, the weave of color and graphite scrawled upon the sheet that magnifies His motion. To achieve within the work a perfect balance of faith and execution. From this state of mind comes a light, life-charged.'

THE BOOK: http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060936228

Drawing away until the wee hours always feels good. So does combining two animals into one. In this case, a wood bison and a bull. With its own special rider.

I'm working on the third version of the preparatory drawing, and it's really coming along.

I find that the first drawing I do captures something of the feeling in my head, the dreamy part, but it usually needs more substance. The second drawing usually has more things in the right place, but often looks either a little too technical, cartoon-y, or has lost a bit of the energy of the first. Then the third somehow pulls it all together, combining the dream and the real into something new.

2012 - MY DREAM ARTIST RESIDENCY, CAN SERRAT, BARCELONA, SPAIN:

Artworks and more at this link:
http://www.canserratart.com/2012/07/meet-artist-daisy-eneix.html

Hairier, Scarier & Waterfalled

Daisy Eneix Misogi New Year Imp, 2012, in progress, detail

Daisy Eneix Misogi New Year Imp, 2012, in progress, detail

Daisy Eneix Misogi New Year Imp, 2012, in progress, detail

Daisy Eneix Misogi New Year Imp, 2012, in progress, detail

Well I've made a lot of progress on my little Imp. She's got some fur now and her own waterfall and a mossy, green environment (still in progress). So, a number of folks called her a Demon. I wish to explain how and why she is not a Demon. She is most definitely an Imp.

What is an Imp?
Historically, Imps are mischievous, unpredictable magical characters that may assist Demons, Witches, or Wizards. Whereas a Demon is usually a colossal, independent force, an Imp is smaller, lesser, more ambiguous creature. It also likes to have company.

My Imp also has a bit of inspiration from:
Kitsune, which are the enchanted, shape-shifting female fox spirits of Japan,
The goblins in the story-poem The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti,
the monkey god Hanuman from the Ramayana Epic.
And other unspoken ones.

An Imp is an enchanted creature that is definitely going to add chaos to your day.
Whether or not you regret that chaos is never entirely clear. Perhaps it will show you a pleasure you never thought existed, make you laugh at yourself very deeply, or bring you a little secret knowledge or a treasure. It may just as likely bite, claw, steal, kidnap and cause mischief of all kinds.

An Imp will undoubtedly sharpen your awareness of yourself (and your possessions - it is best not to take your eyes off of them when it is around). It always comes with darkness and light, though not necessarily both on the same day. Imps are very devoted and loyal in their own code of what morality is but it is not a human code and therefore makes sense only to the Imp. You can learn a lot from an Imp but it is also best not to spend too much time in its company, lest you lose your way back into reality.

For me, the Imp is the perfect metaphor for the artist's dilemma.  Sunlight living is glorious and joyful and feeds the soul and body at the root; however, it is night, darkness and mystery that feed the art and the heart. Both together are essential, but I have yet to find what my own line of balance is. I have definitely experimented with going too far in either direction. However, this particular little Imp seems very much at home in the daylight environment of a lush waterfall. I think that's a good sign.

New Year Misogi Imp, 2012 (stage III, color added)

She's still in progress. My vision for her is that she will be nestled in a waterfall. Also, she doesn't have her fur yet and she obviously needs some. I have a feeling she's very hairy.

Misogi is a Japanese physical and spiritual cleansing ritual that usually happens in the morning, under a waterfall. The freezing cold water cleans and awakens. I imagine her surprising various pilgrims come to bathe, with unpredicable results ;)

Daisy Eneix, New Year Misogi Imp, 2012 (detail, in progress)

I think I'm finding out that I really love painting in ink on wood. Maybe even more than printmaking. Shhhh.

PS - Next post has more images working up to this one

The little Imp is begun...

This is with the gesso added

New Year's Eve day, drawing on wood

I first sketched her in summer, 2011

DAISY'S DRAWING TIPS for artistic self-sanity

Drawing for myself again for several days after months of a hectic teaching schedule feels amazing!! But I seem to forget some very simple things every time I take a big break. With this list maybe I'll remember better:

1. Find the sharpener and the good erasers** BEFORE sitting down to draw.  Put the sharpener and erasers in a place that you can reach without getting up.

2. If you are getting too involved in your drawing and don't want to bother to sharpen your pencil, SHARPEN THE GODDAMN PENCIL. You will regret it if you don't. No, really, you will. Sharpen the pencil. Now.

3. If you are a lefty, start on the right side of the page. If you wind up wanting to add something to the right later, protect the rest of the drawing with a sheet of vellum.

4. If you are going to work on a drawing for hours, don't use the Staedtlers. They smear. Use the Tombows. They don't.

5. Do not draw the legs before determining the tilt of the pelvic cradle.

6. If you are drawing someone with male parts, do not wait to draw in the genital details later the way you do with female parts. This is because the penis blocks some of the view of where the legs come out of the pelvis. If you draw the legs first and then sketch the penis in later you are likely to discover later that you have misjudged where the legs begin and that you have to draw them all over again. Being that legs and feet take a hell of a lot longer to draw than a penis, this is very sad.

7. If the top half looks great and it doesn't need a bottom half, remember that a drawing doesn't always require a bottom half.

8. If you have not moved for hours, get up and shake it out.  Also, do not get so absorbed that you ignore nature calling until it is shouting. Your body and (believe me) your line quality are suffering.

9. If it's getting on towards three in the morning and your drawing looks great except one part, just stop. You can fix it tomorrow or more likely not even remember what the part was the next time you see it.

**Throw out your shitty erasers. At best, they sit around fooling you into thinking you have erasers when you don't, at worst, you'll get desperate and use them and we all know that ends in tears (here both meanings of the word apply).

Now let's see if I remember to look at this next time I have to take a big break...