(the IKEA box where I keep my unsolved existential questions, forgotten memories and concealed desires that I refuse to discuss with others)
From September 9th to October 18th will be on display at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in Wausau WI
- Work
Work everyday. Constance is a key factor in finishing a piece. Let’s be honest, how many times have you started something that you think it’s great, but you abandoned after a few hours or if you’re luck a few days? Finishing a work of art is the most important part of doing art, I know, I use to hear the same thing, that a work of art is never finished or that it is finished when the artist says so, but you have to have something to show to your public, you don’t have public? Well then you must show something to you so you can start to believe that you are an artist.
It’s like taking a breakfast of going to the bathroom, I’m pretty sure that you have a schedule for breakfast or at least most of the time you take your breakfast at the same time and in the same place, the same with the bathroom, with your art should be the same, at the end those are daily needs as it should be your art so, it is better if you have a schedule, even if it’s 10 minutes daily but at the same time in the same place. And for god’s sake, finish, finish what you are doing. - Show up
Now that you worked everyday during a long period of time and now it’s a habit, now for sure you have something finished, I don’t care if it is good or bad, and you shouldn’t either, you will never know until you show up, until you show your work to the world. So go to IKEA and buy a frame for $5.00 and hang it on a wall so somebody can take a look at it. That’s not too difficult. You don’t have $5.00? I used to live in Saskatoon at the Canadian Prairies and there was very famous guy there, at least very famous locally, Sam “The Saylor”. He was an artist and he sold his drawings in person showing up every morning in a random corner in the city. What I mean is that you don’t need a gallery, a collector or a critic to start showing your art, choose a random corner in your town and show up with something finished. - Find your tribe
Believe it or not, there are people outside who are doing almost the same as you, same thematic, same technique, same age, same hopes. And some of them have thrive with his work. They are there, I can assure you but you have to look for them, you have to find them. Once you find them, ask them about their work their techniques, ask them to critique your work, don’t worry they are not going to be tough. - Be active on social media
This is related to number 2: show up, now that you have a heard and you decided to show what your doing it’s time to tell the world. It’s not about getting a million followers or have a thousand likes, no, nothing like that, it’s about your internal travel, the things that you need to improve, posting in social media will give you the tools you need to present your work: how to photograph it, illumination, colors, video recordings. You’re going to learn a new set of skills here that are not exactly about your work but how you present it to the world. Try to pot daily, try to post details and then the whole work, videos, pictures. Which social network? The one you feel comfortable: Instagram, Twitter or whatever you feel comfortable. That will help you to see details and mistakes that you don’t realize they exist and in the meantime, you will know new friends. Lock up your seatbelt and have fun and don’t worry about followers or haters. - Read, study, go to art shows, movies, theater, concerts
Enroll at your local Art club, the public library, go to events, which ones, I don’t know it’s all about you so you can choose whatever you like it even when your friends start to doing weird faces. The idea is to find connections, links, all art it’s about recycling old stuff and make it looks as it is yours. There’s no secret about that, every great artist recycle all things: When Picasso made Les Damoiselles d’Avignon it was the result of his studies on primitive art, African Masks, readings, etc. Romeo and Juliet? It’s an old story and Shakespeare retold it in his own style.
Imagine that you have an big empty shelf that you have to fill with stories, with images, with music. That’s what I want you to do here. - Write about what you are doing, some kind of your journal, a blog
You have a body of work, you have been working for years and now somebody is asking you about the meaning and you just stay still staring the ceiling and just say I don’t know it just came to me. People like to hear stories so even when it can be true that your artwork “just came” to you if you dig a little bit deeper you will fond a story to tell about you and your work, about your past and your desires. - Forget about the people around you
The people around you loves you and don’t want you to be hurt, to be disappointed, to see you fail and that is good in some way, but actually, you need to live, and fail and be hurt and be disappointed if you want to see your work grow and became mature. The people around you don’t understand what you are doing and why (I have to admit that sometimes I don’t even know what I’m doing) so even if you love them when it’s about your work the best is to ignore them for once and for all.
Carlos Fentanes 
Leave a comment