I have long harbored the idea that the act of making art, specifically the urge to make new work, is fragile. This drive, passion, calling, or whatever you call it, needs to be protected and nurtured. 

I have suggested to many of my students not to talk about the pictures you are going to make, or what your next project will look like. I say this because I know, from experience, that the reaction you will receive may satisfy the drive you have to make the work in a small or maybe even big way. You will get some of what you are looking for, and you have not made a single picture. Maybe this thing is endorphins, and their bro dopamine. 

I am not super well informed on the brain science I am describing; my wife, Kathleen, however, is. I passed my theory by her, and she gave me a nod of “it is a reasonable idea.” So off I go. If you get the dopamine hit by looking at other people’s work, then you no longer have the drive to make your own work. Save the dopamine hit for your own work!

Here is how I see it. I am lucky to be blessed by a true need to make art. I have always been this way, and photography and now printmaking have been good to me. What is different now from the early days is the ease with which I can watch other artists make work, talk about projects, and live their lives as artists. I sometimes find myself feeling like I have done something myself because I watched them.  It is a weird vicarious phenomenon. Does it replace my own drive for my own work? I don’t think so, but I still wonder. I find that I can easily roll through other artists on social media or YouTube (whatever drug you choose) for 30 minutes with ease, maybe easier than working in my studio.  It feels like a distraction I am happy to engage in, maybe telling myself “I want to know what is happening in the art world” or some other lie to avoid my gatekeeper of passion. 

What do you all think? Join the conversation.