I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me - shapes and ideas so near to me - so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn't occurred to me to evaluate whether its good or not.
Does it look cool, interesting, pleasing
Is there a function
What size audience does it appeal to
Is there a bigger idea behind what we see immediately
What is it for and the idea fulfill that
Is it clear
Have I seen it before?
Is it a complete image?
Will it look good on canvas?
Will it offend someone?
Will it be fun to paint?
Will it look good life size?
Can it be finished in time?
My personal connection to the piece grows each time I work on it. I look forward to painting it and resent having to stop at the end of the day.
does it make me smile?
If it doesn't leave me alone until I create it. I start painting it in my head. If I make a detailed drawing so I don't forget it, then it usually leaves my head. I do a lot of sketching that doesn't make it to a finished piece.
It's the same with a story idea, when characters act out in my mind's eye. They will not leave me alone until I write about them.
It'd be a good idea for me if I feel anything for it, if it explodes in front of me, if it adheres to my style...
All ideas are good. It's the process, ability and execution that makes them great.
If i like it enough to do the work of painting it, it is a good idea. Most of my work takes a long time to do and I won't waste my time on something that does not spark my interest.
To answer the question as to how to evaluate whether an idea is good or not I will post the following two prose-poems I wrote. I will leave it to readers to interpret my meaning. This is what poetry is for, among other reasons and purposes, for readers to interpret.-Ron
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WHAT IT MEANT: THE BALANCE
Russian poet, Boris Pasternak(1890-1960), had some views of the poet and poetry which resonate strongly with my own approach to the poetic process. Pasternak felt the poet must respond submissively "to a high and lonely destiny." He must "contribute in some vital way to the life of the times." At the same time, he must not project himself as a poet or be consumed by the fact of his being a poet. I like to think I achieve this balance between contributing in a vital way and not projecting myself, or at least I try to, by, on the one hand, sending my poetry formally to various Baha'i libraries and individuals and creating a website; and on the other hand, by talking about this being a poet or writing poetry as little as possible, but going on with my employment, my life and my activities with a serious industriousness and light-hearted humour.
Being a poet was, for Pasternak, mysteriously connected with destiny. Pasternak was seized by an irresistible urge to write poetry. The act of writing poetry took possession of him in his early twenties. In my case I was nearly fifty when this 'urge,' this 'possession,' grabbed me strongly. Poetry seemed to come naturally, although whether others found it natural or meaningful was another question. The pitch of intensity that my emotions and perceptions had been brought to in my earlier days was challenged into education, career, marriage and family and building Baha'i communities. Now, the impetuous flow of language, intensity and energy was released into a poetic eruption of several million words in the years 1992 to 2002. -Ron Price with thanks to Olga Ivinskaya, A Captive of Time: My Years with Pasternak,Collins/Harvill, 1978, Introduction.
You1 wanted to give an account
of the revolutionary era you lived
through, what it meant, the years
of terror.2 I wanted to give an account,
within my personal limitations, of the
revolutionary era I lived though, when
an insignificant and obscure movement
moved unobtrusively onto the global stage
of history3 and what it meant in the dark
heart of an age of transition.4
1 Boris Pasternak
2 1936-1938, ibid.,p.xxxii.
3 1937 to 2002 in a series of Plans
4 1967-2002
Ron Price
1 April 2002
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HEY VINCENT! EH VINCENT?
A recent reading of some of the letters of painter, Vincent Van Gogh, revealed some useful parallels with my own work as a poet. Van Gogh took enormous satisfaction in painting things immediate to his senses as I do in writing about things, ideas and experiences that are immediate to my life. Van Gogh often had fits of anxiety, feelings of emptiness and fatigue in the head. These feelings have been part of my life for forty years now. While I admire heroism in others, the many martyrs I read about from the more than a century and a half of Baha'i history and the capacity of these martyrs and people I have came to know in my own life--to suffer; while I appreciate the great spiritual potential of suffering, I do not long to suffer, to experience martyrdom. As I approach the age of sixty, I try to avoid suffering if at all possible. I feel I have had enough in my life and, like Van Gogh, I feel it does not suit me. The poem below draws on the content of some of Vincent Van Gogh's letters. -Ron Price with thanks to The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, Penguin, 1997 and The Internet, The Letters: From Vincent to Wilhelmina.
Hey Vincent!
When the earth is not ploughed,
you wrote, you get no harvest.
Well, we both ploughed our earth,
eh Vincent? You knew that art
was a jealous master and demands
our whole strength. When people
came to see you as an impractical,
useless fellow, it left a bitter taste
in your mouth. Me too, Vincent,
me too. Those inner seizures of
disrepair were disorienting,
eh Vincent? But we ate well,
were well-housed, had our separate
flings and comforts.....Eh Vincent?
Ron Price
14 March 2002   | | |
This is determined through sketches or preliminary artwork stages. If the idea is worthy then you will continue to be inspired and want to see it through.
When it's finished.
I take into consideration, where things are taking place ie: a studio, outdoors, night, day. What my subject looks like and their expectation and then my reality to their expectation. For example is there hair the right type for the look etc.
If I can be bothered to see it through. One idea I had for a cartoon is now 14 years old, and I still haven't got around to making it.
If it intrigues me it is a good idea, for my perspective was created to share in our world view and make a conscious effort to adapt to my fellow man. Bad ideas are simply copied. |
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