Art by Being Yourself

Health & Wellness

Mar 5

By: Camila Grases

I am by no means an expert in the art department. Creativity is something that everyone has but few are experts at expressing. This semester, in particular, has given me plenty to reflect on. Taking black and white film photography and my first writer’s workshop, there are some surprising things I have learned about the creative expression and the artist. Here are just a few things that I would like to reflect on, coming up on mid-semester.

1. Don’t Be Afraid to Share Your Work

I am and always have been afraid of sharing my own work. Particularly my writing. I am afraid people won’t like it, or they’ll think it’s weird, or simply not good enough. To me, this fear makes sense. Most writers are at their most vulnerable in their writing because they are expressing something that is true to themselves. Every character has a little part of them, whether they like that or not.

Part of learning this is also learning that anything and everything is fair game in the art world. Nothing is too bizarre to photograph, too unconventional to write. For your consideration, below are some short stories and photographs, created by those who are brave enough to follow a crazy idea and be themselves. As my professor said: “Self-censorship is the death of a brilliant artist.”

- Stories: “Said” by Stephen Dixon and “Lawns” by Mona Simpson

These stories play with traditional structures of the stories as well as the subject matter. While “Said” is not afraid to remove one of storytelling’s most important device – the dialogue – “Lawns” is not afraid to honestly and, in some way, gruesomely, portray the victim of childhood sexual assault.

- Photographer: Daido Moriyama

A prominent Japanese photographer who focuses not on perfecting his work but imperfection it. Finding beauty in dirty, blown out, or chemically abused works of art.

2. It Takes Work

Nobody is born being a Tolkein or a Walker Evans; brilliance is not only talent but the ability to exercise that talent. Without a doubt, that is the hardest lesson I had to learn this semester. Making a good print in the darkroom or writing your fifth draft of a story is work that is tedious and, if we’re being honest, really annoying sometimes. But it’s also amazingly satisfying when you look over your work and realize that it was worth it. Some of the best moments, particularly in black and white photography, are lining up the different versions of the same print and tracking its evolution.

But, if you procrastinate like me, it’s difficult to feel motivated to do the work. “Butt to chair,” my professor says, “that’s all it takes.”

- Stories: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Tender Buttons” by Gertrude Stein

Both these stories are most compelling and notable because of their tedious attention to detail. “The Yellow Wallpaper” describes a woman’s slow descent into madness, the kind of story that relies heavily on slowly and slowly building on previous details and occurrences. And Gertrude Stein’s nonsensical “Tender Buttons” is nothing but intentional.

- Photographer: Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is one of the most famous female photographers. She is well known for her meticulous and carefully staged photographs, all of which have herself as the center subject. She does her makeup and changes her look and the scene to fit a persona, whatever persona she wants to create at that moment.

3. It Doesn’t Have to be Perfect

And it probably never will. But there is a kind of art to be found in the imperfect, the grittiness. Because if art is meant to reflect some sort of truth about humanity, then that truth should be expressed just as imperfectly as humans are. It sucks a little to think that your work won’t ever be perfect, but it is also a relief to think that once you are done, then you are done.

So how do you know you are done with a story, even if you know it is not perfect. My professor’s advice: when you love it wholly and completely, it is ready. In other words, when you love your characters and their flaws, when you love the little dust specs on your print, you’re pretty much good to go.

- Stories: “A Small Good Thing” and “Bath” by Raymond Carver

Two versions of the exact same story told in wildly different styles. One, a real fleshed out story with characters and the other, short splices with little dialogue and no given names for the characters. These two stories demonstrate the flexibility of stories and something quite relieving: a story does not have to end just because it is published. Carter felt the need to expand on his original story “Bath” and ended up creating something new and moving in its stead.

- Photographer: Martin Parr

His irreverent and hilarious photos of tourists are filled with irony and a really strange affection for his subjects. The subjects are being made fun of, sure, but we all have to laugh at ourselves a little. Martin Parr focuses on the imperfections of both photography and people. And of people with access to photography. Generally, though, he is not looking for a nice picture of landmarks, he is looking at pictures of people reacting to them. There is a kind of imperfection there too.