Chapter 2

Art and Fear

Those who continue to make art are the ones who learned how to not quit.
- Artists quit when
  - they convince themselves that their next effort will fail them.
  - they lose where their work belongs / lose their destination.
the pen has run dry / artist's block / etc.
- It means it's time to cultivate new ideas, but in artistic death, it means it's the last thing an artist will do.
Quitting means not starting again, but art is all about starting again.
Another case: reaching their destination.
- Success turns into depression.
- Don't let you current goal become your only goal.
  - Always leave next steps and think about your next destination.
OPERATING MANUAL FOR NOT QUITTING
- Make friends with others who make art, and share your in-progress work with each other frequently.
- Think of the above as the destination of your work, not MoMA.
The fear that naturally comes to people who get the sense of self from making art
- I am not up to the task, I can't do it / do it well, can't do it again, I have no talent, I am not a good artist, I have nothing to say.
These fear has less to do with art itself, it's more about the artist. Even less with each art piece.
What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears continue, and those who don't, quit.

Vision is always ahead of execution (it should).
Knowledge of materials is your contact with reality.
Uncertainty is a virtue.
- When you see that self-doubt is a simple observation of reality, uncertainty becomes an asset.

The artwork's potential is highest on the first brushstroke, and will naturally diminish. Imagination becomes less useful as the skill / craft takes over.
The development of an imagined piece into an actual piece is a progression of decreasing possibilities.
- Each step reduces the future options.
- When the piece could not be other than it is, it is done.
The moment of completion is the moment of loss
- of all other forms of that piece that could have been.
The artist's life is frustrating not because the passage is slow, but because they imagine it to be fast.

Without you as an artist participating in turning the potential into reality, the material will stay there indifferently. They will do precisely what you make them to do.
The painter who stands before an empty canvas must think in terms of paint.
Knowledge of how the material responses and resists will suggest new ideas to you.
Art is about carrying things out, and the material is what can be carried out.

Other than the material you are using, most if not all other aspects of art is filled with uncertainty.
You need to give yourself room to respond to this uncertainty authentically.
- Art happens between you and something, and both need to be free to move around.
Art is risky, subversive, complicated, etc.
- People who need certainty are less likely to make art.
What an artist needs
- general sense of what they are looking for
- a strategy to find it
- and willing to accept the mistakes and surprises along the way.
Tolerance to uncertainty is needed.

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Art And Fear