"Staying on the bus" is a reference to a rather well known art lecture given by Arno Rafael Mikkinen at the commencement of
the New England School of Photography in 2004. His talk is titled The Helsinki Bus Station Theory: Finding Your Own Vision in Photography."
Here's a link to the original: https://www.fotocommunity.d...
And here's a synopsis:
The Helsinki bus station provides a metaphor for artists determining their individual and unique path in art.
At the beginning of an artist's career, the artist is making work that can be compared to the work of others, and may, in fact, be nearly similar to the work of others. If this is pointed out to the new artist, rather than staying on the current path, the artist starts over, abandoning the ideas that they may have worked on for a few years, and choosing a different path that doesn't look like that of other artists. The process repeats - after working on the new path for a while, the artist is dismayed by the comparisons of their work to other's work and heads back to the starting point (the bus station) to choose another path (bus route).
What the artist doesn't realize - and what happens with the bus routes in Helsinki - is that only the beginning of the route is shared by several buses (artists) and each bus (artist) soon splits off to pursue their own route (unique variation on the theme). As Mikkinen points out,
"It’s the separation that makes all the difference, and once you start to see that difference in your work from the work you so admire (that’s why you chose that platform after all), it’s time to look for your breakthrough."
If you stay on the route you originally chose, you will eventually have truly individualistic work that has had time to develop. When you reach the end of the route, you can look back and see all the ups and downs that route took - the quasi-imitations, the breakthroughs, the masterpieces. But only if you stay on the bus.
.
Staying on the bus this is really difficult for me. I don't like the idea of narrowing my options, committing to one idea, or closing doors - all ways of saying the same thing.
Many years ago my mother labeled me an "expander" - I take in too much, ask a lot of "what if?" questions, and overwhelm myself with lots of ideas - not all of which can be good...or can only be good ideas if fully tested. This way of looking at the world can, of course, have its good points. But often, I find myself latching on to new ideas and never executing or leaving an idea before it's been explored.
.
I'm currently working on a series of works. Only because I signed myself up for a course on "working in series" am I not following my usual inclinations to take "new buses" that go off on different routes. The instructor asked us to define our series and then close all the other doors. In other words, acknowledge, maybe even record the other notions that occur to us, but don't follow those paths....right now.
.
Here's my series definition is "It's about layering, layering as a way of capturing past moment. The layers will be transparent. Each layer may contain different imaging or marks. Sometimes the layers may be successive moments of a gesture. The layers might be compressed, separated or cut through. The content of the layers might be collected, photographed, or drawn by me."
.
I've actually drawn a box around this definition in my sketchbook. That box helps me remember that these are the boundaries within which I can explore...for now.
.
As you might expect, as I complete an artwork each week, lots of ideas are popping up. "Wouldn't it be great to actually stitch on top of these printed images?" "What if I cast plaster hands and added them to the artwork?" You can see that these ideas do not fit within the box! So I record a note somewhere in my sketchbook and keep going on the bus route I've chosen. It's difficult for me and feels foreign and kind of uncomfortable. But I'm committed to staying on this bus route for the duration of the course - 8 weeks. I hope I'll stay on the bus route longer and see where it goes!
"Staying on the bus" is a reference to a rather well known art lecture given by Arno Rafael Mikkinen at the commencement of
the New England School of Photography in 2004. His talk is titled The Helsinki Bus Station Theory: Finding Your Own Vision in Photography."
Here's a link to the original: https://www.fotocommunity.d...
And here's a synopsis:
The Helsinki bus station provides a metaphor for artists determining their individual and unique path in art.
At the beginning of an artist's caree…
"Staying on the bus" is a reference to a rather well known art lecture given by Arno Rafael Mikkinen at the commencement of
the New England School of Photography in 2004. His talk is titled The Helsinki Bus Station Theory: Finding Your Own Vision in Photography."
Here's a link to the original: https://www.fotocommunity.d...
And here's a synopsis:
The Helsinki bus station provides a metaphor for artists determining their individual and unique path in art.
At the beginning of an artist's career, the artist is making work that can be compared to the work of others, and may, in fact, be nearly similar to the work of others. If this is pointed out to the new artist, rather than staying on the current path, the artist starts over, abandoning the ideas that they may have worked on for a few years, and choosing a different path that doesn't look like that of other artists. The process repeats - after working on the new path for a while, the artist is dismayed by the comparisons of their work to other's work and heads back to the starting point (the bus station) to choose another path (bus route).
What the artist doesn't realize - and what happens with the bus routes in Helsinki - is that only the beginning of the route is shared by several buses (artists) and each bus (artist) soon splits off to pursue their own route (unique variation on the theme). As Mikkinen points out,
"It’s the separation that makes all the difference, and once you start to see that difference in your work from the work you so admire (that’s why you chose that platform after all), it’s time to look for your breakthrough."
If you stay on the route you originally chose, you will eventually have truly individualistic work that has had time to develop. When you reach the end of the route, you can look back and see all the ups and downs that route took - the quasi-imitations, the breakthroughs, the masterpieces. But only if you stay on the bus.
.
Staying on the bus this is really difficult for me. I don't like the idea of narrowing my options, committing to one idea, or closing doors - all ways of saying the same thing.
Many years ago my mother labeled me an "expander" - I take in too much, ask a lot of "what if?" questions, and overwhelm myself with lots of ideas - not all of which can be good...or can only be good ideas if fully tested. This way of looking at the world can, of course, have its good points. But often, I find myself latching on to new ideas and never executing or leaving an idea before it's been explored.
.
I'm currently working on a series of works. Only because I signed myself up for a course on "working in series" am I not following my usual inclinations to take "new buses" that go off on different routes. The instructor asked us to define our series and then close all the other doors. In other words, acknowledge, maybe even record the other notions that occur to us, but don't follow those paths....right now.
.
Here's my series definition is "It's about layering, layering as a way of capturing past moment. The layers will be transparent. Each layer may contain different imaging or marks. Sometimes the layers may be successive moments of a gesture. The layers might be compressed, separated or cut through. The content of the layers might be collected, photographed, or drawn by me."
.
I've actually drawn a box around this definition in my sketchbook. That box helps me remember that these are the boundaries within which I can explore...for now.
.
As you might expect, as I complete an artwork each week, lots of ideas are popping up. "Wouldn't it be great to actually stitch on top of these printed images?" "What if I cast plaster hands and added them to the artwork?" You can see that these ideas do not fit within the box! So I record a note somewhere in my sketchbook and keep going on the bus route I've chosen. It's difficult for me and feels foreign and kind of uncomfortable. But I'm committed to staying on this bus route for the duration of the course - 8 weeks. I hope I'll stay on the bus route longer and see where it goes!
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