At an adjudicated art show I attended a few years back the adjudicator offered a piece of advice that stuck with me – good art comes about from knowing your why; I would add that so does good farming. Why you create the particular work you create, why you gravitate to those subjects or that process. Are your intangible reasons powerful enough to see you through the lack of reward? Are they powerful enough to show up in your work? If no one witnesses your creations or your process does your why still hold strong?
If an artist knows their why they will always figure out the how. As long as our why’s are important to us there is importance in honouring them, there is importance in continuing even when the results we want from life are not self-evident. Upon hearing it this advice fell into place for me just as the three chosen words Wool, Stone & Prairie did years ago. I remember that the advice gave me great hope; it gave me hope because I knew my why. And today my why is still holding strong – there is that at least. Even with a diminished flock of sheep and fewer dogs, and the occasional slow down of creativity while I fumble with learning new things, my why holds.
I did this drawing awhile back and then ruined it when trying to mount it to a wood panel. Your why also has to carry you through the mistakes, the errors and the losses. It has to be your reason to show up and create when, creatively speaking, nothing seems to be flowing or going your way.