A bit more on 365 Masks
(Cross-posted to 365 Masks, where any future in-depth posts on it will appear.)
I've had a variety of reactions about my decision to take on the 365 Masks project. Most have been very supportive and excited, and some have been a bit concerned that I'll find having a completed mask for every day of the year a very daunting task.
Make no mistake: I'm daunted. I'd be crazy not to be, I believe. Having said that, I must also point out that even though the goal is to have a completed mask for every day of the year I'm sure there will be days when I'll be unable to post a mask, and will have to backdate an entry or two. That's OK, since this isn't a contest and I won't be winning any prizes. Plus, I make the rules! Yay! The thing is, I WANT to post a mask every day and will do my utterly utmost to make that happen.
365 Masks is not about me thinking I'm this great artist and wanting to show off. It's more about the fact that I've developed a personal style and technique and am prepared to learn more about mask making, its history and cultural relevance. I purposely didn't study the mask making traditions of various cultures when I started making my own. I didn't want to unconsciously limit myself when creating a process by worrying about whether I was doing it 'right'. That was helpful because it gave me a certain amount of freedom in the beginning, which resulted in masks that I was extremely happy with.
The downside is that I take a long time to make my masks. I worry about them. I take the process extremely seriously and agonize over flaws that are likely only visible to me. I work with a small list of materials that I settled on through trial and error and have stuck with them religiously. Again; I am happy with the masks themselves, but as a result of the process I suspect that I've repressed my freedom-loving artistic streak a bit too much.
So: My hope is that 365 Masks will force me to think outside of the mask making box. Having to produce a mask for every day of the year will not give me the luxury of picking away slowly at each one. I want to shake up my perspective on what makes a mask acceptable, what makes one medium superior to another. I want to experiment with things I'd never before considered using to craft a mask and discover new ways of thinking about the finished product.
Plus, I'm excited to think that I'll also be creating many, many opportunities to learn to work with new mediums. Picking up more art and craft skills will also be a major part of this. I'm hoping that my niece, July, will join me for some of the less complicated projects and show some of her own efforts. She's a great artist and I think she'd enjoy this a lot.
2 comments:
one of my favourite quotes right now:
"The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pounds of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot--albeit a perfect one--to get an "A".
Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work--and learning from their mistakes--the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay."
-from Art & Fear: Observations On The Perils (And Rewards) of Artmaking, by David Bayles & Ted Orland
I LOVE this, Maysie. Thank you so much. I need to read this book!
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