"Art Through Adversity"

This posting is something that I speak to my students about in my Advance Animation Course, but I thought I would share it here, because I think it applies to everyone that creates something as an artist.

I've been at digital art for several years now. Every couple years I learn something monumental about the artistic process. It ultimately changes me; I feel like I can see the world much more clearly, or in some cases I see complexity where once it was simplistic.

In the last couple years I think that overall thing that sticks with me the most is this statement:

"Art Through Adversity"

This idea speaks volumes to me. I mean in college and in studios you know that art is a collaborative process. You'll have to work with people from all different walks of life, and you have to be respectful to people's opinions. Especially if they sign your pay check! So collaborating it can be like walking on egg shells. It can be down right frightening at times. At some jobs, maybe the art isn't all that important to the people around you. Especially working as a commercial artist, where usually the art itself is really just to support another idea or product.

Taking video games for example: Art is usually the least important aspect of a game. I'm told this constantly, and it's very apparent that code, game design, level design, and game play are paramount. A game needs to be fun. Even with little to no art, you can still enjoy a game. Look back to the 8-bit games of the 80's. The original Mario Brothers is actually a very ugly game. The colors compete, too much contrast, and character design is pretty awful. But Mario Brothers is almost perfect from a game play viewpoint.

On the other hand, you have art for art's sake. Something that works on an archetypal level; it speaks in symbols and dreams. For something like this, art is the MOST important aspect. Logic and reason, frankly, need not apply.

From my experiences though art is not created for the artist. Quite the contrary:
Art is created for the audience. Our role as artists in this society is to give the audience a way to see archetypes. To transport them to another state of consciousness.

We must also give the audience member a gift. What I mean by this, is that the audience member invests time in us. For this time, we owe them an IDEA that will change how they view the world, people, or their own lives. This applies to every artistic medium. Books, film, tv, video games, paintings, sculpture, drawings, etc. In some cases, the more time that the audience member spends with you, the larger this gift must be.

I believe in some cases, like epic films, the gift must apply universally to all peoples. If you take "The Lord of the Rings," for instance, the gift applies to males, females, adults, children, American, Japanese, Indian, gay, straight. Essentially every person globally. It also is a gift that is deeply personal and can make the world a better place, if we follow it's example. "Star Wars" is probably the best film example I can think of.

Back to adversity.

Artists are also audience members. We can create but we can also be the viewer. The best artists are ones that can tap into this duality; those that can see the creation through the eyes of the audience. I think this is the problem with some.

Some artists can not tap into this. Some will only view art from the artists perspective. That is where you get art for art's sake. In some regards it is like someone saying that a particular actor is, "An actor's actor." There isn't anything wrong with that, however you limit your audience to other actors for example. Again there isn't anything wrong with this, but it does take away from your role as an artist.

This is where adversity comes in to play. If you are the sole creator on something, you immediately lose perspective of the piece. You see with your vision and your truth as a person. Which at times is important. In fact, the gift that you give the audience should be something personal that you find within yourself. What have you experienced in your life that you find to be true? This is what people pay you for as an artist. But in the same token, you will have to find a universal way of expressing that. Finding a universal thread that everyone can connect to.

That is the essence of adversity from my perspective. We all share the same emotions. Fear, Anger, Love, Sadness, Joy. We as humans (and animals to a point) share these common threads. But how we come to experience them is completely different.

For example: Luke Skywalker in Star Wars is a desert farmer. He collects moisture from the atmosphere on the desert planet of Tattooine. It has two suns. He never knew his parents, because they both died. He dreams of getting off the the planet to join the Rebellion against the Galatic Empire.

Now, I have never been to Tatooine. I have never farmed moisture. I know my family. I have never really wanted to enlist in the army. But I have felt that yerning to find my destiny in the world. That is the gift in those early scenes in Star Wars. We all yern to do something important in this world. How Luke gets to this emotion is every personal, but the emotion itself is universal.

When we work with other people (artists, programmers, directors, producers, instructors, etc.) we have to take into account their perspectives. If you truly want your "gift" to be successful, you need to listen to others for all the reasons I mentioned above.

1. They each bring a fresh perspective to the art. They have been through many different paths in life, but they have experienced the same emotions. Where are they common, where are they different? Listen to these differences, because your audience also will have been on different paths in life.

2. They are audience members as well. Since we have a duality to our nature, perhaps they can tap into their audience nature better then you can. Their is literally no room for ego in this regard. You should respect their suggestions and advice, because they are quite literally your audience. For every suggestion they give you, there will be hundreds of audience memeber that think the same thing. So respect their words as you would the audience.

3. Their ideas are sometimes better then yours. Some people can tap into the artist nature better then you. Maybe you can see what the audience member needs to feel, but you are not good at working out the journey. You have a truth you want to tell, but your personal journey to that truth lacks. I find with happens often with some films. It's story so boring or used to often that you will bore your audience and by then your gift means nothing. They have to come with you the WHOLE journey. I think that is some people's real problem with "Avatar." The journey to the gift was a familiar one. Although visually different, story wise, it was not. James Cameron could have made a more dynamic journey to all the emotional parts, and might have had more people following. I'm leaving my personal opinions of the film out of this discussion.

Listening to others and also fighting for your view are important. Perhaps you are not the soul creator, and you are just a "grunt" in the production. Maybe you are just play a small role next to the person in a lead role. As an artist, if you have truthfully without ego thought through your idea, and it is better then the one at hand, you should offer it to the lead. It must come from a place that will help the audience member. It must enrich their experience with the piece. And remember that your ideas are just as important to the director, because in the end you are the audience just as much as s/he is.

Without adveristy, without difference of opinion, the art can lack depth and lose the audience. Even if this is something as simple as a logo design or as complex as the next epic film from Legendary Pictures, adversity is vital. You as an artist should seek out opinions from others, respectfully. There should be a reverence between you as the creator and others as the audience. This is the same unwritten contract between actor and audience. You will lead, they will follow and suspend disbelief. But they MUST respect one other.

So my "gift" to you in this posting, is to listen to everyone's opinions, and give your own, because we are all one and the same. Both artist and audience. One voice and many.