Loving the process

The Louisiana Channel has a video series of interviews with artists. One section is called Advice to the Young (which they could also call Advice for Artists). In the segment with Joan Jonas, she says, “Love what you do. Because it’s not easy. It’s not easy to make art.” I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. It seems obvious in a way, but sometimes I find myself doing things that are tedious and I think, why am I doing this? Especially as I get older and time is more and more precious.

And paired with the other jarringly common-sense gem I heard recently in an interview with Kerry James Marshall at Expo Chicago - “nobody cares about your art” - Jonas' comment becomes even more emphasized. If I don’t enjoy the process in the moment, and I'm the only one who truly cares about my art, then it’s kind of a masochistic pursuit. And on the surface that could seem like a morbidly funny or depressing thing to think about, but for me it's actually liberating. It's another reminder to enjoy the process.

Thomas Nozkowski on process

Twenty years ago I had a fantastic studio visit with the artist Thomas Nozkowski. I loved his work then and continued to admire it over the years. Reading this interview with him all these years later, I relate to so much of what he says about process, inspiration, and attitude; I can see how his work really seeped deeply into my brain - even if it’s not overtly apparent when you look at some of my work.

“Why do I want to see that shape, that color in this particular structure? One never knows whether this is delusional or authentic, but so what? Most of our lives we don’t know what’s delusional or authentic. So you try it, and you see if you can fit that into the story and see if it makes sense. Very often I find that it does and that I can let the formal devices pursue the subject as much as it’s anecdotal interior. “ -Thomas Nozkowski

From ARTnews interview on March 21, 2016

Thomas Nozkowski, “Untitled (9 – 17),” (2012)