Tutorial 2 with Jonathan 5 Feb 2024

 Awesome tutorial with JK today. We talked about a lot of stuff very quickly but broadly I think we covered:

• My study statement: JK had just read it, which was cool. He was interested in my decision to write it as two people. I said I thought I was perhaps outgrowing that already, which he said was funny because he thought I would eventually but not so soon! He talked about how restrictions in art can be powerful ways to get started, but can then be discarded once they have 'launched' you. I agreed and said I had done it for fun, and because I was conflicted about which statement to do, but that actually now it felt like the statement no longer needed it. I talked also about my interest in potential selves, Carl Rogers, and my interest in the idea of the selves you could have been if death hadn't intervened.
• Physical art and aura: JK was amused to see me making physical art, and I said I was appalled and didn't know what had come over me ;) I talked about aura, and how I rejected still the idea that the process was 'magic' but admitted that making things lends them a quality and character that they wouldn't otherwise have. I confessed I was probably on a journey to accept the power of the process to imbue things with meaning that the artist doesn't fully realise they are adding. I said that for me, the flaws and oddities introduced by process, was like scars on the body - they add character and history, but are not art or meaningful in themselves. JK pointed out that by physically making something with my hands, I am making something unique to me, that nobody else could make, that literally and figuratively has my finger prints all over it. I like that a lot, and I had to admit that perhaps there's more to this whole process thing than I care to admit. I talked about my conversations with Chelsea, who makes amazing art, but denies the idea that it has intent, and I said I thought perhaps she and I were arriving at similar places from diametrically opposite directions!
• Meaning in art: The discussion on aura naturally evolved into a discussion on meaning. I riled against the idea of making art that looks like it carries meaning, but does not. I said that I felt art had to have deliberate meaning to be art. JK found me a quote by Richard L. Anderson, an American anthropologist who wrote in Calliope’s Sisters that "Art is culturally significant meaning, skillfully encoded in an affecting, sensuous medium.” I said I really liked this meaning, and JK said it was interesting and valuable, but that non-practitioners often create these meanings and that it's almost the job of artists to both reinforce but also simultaneously refute these meanings. I riled about art vs art therapy, and in indulgence of making things that are only mean something to the artist and that naming something as art was a social contract - JK smiled indulgently, and my words did sound a little hollow to me, but I do think there's something buried there... He also shared a quote that art "harbours the same turbulent storm of potential meaning", the attribution of which I missed, but which appears to be part of a quote " If something is a practical object, it rarely harbours the same turbulent storm of potential meaning that distinguishes any worthwhile work of art." by Jonathan Jones. I said I had explored some of this thinking about pope.l's words on the limitations of meaning - art is not a puzzle, and needs to leave space for interpretation. I persisted that meaning had to be intended and that if I 'thew a pot of paint out of a window and someone found it meaningful, then...' at which point I laughed because I realised the retort would be "but there's meaning in the act of throwing it"... I need to think more deeply about this, and JK agreed the thinking and questing was good.
• Art books: Somehow we talked about art books, and my desire to write one as my final output. JK shared that the Saturday of the low residency would be about art books, and so I think I need to really try and get to that...

All in all, I talked a LOT, but JK seemed to think I was on the right track, which is encouraging. Talking to JK 1:1 is always really encouraging for me :)

Update: Reflected on this, I was reminded of something Harry said - that artists have a responsibility to curate and interpret their work before sharing it, and I like that more and more - you can't control what people will think or how they will interpret your work, but you do have a responsibility to try and ensure it means something to you before stepping back and allowing the viewer to make their own interpretation