Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Authenticity and The Pursuit of Excellence
Authenticity and The Pursuit of Excellence
By
Candice Bohannon & Julio Reyes
*The following text was written with the intention of being spoken aloud in front of an audience at
The Representational Art Conference 2015, and therefor is not written as a formal academic
paper or essay.
First, a little about us: We are not philosophers, we are primarily artists and that
is how we make our living. We wrote this paper together and believe it is a
perfect meld of both of our voices and our ideas.
What we hope to impress upon you with our paper is the important role that your
thinking and your personal philosophy will have on the outcome of your creative
life. We believe it to be the biggest determining factor in your success or failure
as an artist or in any endeavor.
We realize how pretentious the title of this speech is, Authenticity and
Excellence - two very lofty concepts for two lowly artists in their early 30s to
cover! We started out by writing a 30 page paper on things we thought could
help our fellow artists, and it ended up sounding like an endless nagging list of
honey-dos and we thought we cant present THIS!! Theyll hate us!
So we realized, that what we really wanted to do, was to speak to you frankly,
about some of the things that helped us tap into our own sources of inspiration,
which led us towards our unique artistic visions.
We are not going to give everybody a one-size-fits-all answer. Instead we want
to talk about the tools you might need to cultivate ideas and inspiration, and to
manage the many difficulties of the creative life, hopefully to encourage you to
cultivate an authentic vision through the practice of excellence.
Why is this important? Well, we felt it would be best to start by looking at our
world today.
their craft - as though it were performance art. Any technical skill, or tool of the
trade can be sought out. We can pull up hi res images of the Ghent altarpiece
even though it is thousands of miles away, and we can see what a distant friend
ate for lunch it is all just a few clicks away. It seems we have solved the
problem of information, and it comes with the implied promise, that with so much
information will come wisdom that with all the right information and techniques
gathered, the masterpieces too, will come as easy as copy/paste.
As we interact with people on the internet from around the globe, the world
seems to be somehow smaller, friendlier and more intimate than before. Artists
can work in remote locations yet have international careers, and it is no longer
necessary to live in bustling art hubs like Brooklyn or LA.
But the promise of connectivity (we are seeing) comes at a cost. You are getting
connectivity, but you are also getting the illusion of closeness both distracting
us from our real lives, and distancing us from real physical connections. We are
constantly finding ourselves pulled from the our offline experiences, to plug into
a virtual reality, where the information we look for can be found with ease but
wisdom and understanding are much harder to come by. The more our primary
interactions become virtual, the less time we spend in the moment. We develop
fewer close connections and increase the likelihood of experiencing social angst
when confronted with real interaction. Through this kind of steady conditioning
we will impair some of our most valuable human traits: the ability to empathize,
and to have conscious contact with our true-selves. If we are not careful, we
can become starved for a real community, real intimacy, and authentic
connection. Today, it is easy to confuse information for wisdom; style for
substance; and virtual connectivity for closeness.
Neuroscientist Dr. Stephen Porges states that: Many of the clinical disorders
being treated today are in people who have difficulty regulating their emotional
state with other humans, and gravitate to regulating with objects. Whether we call
it autistic, social anxiety, or the internet, their nervous system does not enable
reciprocal social interaction to feel safe, so they can't get the physiological and
emotional benefits of well-regulated human-to-human physiological states.
Instead, now, healthy social behavior becomes something which to them is
disruptive our nervous system needs these positive physiological states of face
to face human interaction to promote creativity and bold new ideas and positive
social behavior But what's happening is that less information is actually getting
in, and oppositional behaviors are on the rise. (from Polyvagel Theory by Dr.
Stephen Porges, 6-20-12 webinar for the National Institute for Clinical Application
of Behavioral Medicine [NICABM])
The problem today seems to us, a matter of spirit. Despite medical advances to
increase our physical health, and expand the human lifespan, science has yet to
come up with a pill that cures soul sickness, loneliness, or lack of empathy
and in our humble opinion, its doubtful it ever will. A soul needs nourishment
and harmony, as much as the body does. We need art and beauty to attend to
these problems.
Socrates warned us, The unexamined life is not worth living.
We are starved for something real, for something excellent, for something
authentic, for true connection, for deep understanding, for rich experiences, and
for wisdom but how do we find it? How can we expect to see it in our culture, if
we do not first cultivate it in ourselves? How do we seek it in the raw spectrum of
hum-drum experiences? How do we mine for that lasting value? and when we
have found it, how are we to re-shape, re-present, and re-invest it into our unique
endeavors???
These are the topics we will be wrestling with today.
The Philosopher Aristotle had a pretty solid idea about this back in 300 BC. He
said, Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly
because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we
have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore, is not
an act, but a habit.
Being more authentic in your art is a natural result of being more authentic in life.
It is a result of being in touch and comfortable with expressing the REAL you;
your real experience in the world, how you really see, how you really feel, and
what you hold true and dear. It is your body, mind, and spirit, all in service of the
same goal attempting to come in contact with and to shape your deepest
sense of who you are from what love.
N.C. Wyeth had something to say about this: We make a great deal of these
simple experiences. I believe them to be the real foundation of one of the most
profound ethical ideas in regard to early training: to obtain the utmost of pleasure
and inspiration from the simplest and homeliest events of the life about you.
In this age of information and technology, it is easy to lose focus and even
interest in the simplest events of the life about you. For a robust creative life, it is
important to have a solid practical, personal philosophy, one that bridges the gap
between ideas and action, between thinking and doing, and cultivates sustained
creativity for the purposes of turning the lead of life into the gold of artistic
expression. We are going to talk about 5 important concepts -- 5 things that can
take an artist out of a period of stagnation and into a period of growth. Things we
all have the ability to start doing right now to help fill the cup of inspiration, get
reinvigorated and motivated in the studio, to improve our craft, to accomplish big
dreams, and pursue artistic excellence.
[Now on a personal note: (Candice tells a story about how Julio and she,
sometimes work way to many hours in the studio, and dont always take the time
to find rest, relaxation, and inspiration. Julio and Candice realized that too
much of this would leave them with nothing to pour out.) We found that we
had to make an effort to put ourselves in the way of adventure - to go find and
experience new things, for what we would learn and what they would make of us
to pursue them.]
Adopt a boundless, child-like innocence and curiosity become fascinated
try to catch all you canit is exciting!
The writer Henry David Thoreau said it well: The scenery, when it is truly seen,
reacts on the life of the seer. How to live. How to get the most life. How to extract
its honey from the flower of the world. That is my every day business. I am as
busy as a bee about it. I ramble over all fields on that errand, and am never so
happy as when I feel myself heavy with honey and wax.
Humans cannot live on bread alone. Nourish the mind, and nourish the soul.
There really has been no better time to be curious, to be a student, to find the
information you seek. The internet brings the knowledge of the ages and a world
of information to your fingertips!
Your job is to go out and find what is of value to you! Find it in yourself, in your
culture, in others, in your experiences, in books and wherever your curiosities
take you. We must thirst for value, thirst for ideas, and drink it up wherever we
can! If you dont know something, find someone who does and ask them to
teach you!
[ Julio speaks candidly about how he taps his network of resources, by calling,
texting, emailing, etc asking questions, taking notes, and humbly absorbing as
much information as he can from those around him.]
Read books about art, about materials, about the business of art, about artists
read plays, the classics - Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Danteyou name it.
Read sci-fi, history, graphic novels, how-tos... philosophyetc.
[Julio interjects by telling everyone of the importance of building a personal
library; full of inspiration and information. He describes Candices and his,
personal library, and notes how the artists they look to and respect, also have
collections of cherished books of their own.]
And here is a warning: beware of false value, the illusion of value and beware
of the great deserts. Beware of places where you have to search endlessly for
the smallest drop of it it is not worth the time. The cost of time is too valuable.
Some of us end up spending so much time in the deserts that we begin to believe
the mirage on the horizon is actually water we scoop up the sand to quench
our thirst!
Think of all the distractions keeping us from value. Think of this thing right here
[Candice pulls out her smart phone] constantly buzzing and pinging and pulling
us from this moment -- distracting us from total focus, total commitment to the
task at hand, breaking the spell, and keeping us from being in the zone.
We really have to give ourselves space, and make time for rich experiences
away from the hustle and bustle, from the stress and the noise or our very busy
lives. Technology has made this harder on us than on artists of any other
century. Make the effort, take the time to absorb all that there is to be
absorbed. We must drink from the deep well if we are to quench our thirst and
find the true value.
is cut offThey must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown,
inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.
Yes, our greatest gift can also be our greatest burden. A drive to create at all
costs, and they can be very great costs The creative life can isolate us from
loved ones, turn us inward so much so that we become Narcissistic, and loose
sight of what is important in this world. Constantly wrestling with deep emotional
responses can be taxing and can become a kind of self-imposed torture. Take
this parable, The Poet, by the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard:
What is a poet? An unhappy man who in his heart harbors a deep anguish, but
whose lips are so fashioned that the moans and cries which pass over them are
transformed into ravishing music. His fate is like that of the unfortunate victims
whom the tyrant Phalaris imprisoned in a brazen bull, and slowly tortured over a
steady fire; Their cries could not reach the tyrant's ears so as to strike terror into
his heart; when they reached his ears they sounded like sweet music. And men
crowd around the poet and say to him, "Sing for us soon again which is as
much as to say, "May new sufferings torment your soul, but may your lips be
fashioned as before; for the cries would only distress us, but the music, the
music, is delightful
Perhaps the artists gift of sensitivity is also our great burden. Often the key
ingredient that brings a work to life is rooted in strong emotion, due to suffering
and life-experience. Sometimes overpowering feelings need to be managed and
cooled by the intellect not set free to do their damage. So that you can feel
deeply; and not be crushed by feelings that have grown out of proportion.
What happens if you dont manage these emotions in a healthy way? Many in
history have tried and failed in attempts to self-medicate as a way of dealing with
this burden of sensitivity. To have a long life of making art and psychological well
being, we think it would be wise to have a personal philosophy that
acknowledges and attends to this kind emotional openness and vulnerability.
We need to learn the ability to respond to the moment in spite of the danger.
Life lays before us a great banquet, and our job is to savor! Savor it let it
move us, so that we dont miss out on all the treasure that may lay hidden.
But these are only the ghosts of the past. You are not that same person now.
You are the person who looks back with curiosity instead of fear, with the intent
to improve, not cover up, with an open heart and sympathetic eyes! We are
looking for gold, not ghosts.
There is so much treasure to be gained by reflection, by going back over it all -the highs, the lows, the lessons, the regrets, the joys and even the pain. We can
mine for the gems there; for the precious ore. We can learn how to do it better
next time, how to tweak our approach in order to maximize our potential for
learning, enjoying, and for living well.
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Between this moment and your last, what do you want to accomplish? What do
you want to say? What works of art do you want to create, and what kind of
legacy will you leave behind? Between now and death, what will you do!?
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taken in: share your love, your experiences, your regrets, your passion, your
interest, your memories, your thoughts, your feelings, share how it looked, how it
felt, what it meant to you. Re-live it for us in the work, so that me might know,
and might share in it too, or re-experience for ourselves a moment of awe and
revelation.
Conclusion:
So contemplate, and share the fruits of your contemplationsbridge the gap
between your private and public experiences, between the thought and the deed,
the subject and the object, the eternal and the incidental.
Man is lonely and longs to see something of himself or evidence of his own
consciousness in the world. Art is one of the many things we do that reflects us
back to ourselves. It elicits and inspires true empathy. To touch the conscience
of another human being, is to break the cold indifference of universe.
It is the human touch, with all of its quivering vulnerabilities that moves us the
most the hand made thing, with the fewest barriers to what is real. It is the
creative soul, exposed and standing before the universe. Your flaws and
limitationsyour vulnerabilities are our access point: the place where we find
you, relate to you, and where you break down our walls. It is the way in which we
can measure the fullness of an accomplishment. It is the shaky aging hand of
Rembrandt, or the wrinkles in the face of mother Teresa, or the wavering voice of
Leonard Cohen. It is the mark that life has left on your soul. It is giving life the
full measure of your commitment to what treasures it has in store - come hell or
high water. It is LOVE. Let life touch you, let it move you, let it terrify you and
inspire you, and create awe in youlet it in for it is boundless, boundless
terrifying love.
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