Author: James Chiang

Perspective

The Ryoanji Temple Rock Garden in Kyoto is one of the most beautiful and meaningful zen gardens in Japan. No matter where you might stand around the garden, you will never be able to see all 15 rocks situated in it. It’s a wonderful lesson about the relationship between perspective and truth.

“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” — Carl Jung

Here are some of my thoughts on perspective:

Perspective isn’t just about camera angles, it’s about depth, form, volume, distance and scale. It’s also about confronting the unknown.

Seeing the world from someone else’s perspective is the foundation for empathy. Your art also requires you to understand its nature.

Practice seeing things from various viewpoints whether it be a subject being drawn or the subject of ideological discourse. It’ll keep your mind open and fresh.

If you feel stuck, work with different techniques, different materials if need be.

Ask yourself, does your work tell the action or does it give the feeling of the action? The latter may be more important.

Sometimes we need to find ourselves lost in order to learn how to create ourselves.

Do not confuse stiffness with stillness, one indicates death, the other something brewing with energy that’s about to blossom.

Find and create changes in your art, for without change there is nothing stated.

We must alternate between challenge and bliss, between action and rest.

Take the perspective of seeing yourself from above or from behind — it’ll alter your opinion of yourself greatly. Do the same with your work — see it flipped on its side or view it mirrored.

Don’t be hard on others and don’t be so hard on yourself either. Take a kinder view to life and life’s participants.

As an artist, sometimes it’s good to imagine doing another job, one with little creativity or personal self-expression. A sense of gratitude will re-emerge and you will gain energy from that.

Look at your work as a whole; don’t let busy work take the place of important work.

Art is about relationships. See shapes, lines, colors and movements in relation to one another.

If you’re an animator alter between being an actor and a visual designer. This means taking a broader perspective of your craft.

Always be building skill, for without skill you will not be able to express your ideas with strength or clarity nor will you have much fun.

Do not always look at your work so analytically or mechanically, listen to your feelings about. That nagging voice that is your intuition exists for a very good reason.

If you feel creatively dry, look to nature and look at the work of the masters. Great art spawns life.

When you’re feeling rushed, remember time is actually on your side. Don’t be fooled by the fallacy of efficiency.

Strive towards a vision but not towards what you already know or know how to do.

Try to see the model or character from the inside out. Build your work and yourself from the bottom up, like architecture.

It’s good to periodically see your work as if you’re the client, the buyer, the audience but always make your art your own.

Investigate and explore your tools. Poor control of technique is a tragic way of failing your art.

Your mind is a great tool, but remember it’s just a tool. Use it in its proper time and place. Incorporate deep-time thinking.

No one knows the complete truth, so looking at things from different perspectives is our only hope of avoiding complete ignorance and limiting destructive action.

Being True to Yourself

The magnificent genuis of Arthur Rackham, a man who made illustrations into art.

“What you need is to free yourself from your own preconceived ideas about yourself.” — Robert Henri

It’s not easy to be completely honest with oneself. Most of us don’t even try, and those who do, struggle immensely to do so. Why is it so hard to be truly genuine? Well, the harsh reality is that most, if not all of us, have been so deeply conditioned to conform and to fit in, that the entirety of our concious lives has been like living out a program, once set it becomes automatic. Our upbringing, our environment, our genetic make up, each one and in combination make us what we have become. The rest was left to will and chance, and although much of that chance make-up has been fortuitous, other parts of it are not. Those of us lucky enough to have the opportunity to grow up or immigrate to a stable first world country are given opportunities others less fortunate can only dream about. Being given artistic abilities is one of those luxuries but the will to live as an artist depends on you and you alone. If you don’t choose your life, it will be chosen for you.

That said, just because you might be making visual art for a living doesn’t necessarily make you a genuine artist. If your heart is not in it or no longer in it, you’ve stopped being one. You might be officially paid as an artist but if all day long you only think about achievement and reward, then you are only an investor hoping for a greater rate of return on your investment. If you spend most of your time whining, being bitter and judging others, you’re not an artist but only a complainer or a critic.  Real creators are always aligned to a greater purpose; they have little time or energy to be bothered by such nonsense. Because, ultimately, you ARE your actions — all the good fortune and opportunity won’t make a dent if you don’t commit fully to the process. And this is about more than just professionalism, it’s about that passion and love for a craft that once held a place so dear in your heart that you knew that you just had to be an artist. Because to be an artist is a calling, a vocation, AND a privilege. No matter how hard you work, it’s never “just a job.”

Rather than live in material comfort and luxury that his renown success could have easily provided, master artist Alberto Giacometti preferred to live in his studio and have access to his materials in order to create everyday.

Unfortunately, after years of working, it becomes very easy to forget your love of the craft. You begin to lead with your logic and not your spirit. You begin to crave outward success — money, position, popularity — things that actually have nothing to do with the beauty and wonderment of the craft. Each day you work, and eventually, at the end of certain days that work comes to a completion. That’s its due course, but that can not be the only goal, to merely finish the job. The ending of a task serves only to create enough momentum for the next task, the next challenge. The finished work, which is helpful for self-assessment, ultimately becomes a trail of your contributions — every moment of joy and struggle, each individual success and mistake make an imprint and they cumulate to become evidence of the time you’ve spent on this planet. The common things you waste so much time worrying about such as rushing towards deadlines, pleasing your bosses, getting respect from your peers/fans, or just plain old material security, these will all fade in time and be forgotten. The only thing left will be the experience you felt and what you gave. That’s how it is and should be. Hence, to live boldly and generously is the only way to live and create. You cannot rest on past results. If you wish to live life anew each day with the kind of zeal that is invigorating, your focus must be on learning, experimentation and exploration. There will be no room for boredom, nor will there be a dull or meaningless moment. And though it may take every ounce of your energy to live this way — aiming for excellence and striving for quality — you will find the experience worth it.

“Some people study hard for a time, then they ‘graduate’ and sink back into the little that they have learned.” — Robert Henri

Always expressing truth and taking risks, the art of Lucien Freud is evidence of an artist who refused to be confined to his knowledge and formal education.

So do away with comfort. Live free from the known. For what has comfort, security and convenience given us but the excuse to avoid challenge, growth and discovery? Toss away formulas and tricks that stop you from doing anything new, keeping you away from truly creating and robbing you of the chance of having a marvelous time. Remember, both the comparative mind and the mechanical world that surrounds us loves the old ways because established thinking eases the burden of having to pay honest attention to things and to live life afresh.  Tradition always prefers efficiency over innovation. So, to succeed, to learn to live in the now, you will need to make a transformation from the inside out. You’ll need to discard your many conditioned desires and fears and ask what is it that you really want? Who is it that you really are and what it is you are to become? Then you must go out and create yourself. For all art is an invention and the first thing that you must begin to invent is yourself. The process is the product.

“It will take a revolution to do it… but if you can at least to a degree free yourself, take your head off your heart and give the latter a chance, something may come of it. The results may not be what you expect, but they will be like you and will be the best that can come from you.” — Robert Henri