WHY OBSESSION IS A GOOD THING
3/09
During a recent flight I had time to reflect about my artistic process and particularly the nature of artist obsession.
The truth is, having a great idea for a body of work just isn’t enough. The trick to making really good art is bonding truth with illusion so seamlessly that the viewer believes your image. If the seams show – if there are gaps – then the image isn’t going to be compelling to the viewer.
They might smile and whisper knowingly about your intent – but they’ll end up walking away.
Artists need to be able to solder together all the elements – if we can’t, we have to re-think, shift perspective, or take a different tack altogether.

The challenge is that each idea can have a thousand motivations - all equally valid – and each image can be derived from a thousand ideas. Which to choose? The artist must pick one, cling to it, sleep with it, interrogate it, and turn it over and over to discover all its dimensions. Then - when the idea, its motivation, and the image have all expanded to fill every crevice in mind full of possibilities – then the artist begins to draw.


Yet at any moment in time, the full multiplicity waits at your elbow – look away from your realized idea for a moment – get distracted by the shabby state of your finances, your child’s unemployment, or the demands of a lover, get distracted by any one of life’s minutia and your focus becomes diluted, porous, and riddled with whispering new possibilities. Picking up the threads of your carefully woven concept requires a commitment to obsession.

Each time I enter my studio I’m confronted by my inadequacies.