There’s a well known book, much favored in the art community, called “Art and Fear” by Bayles and Orland. I think they are fundamentally wrong, from the title onward, even though they do a nice job of describing art-making.
Firstly, “fear” is a purely negative word. Fear means “an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight)”; or in its milder form, “an anxious feeling”. [definitions taken from WordNet]. The authors mix together the feelings of the person in the process of making art with the artist’s fears about the reaction of others to that art:
“Fears about art-making fall into two families: fears about yourself, and fears about your reception by others.”
Lets start with a thought experiment. Suppose everybody had no inhibitions about making art. It just poured out of them as easily as breathing. Gorgeous pictures everywhere. What would happen? It wouldn’t be called art. It would be called a nuisance. And some few among them or us would start trying to go further. To make things not yet conceived of. That would be the new art. That is the new art. Art is about going beyond what we are already capable of. So by definition, it’s about being uncomfortable; about striving to see around corners. I won’t use the word ‘fear’ because that’s not right at all, even though struggling to make art is difficult and/or uncomfortable.
Art and this difficulty or discomfort are inextricably interwoven. If it’s not difficult and uncomfortable, then it’s not art. Art is pushing your brain to do things for which it has only the rudimentary, even accidental, capability. Doing things for which we are not yet evolved to do; it’s like trying to fly, or see in the dark, to read other people’s minds. We’re not made to do it, but, if we try very, very hard, we can do it … sometimes.
The difficulty (what Bayles and Orland call ‘fear’) in making art is exactly what makes it art. It’s why people want to see what you have done (or not); we all want to see around the corner, to know things that are (almost) beyond the natural abilities of our species, ourselves.
-Julie
