Auntie Dynamite

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April 29, 2005

Volume 40: People Often Ask Me if I Have Any Words of Advice for Young People

J-,

I'll answer yours if you answer mine - but me first:

1. What artist(s) has helped inspire you in your career?

I was in a class with British Columbia artist Gordon Smith, when I was, hrm, probably still pre-kindergarten age, and he was extremely encouraging. I also summered repeatedly at the Island Mountain School of Arts in Wells, BC. Then when I was twelve, I received some casual but invaluable instruction in photography from the head of the Fine Arts department at Mount Allison, Thaddeus Holownia, and from Liam Allen, Michael Copp, Chris Paul, and Jonathan Harpur (who called themselves 'the Photographic Fellows'). Finally, for two years I lived with Ottawa writer/artist Nik Maack and we both studied creative writing with Tom Henighan. Not all of these influences have been good, but they were definitely formative.

Professionally, while I consider Emily Carr's works overrated, I find her determination inspiring. She was broke and directionless, and still forced herself to keep looking for the best way to express herself, and when she found it, she didn't let anything stop her. I have often used her example to steady me when I've felt that I would never figure out the best way to demonstrate my talent. I am also inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Burtynsky, Raymond Chandler, Alfred Bester, Martin Amis, Nick Bantock, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hunter S. Thompson, Vicente Aleixandre, David Hockney, and a range of modern cultural icons from Jeff Bridges to Deltron 3030. And Donald Rumsfeld, of course. He's adorable.

2. How do you work with difficult people and not get frustrated?

Find what each person is best at doing, tell them the results you require, and so long as the results are good, DON'T TELL THEM HOW TO DO IT. Remember who the expert is - PROBABLY NOT YOU.

Always budget a little extra and discuss individually what small but essential new contribution each person can make to the project. Let them decide what it will be. Don't worry if what they want to do sounds dumb. You will often be wrong. It will often be brilliant because in some ways, everybody in the entire world is smarter than you. Even if it does turn out dumb, it makes the person happy, and they'll work harder on the parts of the project that you care about. If you don't let each person have absolute control over a little bit of the project, they will want absolute control over all of the project. You have to give everybody a vent.

If you find a person that insists on making trouble, and it is at all possible to fire them, FIRE THEM and feel no regret. Even though they may bring a required skill or cachet or financial backing to the project, be aware that they are subtracting as well as adding - and may be a net negative. If they are just there because they're your friend, learn to be professional and to not work with people just because they're your friends. Fire your friend.

3. What pointers could you give to an aspiring artist?

You need to live indoors. Find what you can make money doing, and learn to like doing it, because it gives you the freedom to do what you like doing that doesn't make money. Just like actors. Don't care if people call you a sell out. If you were selling PVC piping and you got a big contract, nobody would call you a sell out. Art is a business. Be professional. Find out what you can stand to compromise on and be willing to do so; find good reasons to argue in favour of what you can't compromise on. Pick up the shooting diary for Steven Soderbergh's 'sex lies and videotape' and you'll see he made all kinds of compromises - but still won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, with it being his first movie. The compromises he made, which enabled the picture to be produced, did not damage it - and in some cases, very obviously improved it.

"Do what you love and the money will follow" is, "like all good lies, half-true". If you build a better mousetrap, you still have to market it. Develop professional skills: proper dress, haircuts, nail-trimmings, good shoes. If you don't make money as an artist, you're not a professional artist. You may not care about being a professional artist, but if you do, be professional. Once money becomes involved, you have have a relationship with money, so figure out what your boundaries are, just as you would in any relationship. If you can't do that, then learn to live a long and difficult life of money celibacy. Shakespeare worked for money. Hemingway worked for money. Hockney works for money. Art schools too often teach students to act like they're above all that - but if it was good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for you. If you don't develop yourself professionally as an artist you'll probably end up being something else.

Experiment constantly, and develop a routine to make sure that you don't get stuck on one particular problem. I find it useful to have a lot of very different projects going on so that if I get bored with one thing, I can switch over, and get the guilty thrill of procrastination while still accomplishing something useful. Then I come back to the first thing refreshed.

Last, and most important, heed the cautionary tale of Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle hated Sherlock Holmes, and did it only to make money to fund his pet project, the White Company. It turns out that the White Company was terrible and Sherlock Holmes immortal. That you love doing something doesn't make it good. We've all loved people that were no good - projects are no different. Love is not reason. Teach yourself to recognize when you are wasting your time and when something is hard but still worthwhile, and teach yourself to cut your losses without feeling guilty.

Regards, AD

Posted by gtaylor at April 29, 2005 04:30 PM

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