How’s the Art Theft project going?

I think that revealing you ideas can be a scary place - allowing others to see your concept before you’ve arrived at the final destination. Then again, don’t we “check-out” or “test-drive” our ideas with friends in other aspects of life? Is it different with art? And if so, why should it be?

Come to think of it, I don’t tend to talk about my ideas. Instead I tend to emerge at the end of the process, a bit like from a meditation.

You did say, steal these visions, didn’t you? Maybe I’ll have to come out from under the bed to use them. Oh, right, it was “Steal this Idea,” and, as we know, ideas aren’t copyrightable (I think).Nor nearly as fascinating as the images themselves.

Actually, I don’t think your photos would be reproducible in textiles, although like Lesley, it’s fun to think of them in silk. There’s an intimacy of detail that photos can capture that neither paint nor dye nor even photos-on-silk can emulate with any success. Sui generis. Nice stuff.

I also think that the process of making art is a bit like running randomly, circling something that you can’t even define. First a nibble of an idea, then an image, then a bigger nibble, then a slightly altered direction and another image then a reversal and a swerving back and yet another image (some of these images are real; others just imagined). For me, it’s as if I can’t do it all at once. The circling and doing and redoing and thinking and dreaming and doing again all seem to be random when I’m doing it, but in the end, I find myself (sometimes, anyway) knowing what it is that I’ve been doing all along. And at that point, I can sharpen all my tools and get that final edge. When I don’t come to the point of a “more or less defined idea,” then I generally throw whatever I’ve done into a basket where it remains until I throw it into the trash.

And I agree that a number of these are quite reminiscent of June’s fabulous fabric designs.

I can’t wait for June’s version of these images in textiles :)

They are really gorgeous and I appreciate your willingness to share your ideas as I was feeling a bit stuck :)

No, really, sharing gestating ideas is scary for me too. Not for fear of them being stolen but for fear that soemone will tell me they are dumb, hackneyed, cliche, idiotic, or worst of all, boring. When I am playing with baby ideas I often do not want any feedback because they are so, well, babyish. the more obvious ones come out first and they are often cliche or simplistic. Before I get feedback I want to develop them more. I even have to quiet my own inner critic before she decides to stamp out my ideas before I get to try them out! I am all about mass production and then editing out. It seems like photography could really lend itself to that kind of creative process, but some people can’t stand not knowing ahead of time exactly what will come out and its purpose, etc.

Your ideas are not simplistic. they are the beginings and you don’t know where they will take you. And that is exciting to witness.

Doesn’t bother me a bit.