Interview with ELIZABETH McDONALD

Welcome back to the BLACK SHEEP PEN for our end of year edition. This month, Elizabeth McDonald, an artist from Newcastle, Australia, writes for the Pen. Newcastle seems to have an extremely lively and vibrant creative scene, and Elizabeth is in the middle of it. For the sake of transparency, I'm happy to admit I'm particularly proud to present this interview as Elizabeth and we used to live across the road from each other when we were 7 years old! If you'd like to make contact with Elizabeth, you can write to her at coastalfringe@gmail.com

Thanks Elizabeth, and happy holidays to all, however you may be celebrating, and sincere wishes for a joyful and creative 2012.

Elizabeth's Self-Portrait

What is the greatest reward you get from doing your work?

When I sit down to create a work it is the only time I can experience a sense of mindfulness. I find this incredibly rewarding as instead of being mentally elsewhere, I am able to switch off all the thoughts in my mind and enter a meditative state by being in the present moment. All that matters is the canvas in front of me and I am acutely aware of each mark I place on it.

I love the sense of achievement and purpose I have after the work is completed, and the energy received from people responding to it. I find people are becoming more conscious and appreciative of hand-made work as we become engulfed by mass produced objects.

In your opinion, what does it mean to be a successful artist?

Apart from commercial success― for all the boring reasons of needing money to keep producing any art―it has to be the ability to accept that to be successful you are going to need to be innovative, dedicated and great at juggling all the minutiae. Being an artist you need stints of unbroken time to create and in order to be productive you have to sacrifice some areas of your life. You can spend hours overwhelmed by what you can’t achieve. Patti Smith puts it so well, “… it all just seems endless. But you could sit all day paralysed by what you can’t do. We are all captains of our little boats and I don’t want to use the world’s problems as an excuse not to do my work.”

The idea that to be a successful artist you have to live some kind of tortured existence doesn’t sit well with me. It is fine to produce works that people will want to buy, and that are playful, as well as works that make them suffer. I think we have a capacity to use our creativity to improve the human condition and to bring joy to those seeing our artwork. I recently read Lucian Freud’s comment on Damien Hirst’s shark in formaldehyde, “It’s okay, it’s clever, but after you’ve seen it once, there’s not much to come back to.”

What experience, good or bad, has taught you the most as an artist?

I can clearly remember a sculpture class in my first year of Fine Arts at Uni. that changed my way of thinking forever. We were all sitting around putting together our “pieces”―which was the great thing about sculpture―anything could be a “piece” if you looked at it long enough. Behind us, a group of third years were dissecting a recent show:

“I cannot believe they took my piece out of the exhibition!” said the outraged student.

I know! I can’t believe they didn’t get the whole concept of rotting meat and the decay of our bodies as we consume it” said the equally outraged friend.

Apparently, he had enclosed a kilo of sausages in a perspex box for the end-of-year two week summer exhibition. Three days of forty degree heat and the artwork had to be removed because people had started to vomit on entry.

So I guess it made me think, don’t take it all too seriously. And also, if your work is making people throw up it may be worthwhile rethinking your medium.

"Lampyridae"

"Lampyridae"

"Lampyridae"

"In dreams I live"

"A certain slant of light"

"Summer's melting my mind"

© all words and images, Elizabeth McDonald, 2011.

Interview with DOUGLAS PEXA

Welcome back to a new and streamlined version of the Black Sheep Pen. Its been a year since the last contribution, but there is ink in the old pen yet. I'm really excited to relaunch this blog with a contribution from Douglas Pexa, an artist from the U.S.. Doug is a really proactive contributor to the artistic world, I met him via the Figure Drawing Factory, an online life drawing group, which he was instrumental in setting up. I've also been profoundly inspired by his photo record projects, especially the Photo a Day project which he has been doing for years and which I have emulated in several guises. Here are Doug's words and a small selection of his work. Make sure you check out his other work and projects at his homepage.

Thanks Doug!

Doug's Self Portrait

What is the greatest reward you get from doing your work?

Like most artists, the greatest reward/joy is doing the work. Creation is by far why I do the work, I really love working through the process of making art. It often leads me down unexpected avenues as it guides me almost as if we are having a dialogue, to where it wants to go. It can be frustrating and exhilarating as I try to force my preconceived notions on to it and it fights back.

The other joy for me is to get the work out into the world and see how people react to it. I am always amazed which works are liked by certain people, and I am usually wrong about who will like what! It also is a joy finding out what others feel a work says or means, the adage of a picture is worth a thousand words stands true. I feel that narrative is unique to everyone though…

In your opinion, what does it mean to be a successful artist?

In the business world being successful usually means you are on top of their game, making loads of cash and keeping up with the Jones. In art success can mean a lot of other stuff, hence the goals are different or more varied. Don’t get me wrong, artists need to make a living just like everyone else and yes making money is a qualifier of success but it is not the golden fleece as it is in other fields.

I think we need to look at the “job” of an artist to get a better picture. An artist is a creative, an independent business owner, and a manufacture but they are also teachers, and political/social commentators, as well as a philosopher.

This suggest to me that success comes from creating something that people can enjoy on more than one level if they so choose. Evoking emotion, curiosity and wonderment, to challenge ones sensibilities and ones notions about the world and even who they are and can be, is a component of success.

Ok, that is my lofty answer but I have a simple one too and as for myself, an artist is successful if he or she feels good about his or her own body of work. Willing to continue to put work out into the world from desire and need.

What experience, good or bad, has taught you the most as an artist?

I must say art school is a great way to learn your craft and vet your ideas. I think any serious artist should go through it or at least take some advanced art classes to really get the skills and knowledge that is important to artists. I am not saying you have to get a degree but at least some education is important but not the most important.

For me, getting out of your normal way of working has taught me the most. I am primarily a painter with a love of the figure. With that said, I also love to work in other media, even when I don’t know what I am doing! So my advice is if you are a painter try some photography, if you are a sculptor try some poetry, how about some print making, or gold leafing, or watercolor? If you paint big, make a tiny painting, if you are really structured in your process, splatter paint around! The moral of the story here is HAVE FUN AND DO NOT BE AFRAID TO FAIL! Failure is the biggest catalyst to learning and success.

"ICU Dad, 2."

"Light"

"Life and times of the Chairman"

"Girl on blue"

"573"

"006"

© Douglas Pexa - all words and images, 2011.

All rights reserved.

Hibernating sheep...

Hi, thanks for visiting the Black Sheep Pen. You might notice that its now been a year since I've posted any new interviews - sorry! I've approached so many people, the project should be full for years but alas even those who have been interested initially have not come through with any contributions. I still believe in the project and will continue trying to add to it as time and support allows, in the meantime thanks again to the generous and insightful contributors who you can read about here. Also, keep on eye on Michael Werner's TWO WAY LENS photography blog, its amazing, monthly reading. Photographers may take pictures worth 1000 words, but they also love to use actual words! Check it out, and hopefully see you here again soon!

Interview with JAMES FRIEDMAN

Welcome to the 1st anniversary edition of the Black Sheep Pen! May I take this opportunity to thank the amazing, creative individuals who have participated in the project thus far, thank you for your generosity in supporting a new, untested idea and for adding your wisdom and insights to this concept. Although the readership may be small, I am sure we are creating what will remain a valuable and inspirational resource for creative people.

This month, BSP interviews photographer James Friedman. I'm really excited about this interview, not only because of the charm and beauty of James' images but because of his experience and knowledge as a teacher and mentor of other photographers. Please enjoy James' photos and thoughts.

James' Self Portrait

© James Friedman, 2010

What inspires you in your creativity?

I began photographing as a five year old using a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera. As a child, when I looked through the camera’s viewfinder the frequent chaos in my life would evaporate and all would be right with the world; this experience while photographing continues to inspire me.

While much of my work is autobiographical, I am committed to creating a diverse, explorative archive of photography that evidences varied approaches to the medium. I am interested in sharing visually both my interior life as well as the world around me in photographing the landscape, doing street photography, portraiture and documentary projects.

Visual, emotional and metaphorical complexities inspire me.

Photography’s inherent relationship to memory and personal history inspires me.

Provocative, challenging and sometimes inscrutable art inspires me.

What is the process you apply to being creative in your field?

My creative process is to do as little thinking as possible while I am photographing. I work with a blank mind, try to react instinctively and intuitively to what I am picturing and have great fun. Making the process fun is essential because without it, the photographs usually lack soul. If I listen to the noise in my head while photographing, I tend to second-guess myself and the photographs typically fail to engage viewers. This strategy seems to work for me: photograph with a blank mind without judgment and evaluate the pictures later.

Where does the confidence or motivation come from to keep doing what you do?

The fact that I have been practicing photography for many years and understand how the world is transformed in photographs provides me with confidence. I am motivated by the need to see my ideas in photographs. While all is right with the world when I am photographing, it is the discovery of indelible pictures after the work is done that motivates me—these surprises keep me going.

I have enjoyed successes in terms of exhibitions, publications, and support for my work as well as establishing an audience that appreciates my photography. These factors have provided confidence.

How do you evaluate your success as a creative person?

I feel successful as an artist when I am in the midst of working on a project about which I am passionate; I consider success to have been accomplished when a project has been completed, it engages an audience and generates responses and feedback.

Where should people start, when they don't know where to start?

Diving in without much deliberation is key to getting started. For those who don’t know where to start, it may be useful to explore their chosen medium with a playful attitude, defiance and without judgment. Embrace mistakes and missteps and learn from them. Becoming an expert through study about their passionate interests is vital. Working with an experienced, knowledgeable, nurturing guide (who is willing to be direct with feedback) could be helpful for initiating and sustaining creative expression.

Self Portrait

from the series, "People and Other Creatures"

from the series, "Roaming"

from the series, "1,029,398 Cigarettes"

from the series, "Hippos and Me"

from the series, "Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing"

from the series, "Blinding White and Other Colors"

All Photographs © James Friedman 2010, All Rights Reserved

Thanks James, for these thoughtful and thought provoking answers. It makes me consider how much I still have to learn about the methods by which I express and explore my own creativity. Our creative challenge for the month then is to spend some time learning something new, or expanding existing knowledge, in some aspect of how we create. What comes directly to mind? What do you know you really need to know more about?

Interview with MARTIN AUSTWICK

Another exciting new installment today, an interview with Martin Austwick who is a scientist, podcaster as "Martin the Soundman" on Answer Me This, and also the musical entity know as THE SOUND OF THE LADIES. In this interview, Martin discusses how creativity is involved in all of these aspects of his life and work. Most exciting, today is the official launch of the latest album from THE SOUND OF THE LADIES, which is called We Went To The Bottom Of The Ocean. You can listen to the album as you read the interview by pressing the play at the bottom of this page, then go and buy it (with your cover art of choice) via THE SOUND OF THE LADIES homepage.

Martin's self portrait.

© Martin Austwick, 2010

So, I should probably begin by explaining a bit about who I am; by day, I'm a scientist (I did my undergrad and PhD in Physics, currently I work on mathematical models of social sciences problems) and by night a podcaster and songwriter. I engineer, write music for, and appear in Answer me This!, an interactive comedy podcast which won a Sony Radio Award this year, and write, perform and produce music as The Sound of The Ladies, having just released a new album ("We went to the bottom of the Ocean") under that banner.

This means that there are at least three answers to any of the questions, so bear with me!

What inspires you in your creativity?
In science, finding an interesting problem and an interesting way to solve it is what provides the creative drive. I'd like to say it's altruistic, but at the end of the day, intellectual stimulation is what it's all about. People assume that science isn't creative - I disagree: it is, but under a very tight set of constraints. I've always been a believer that total freedom is bad for creativity; for example, in my music, I've set myself constraints by not having a drum kit (I live in a flat!) and wanting to play all the parts myself. This forces me to adapt what I can do to the circumstances, rather than staring at a blank page with a swiss army knife and no ideas (if you can excuse the mixed metaphor).

Musically, I try to find things that I care about, things that interest me, things that surprise me, things that make me question my assumptions about the world. When I was writing the line "There's not a single competition not arbitrary or pointless" for "The '40s never died" on the new album, it made me think in the simplest terms - do I believe that? I'd tried to work out different ways to approach that subject, but at the end of the day, the direct route took me right into - am I saying competition is nothing but a construct?

In Answer Me This, I have free rein to say whatever I want with the knowledge that it'll be cut. It's fairly conversational, so I can say pretty much what I think. Or at least what "Martin the Sound Man" thinks ;)

What is the process you apply to being creative in your field?

Well, in science, you just do the work. If you're being imaginative it'll come out by the approaches you try to use - these things usually suggest themselves.

In music, I think time is a real factor. I used to write when the muse came to me, but it meant I wrote about one song a year. Now I force myself to sit down and spend time writing. It can be a real wrench - the fact that creativity is so inefficient (at least for me). So I'll write a bunch of riffs or chord progressions, most of which get binned or forgotten, then some of those will become songs (which takes ages), 2/3 of which will be rubbish. It means I spend about 90% of my time working on music I think is shit! And then you have record the fuckers. And record and promote and gig them!

Music for Answer me This, and some of the Songs about Science music I've done in the past, is a bit different - I don't feel as if they have to be especially heartfelt or original, as long as they're fit for purpose. Likewise, I did an album of very short instrumentals (30s-2minutes) as lullabies for my new nieces - there the constraints are different again. This takes the pressure off and means I can play around a bit more.

Where does the confidence or motivation come from to keep doing what you do?

Um... good question. In science, I get paid to do it. So that works pretty well as motivation. And it beats working in a quiche factory. I have been doing science for long enough now and have enough bits of paper that even I can be reasonably confident in my abilities.

Music-wise - sometimes I'm not sure. There have been points over the last few years where I've really questioned why I'm making music. I think it comes down something Nick from The Monroe Transfer said when I talked to him about it - "What are you going to do, stop making music?". Realistically, that's not an option for me at the moment. I'd be like Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt. People emailing me and saying they connected with what I do, that they love the music - that really helps to motivate me and convince me that there are people out there who get something out of what I do (people other than me, I mean!).

Answer Me This is easy for me really - I don't put nearly as much work into it as the hosts Helen and Olly, and I get nice letters from listeners for my trouble! It's the best work/reward ratio of anything I do...

How do you evaluate your success as a creative person?

In science, your work stands and falls on how accurate it is - it can be as elegant as you like, but how much it looks like the real world is the litmus test. And then, I suppose, the citations of your peers - but I don't worry about that because I'm not an influential scientist, at least not yet.

Artistically, if I like something, if I'm proud of it - you know, is it as good as Tom Waits? Well, no. Is it as good as something Joanna Newsom would write on an off day? Sure, maybe... Is it true? Is it interesting? Do I enjoy listening to it?

I don't really believe in many metrics for artistic success other than, do you like it? And then maybe, has it been done before (it's always been done before)? Have *I* done it before? Is it overly sentimental? If it is, is that the point? Would it gut the emotion if I did it any other way? These sorts of things.

Where should people start, when they don't know where to start?

I honestly don't know. Learning through play is something I would always advocate. And setting yourself a goal where the consequences of failure don't bother you - then you won't be afraid to fail, and you'll actually take some risks. But taking some risks is probably going to have to happen at some point - even if it's just showing someone else something you've created. For many people, I think that's the biggest risk.

© all words and image, Martin Austwick, 2010

Thanks for these very interesting insights Martin. The creativity challenge for this month is to take any idea you have and to try and produce it in 3 different ways or using 3 different forms or methods. Ideally, then be brave enough to show the 3 outcomes to someone else and have a conversation about how it felt to produce your ideas in each format, how enjoyable it was and how well you've been able to express what you hoped to express.

Interview with ANDREW COLLINS

This month I'm very excited to share this interview with Andrew Collins. Andrew is an author, journalist, scriptwriter and broadcaster from the UK and he is just about to perform his solo comedy show, Secret Dancing, at the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. His podcasts are an essential part of my week so check them out but for now, please enjoy Andrew's contribution to the Black Sheep Pen .

Andrew's self-portrait (for a Christmas card, 1984!)

© Andrew Collins, 2010

What inspires you in your creativity?

A deadline. This may sound a bit brutal, but if I have to deliver something or prepare something for a certain date, I will do so. This is not to say that I don't wake up in the morning with a creative thought - I often do - but I can't control that. I may be inspired by a seeing comedian to write a joke, or by a piece of journalism to write something, or by a TV show to come up with a new idea for a TV show, but nothing beats being commissioned to do one of those things, and having a deadline to meet.

What is the process you apply to being creative in your field?

There is no process. Just sit down, open the laptop and create a new, blank document. If I have a secret, it's to sometimes open a document that contains something I have recently written which I am proud of. I "save as", insert the new title, and then delete what's there in order to start again. This is pointless, but it helps to translate the vibe of what I've previously written into my fingers and my brain. If you write for a living, you are merely reorganizing existing sentences into a new order. That's all you can hope to do: arrange the English language into a new shape that pleases you and hopefully pleases others. Or at least explains something clearly.

Where does the confidence or motivation come from to keep doing what you do?

I actually don't know. My line of work - especially writing for television - is spelled out in rejection. For every sitcom I actually get into development, or to pilot stage, or to commission stage (the holy grail), there will be at least ten, if not more, that I also pitched and had rejected. I had a sitcom put into development by BBC Comedy at the beginning of 2009. I ended up writing six drafts of the pilot script, and it was then rejected. This was hard. But instead of killing myself, or getting a proper job, I came up with another three pitches, and one of those was later put into development with an independent production company, and I have a meeting with the BBC about that, literally, in two days' time. Who knows? That will probably be rejected too. But if you give up, you can guarantee you won't get a sitcom commissioned. I must have hope in my soul somewhere. I do think of myself as an optimist, but I am not a blind optimist. I am a realistic optimist. I always say, I may not be talented, but I am punctual. You'd be amazed by how far you can get by being on time, and writing to length and to deadline, and being polite and nice. I have confidence that I can do all of that, and hope that luck gets me the rest of the way.

How do you evaluate your success as a creative person?

If I am happy. I was happy with the script that the BBC rejected. I was happy with the script that Channel 4 rejected two years before. I worked as a professional illustrator for a year after leaving college. Pretty much everything I drew was soulless and functional. I was rarely proud of the work, only proud of the fact that I had some work. I gave it up.

Where should people start, when they don't know where to start?

In front of a blank sheet of paper, or a blank screen. There is no other place to start. Your job is the take away the white space. That's it.

© all images and text Andrew Collins, 2010.

Thanks for these insights Andrew, and good luck in Edinburgh! I am really drawn to the idea of a sense of happiness being the prime benchmark for evaluating our creative success. This month, the creativity challenge is quite simple. Attempt three different creative tasks and evaluate how happy you feel while doing them (not how happy you are with the output) and try to define what it is about the activity that's making you happy.... then do more of that - find new ways to include these elements into other tasks and other contexts.

Interview with NICK EARLS

Welcome back to the Black Sheep Pen. This month I'm very excited that Nick Earls has agreed to be interviews for the project. Nick is an award winning author from Australia, writing novels, short stories and recently, plays. For a full list of his works, please check out his homepage and of course, take advantage of the wonders of the WWW to buy some of his books if you haven't read them already! I've usually been, if not the same age, certainly in the same generation as most of Nick's protagonists, and I think this has allowed for enormous resonance with (and reassurance from!) their stories of dealing with life and its changes as a young man in Australian society. Please enjoy Nick's contribution.

Nick's self portrait

© Nick Earls, 2010

What inspires you in your creativity?

I’m intrigued by the workings of people – what they think, why they think it, why they do what they do. Writing fiction is a great way of exploring that. I’m also driven by the challenge that it is, every time. Every story starts out feeling like a puzzle I don’t quite know how to solve yet.

What is the process you apply to being creative in your field?

I’ve realised that some of the best idea start out small, and don’t look like much at all. I’ve become better at recognising them, and not losing them. I make notes and I file them away. Eventually a couple, or a few, start to to look as though they might fit together in an interesting way. Then I give them a push and see where they go. I start asking who they might be about, and more possibilities come along. Once a cluster of ideas gets some momentum, it gets its own folder. Over a year or more, ideas that might fit get thrown in. Some of them come along by chance, others by putting some deliberate thought in. I’m thinking divergently then, and throwing nothing out. Then, when the folder is fat enough, I have to think convergently. I look at all I’ve got and try to get a sense of what my main story and other storylines will be. Then I move the elements around – literally, on the floor – until I think I’ve got the shape of it. Then I sit at the keyboard and turn it into an outline. For a novel that might be 20,000 words. By then I have not only a lot of story details worked out, I also know my characters pretty well and I’ve found the voice of my story and my narrator. Then I write the first draft. Some people prefer to write that draft with far less planning than I go through, but their first drafts are likely to be far, well, draftier. They learn a lot from draft one, and their draft two might be more like my first draft. But we each make our own choices about how we work.

Where does the confidence or motivation come from to keep doing what you do?

Confidence has never been a big feature. Early on it was more about resilience, and about being unable to resist the nagging urge to write the next story. It’s still that urge – the need to solve the new unsolved, unmade puzzle – that keeps me writing. It’s a good reason to write, I think. Of course, it’s also my job now, so it’s handy to write a novel occasionally. But that would never really work for me as a motivation. For me, it’s too much of a pain in the arse to write a novel to do it for any reason other than compulsion.

How do you evaluate your success as a creative person?

I try to talk myself out of evaluating it in terms of numbers. It’s easy to do that, but almost nobody wins. Dan Brown wins. The Da Vinci Code’s sold 80,000,000 copies and it turns out my novels haven’t. But no one actually needs to sell 80,000,000. I guess better benchmarks are things like:

• did I do justice to the ideas I started out with?
• did the end result mean something to someone?
• did I learn something that might be useful next time?
• do I still want to do this job?
• is the marketplace going to let me keep doing this job?
  

So, it’s not until right at the end that filthy commerce kicks in, and it only kicks in because I need groceries.

Where should people start, when they don't know where to start?

They should look and listen, and read and think, and play with ideas, and not be in any kind of hurry. Starting is not staring at the blinking cursor on the blank screen, or at a blank canvas, since I don’t think those are the first steps. We’ve all started already. We just haven’t all worked that out yet.

© all images and text Nick Earls, 2010.

Thanks to Nick for this very thoughtful contribution to the project, and the generosity and thoughtfulness in the ideas. I am particularly and immediately struck by one of Nick's benchmarks for success - did the end result mean something to someone? I suspect this is a big issue for many creative people, the question of who are you producing your creativity for. Personally I know that while there is an ongoing compulsion to express myself, the meaning in that comes primarily from that expression initiating some kind of connection or interaction with other people.

So, the Creativity Challenge for this month is 'simply' to consider who you would like your work to be meaningful to, and in turn what that then means to you.