This question has changed the world, for whenever someone asks "why?" about a tradition taken for granted, a whole system of values brought to awareness for debate.
Asking "why?" can strengthen you because you examine what you believe and can defend it. But there is another side to the question "why?" that can get you stuck.
I like to think of the question "why?" like glue. It can hold you together or get you stuck.
When you have a tendency towards depression or are otherwise discouraged in your art, asking "why?" might get you stuck.
You may find it brings out purposelessness and pointlessness to your pieces. Don't ask why someone needs X. Not yet. Don't ask why we place colored mud on walls and make a living from it.
One of the reasons for this could be because you are judging your art for the market that exists now, not for the people who actually need it. No one needs an invention until after it had been invented, and then they realized how much we needed it all along. So it is with art, and marketing to the future buyers and purposes that don't seem to exist at this very moment. But art has other purposes too.
Sometimes when I ask "why" I get very discouraged because I want to help the poor, feed the hungry, or cure cancer and here I've been pushing colored mud around on a canvas. "When I could be doing something constructive." How do you deal with that?
Here are some ideas on asking "why?" in ways that will help make your art stronger and not get you stuck.
- Ask "why?" about the process, not about the product.
- People buy art for all sorts of reasons, and the story behind it is one of them.
- You are the one spending your life's time making art, have a purpose to your life!
- Have reasons for the processes and techniques you use and your art will be much stronger.
- Figure out why first before you decide on the how or the what.
- The rest falls into place, and all your work is aimed towards the purpose and message you want to create with your art.
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