An Artist’s Inner Dialogues

Thoughts by Dustan Knight

Being an artist is a wonderful way to live one’s life. To be successful a painter’s creativity and business acumen must meet.  There are lots of good things about being an artist, like being self-employed and slightly outside the mainstream of conventions. Also, there are more difficult aspects like being a maker, marketer, and package handler. One of the best things about this creative lifestyle is valuing my self-awareness. That means I am aware of a constant inner conversation. 

There is an ever running, inner dialogue going on, and this internal conversation can be both negative and positive. As an artist I try to be aware of this. I like to step outside myself, listen to the conversation and try to make sense of why I might follow up on a particular project and why I feel more comfortable approaching it in a certain way. It’s sort of an ‘efficiency’  evaluation. I try to squelch the negative comments and encourage curiosity.  Understanding myself in this way makes me less fearful of failure.

There is also an artistic dialogue that helps me make choices in what I am creating.  Usually, for me, the artistic dialogue revolves around an idea - which becomes a ‘body of work’ - or a series of similar artworks that explore a particular theme. For example - painting flowers using watercolor paint on paper.  I have been thinking about flower painting for forty years.  It continues to fascinate me. Each time I approach the subject I try to remember what I discovered in earlier pieces that I want to try to understand better.
These are all on-going conversations in my head.  They sound like this. “What am I trying to express in this piece… energy, rhythm, quietness?  What do the earlier pieces feel like, are they quiet or angry, etc.  What parts of the earlier pieces do I really find interesting that I would like to explore further in this next painting. What aspects (maybe scale or energy or presence) do I want to try again, and which do I now find redundant and boring. How did I do that and how can I develop these ideas further.”  Perhaps it is the idea of the transparent fragility of a poppy’s petal in the light. I stumble upon a really good example in a painting and want to try to get it again in the next painting, only with different colors. This creative conversation, and being aware of it as I am having it, is critical for a serious artist.

The inner creative dialogue of a working painter may not be immediately apparent to their audience. If the audience wants to really understand an artist and appreciate their artwork - they should look at the long-term production of a particular artist. By keeping in step with them over many years, the audience can ‘listen in’ on the inner dialogue and appreciate the artist’s creative journey over time.