Everything you write here resonates with me. I am evolving. My first two books were gardening and horticulture guides. My third book, nonfiction, dealt with parenting children with serious illness. My fourth was a book of poetry and my fifth was to have been a herb gardening book with my own illustrations. I kept painting and never wrote that book. Now I want to combine poetry and visual art and have spent a lot of time on the concept rather than the actual work. Your newsletter is the kick in the butt I needed to JUST DO THE WORK!!! So I thank you.
“Is this my own art?” is such a great guiding question for the inner critic! I find that I veer away from the importance of this question if I’m too caught up in the marketplace and looking at other people’s work. Yet when I’m actually making my own work this is the question that matters the most.
It takes lots of time, creation, and solitude to hone in on our answer (the pilgrimage, as Ben Shahn puts it).
This is fantastic, and I don't even know where to start. Yes, I do believe the inner critic can spur us on to better work. But the problem for many, I believe, is that the inner critic is indiscriminate and also criticizes work that won't sell, or isn't what people would expect, or isn't what your Grade 10 art teacher would have approved of. Many people can't do a damn thing without the inner critic barking at them.
For me, the silencing of the inner critic came when I started using visual storytelling/graphic memoir to tell the story of my mother's Lewy Body dementia and my troubled relationship with her. At the start of the two years I worked on the project, I was still trying to make the artwork "perfect" (whatever that is), but at a certain point I let go and allowed the artwork be whatever it wanted to be. It was incredibly liberating, and took the work to a whole new level. Now I'm the middle of revamping my newsletter, and am hoping to be able to achieve this same "letting go" with the way I approach my posts. The way you approach your posts has been an inspiration---I think I mentioned this? I very much love the way they look, and feel.
on the subject of having found your voice (i appreciate your saying that you "mostly" agree that you have done so), it seems to me that over the course of a lifetime, over the course of a career, one's voice may be constantly shifting, so that the the idea that it can be FOUND in a permanent way is (to my mind) a misperception, that there is ALWAYS a continual process of finding. like, "there it is. ah, there it is again. where did it go? ah yes, there."
it seems to me that the process of finding one's voice is a spectrum of a kind, starting from a place where we may not have any idea what it is at all, even as we use it to speak (or "speak"), ending up (or NOT "ending") at a place where there is a smaller range of how our voice might manifest, a smaller yet ever-present pendulum swinging, if that makes sense.
like the sculptor who is asked how they sculpted an elephant and who says "i just started with a cube of marble and then chipped away everything that didn't look like an elephant," but where the elephant is our voice, initially encased in the cube, eventually making itself known to us, except unlike the sculpture (or perhaps JUST like the sculpture on a long enough timeline where entropy and erosion gets involved), the thing that is known as our elephant voice is continually evolving, a fun game of hide and seek that we get to play in order to find its newest incarnation in every moment.
Such an interesting angle on the inner critic. I’ve recently found my get unexpectedly quiet when j tried a more comic-like illustration instead of mg usual visual art. Perhaps my critic was leading me somewhere instead of simply being mean.
This is so inspiring and makes me think about my own work. For me personally, also again a warning to stay away from too much social media to give my own voice a bit of room to come out more.
Now I really have to read Ben Shahn's book! I think we have not only overstepped in our locking up of the inner critic, but we have gone too far in our efforts to eliminate criticism as a discipline. Critics, as opposed to hecklers, can serve a wonderful function of filtering for an overwhelmed audience, giving artists something to think about and push against, and hold a mirror up to our culture.
I’m having so much fun since following your Substack a few weeks ago! Love your style!!! Let’s talk art over a drink sometime. Also, I have to know…did you decide to do a 100 days project? :)
Everything you write here resonates with me. I am evolving. My first two books were gardening and horticulture guides. My third book, nonfiction, dealt with parenting children with serious illness. My fourth was a book of poetry and my fifth was to have been a herb gardening book with my own illustrations. I kept painting and never wrote that book. Now I want to combine poetry and visual art and have spent a lot of time on the concept rather than the actual work. Your newsletter is the kick in the butt I needed to JUST DO THE WORK!!! So I thank you.
“Is this my own art?” is such a great guiding question for the inner critic! I find that I veer away from the importance of this question if I’m too caught up in the marketplace and looking at other people’s work. Yet when I’m actually making my own work this is the question that matters the most.
It takes lots of time, creation, and solitude to hone in on our answer (the pilgrimage, as Ben Shahn puts it).
This is fantastic, and I don't even know where to start. Yes, I do believe the inner critic can spur us on to better work. But the problem for many, I believe, is that the inner critic is indiscriminate and also criticizes work that won't sell, or isn't what people would expect, or isn't what your Grade 10 art teacher would have approved of. Many people can't do a damn thing without the inner critic barking at them.
For me, the silencing of the inner critic came when I started using visual storytelling/graphic memoir to tell the story of my mother's Lewy Body dementia and my troubled relationship with her. At the start of the two years I worked on the project, I was still trying to make the artwork "perfect" (whatever that is), but at a certain point I let go and allowed the artwork be whatever it wanted to be. It was incredibly liberating, and took the work to a whole new level. Now I'm the middle of revamping my newsletter, and am hoping to be able to achieve this same "letting go" with the way I approach my posts. The way you approach your posts has been an inspiration---I think I mentioned this? I very much love the way they look, and feel.
dear kelcey,
this is beautiful, as always.
on the subject of having found your voice (i appreciate your saying that you "mostly" agree that you have done so), it seems to me that over the course of a lifetime, over the course of a career, one's voice may be constantly shifting, so that the the idea that it can be FOUND in a permanent way is (to my mind) a misperception, that there is ALWAYS a continual process of finding. like, "there it is. ah, there it is again. where did it go? ah yes, there."
it seems to me that the process of finding one's voice is a spectrum of a kind, starting from a place where we may not have any idea what it is at all, even as we use it to speak (or "speak"), ending up (or NOT "ending") at a place where there is a smaller range of how our voice might manifest, a smaller yet ever-present pendulum swinging, if that makes sense.
like the sculptor who is asked how they sculpted an elephant and who says "i just started with a cube of marble and then chipped away everything that didn't look like an elephant," but where the elephant is our voice, initially encased in the cube, eventually making itself known to us, except unlike the sculpture (or perhaps JUST like the sculpture on a long enough timeline where entropy and erosion gets involved), the thing that is known as our elephant voice is continually evolving, a fun game of hide and seek that we get to play in order to find its newest incarnation in every moment.
i mean, maybe! <-- my inner critic
thanks for sharing as always!
love
myq
Such an interesting angle on the inner critic. I’ve recently found my get unexpectedly quiet when j tried a more comic-like illustration instead of mg usual visual art. Perhaps my critic was leading me somewhere instead of simply being mean.
Thank you, Kelcey. Shahn's writings in The Shape of Content have been a guiding light for me in my art career.
This is so inspiring and makes me think about my own work. For me personally, also again a warning to stay away from too much social media to give my own voice a bit of room to come out more.
Now I really have to read Ben Shahn's book! I think we have not only overstepped in our locking up of the inner critic, but we have gone too far in our efforts to eliminate criticism as a discipline. Critics, as opposed to hecklers, can serve a wonderful function of filtering for an overwhelmed audience, giving artists something to think about and push against, and hold a mirror up to our culture.
This is wonderful and inspiring and just what I need at the moment. Thank you ❤️
Ahhhhh I love this Kelcey!
Great visuals, as always. I haven’t read this book, but this series of portraits you did (and the gritty lettering), is fantastic!
Thank you for this! I love Ben Shahn and I love how you have reproduced his style!
I’m having so much fun since following your Substack a few weeks ago! Love your style!!! Let’s talk art over a drink sometime. Also, I have to know…did you decide to do a 100 days project? :)
Thanks. I'm in between things and needed this.
This is marvelous!
What a great discussion thread from everyone. I feel inspired!