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January 20, 2007
The Fuck It Point
The evolution of a piece of work – art, for want of a better word – is a complex business, whereby time and emotion act on the creative process. If I plot the progress of a painting or drawing, mathematically, with all that x axis and y axis stuff, where x = time and y = the quality of work, we get:
where this is a small drawing I did on the corner of a drawing being undertaken by a student studying the Dark Art of Drawing.
The work begins and there is an immediate, if imperceptible, improvement on the blank paper due to the fact that there are now marks upon it. But as time progresses, as only time can, the marks get more and more complex [and there will no doubt be mathematical equations to illustrate this, I shall let you know when I have discovered them]. This complication can lead to despair as the artist loses sight of the process, begins to worry too much about the product and the quality starts to go down hill.
This is inevitable, and as an artist you have to be prepared for it. But sadly sometimes, because you are an artist, you are not prepared for it – being an artist and doing art can often be mutually exclusive, such is the creative life.
Anyway, if you can steel yourself for this sharp down-turn in events at about x + 30 [maths again you see] then you can turn this to your advantage. Rather like Dante entering the Gates of Hell, you must needs abandon all hope at this point. For this is the Fuck It Point. The point after which nothing is ever the same again. The point after which nothing really matters. The point after which things really begin to take shape, because you've let go the left brain and given free rein to the right side.
But beware, if you hit the Fuck It Point at around x + 90 there is a chance that you have got so much down and become so close to the work that rage and fury take over, things get out of hand and mugs start flying.
Posted by john at January 20, 2007 09:54 AM