Artistic Specialization
Articles of Interest: Help! I Have Too Many Ideas!
This is a companion article to the one listed above Help! I Have Too Many Ideas! In that article I talked about learning the virtue of patience, cataloguing your over-abundance of ideas for future reference and giving yourself permission to move on from and come back to unfinished works.
I’d like to talk about a problem that can arise from having too many ideas, too many avenues for artistic expression and giving yourself latitude to follow them all. While having an abundance of ideas isn’t necessarily a bad thing it can be detrimental to your practice in the long run if you’re not focused on one medium. Have you ever heard the saying “Jack of all trades, Master of none”? This can be especially true for the artistically gifted if a specific discipline is not picked for their individual practices.
True, many artists throughout history have engaged in more than one medium or more than one subject and been quite successful at all of them. Dali was one. I’ve been to the Salvador Dali museum in Florida that housed only paintings by Dali. There is a lifetime of his painted works available for viewing there. I’ve also seen a show in London that was full of his printmaking attempts, his furniture and even a movie or two that he made. Everything he touched has turned to gold.
Dali and the few who are like him are special cases.
Most artists are known for being good at one specific medium in one specific style and one specific subject. That is their raison d’etre, their ‘reason to be’. This is what they’re known for and they’re damn good at it too. They specialized in painting, drawing, sculpting, etc. and so should you.
One thing we fail to take into account when looking back through history at artists who were able to cross disciplines so easily was the social climate at the time. People always go on about the career of Leonardo Da Vinci. He was into science, anatomy, invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, etc. Sure, he was naturally brilliant but the social climate of his time allowed him to fully develop all avenues of his artistic expression. He didn’t work a day job. I’m not sure if he was ever married or had any children either. He was apprenticed to a Master Artist as a child and did nothing but Art day in and day out. He surpassed his teacher at 14. You’d be a brilliant artist too if all you did was Art all day long. But can you? How much time do you realistically have in a day to do Art?
Chances are, you, like most people, have a life outside of Art. You may have a home with a mortgage, kids, a family pet. How’s your day job going? Had to work overtime this week, huh? And you had to run Timmy to soccer practice and Tina to ballet lessons? And what about Scruffs? He has a vet visit scheduled for this weekend as well. Then Mindy wants to meet up for coffee afterwards. And then there’s that damn book club meeting. All this flurry of activity in your life may not leave you a lot of time to create Art.
If you’ve already got limitations on your time, engaging Art on one front may be difficult enough. Engaging it on multiple fronts will be nigh on impossible. If this is your situation, then it’s time to think about specialization.
In my last article I talked about cataloguing your ideas so that you don’t lose anything to the ravages of time. I also suggested you give yourself permission to abandon and revisit artworks should the inclination strike you. This is all fine and well, but if you find yourself trying to do this across multiple disciplines chances are, by splitting your focus, you’ll never become competent at any of them and nothing you produce will be mature or professional.
I have many ideas that range across many disciplines. I’m a fairly accomplished draughtsman. I really like bronze casting and working in stainless steel. I’d also like to get into intaglio printmaking someday. For now, the discipline of painting is getting all of my attention.
There are certain things that I want to accomplish when it comes to presenting my ideas to the world. Painting gives me that outlet and only by specializing in it and practicing it over and over again can I acheive the goals I’ve set for myself. If I was to try a little bit of drawing, a little bit of sculpting and a little bit of printmaking alongside my painting practice I’d never get good at the one that matters the most.
The reason I’m enjoying a certain amount of success as an artist is because of my specialization in painting. My concepts require a level of illusionary realism to be fully formed. Doing that takes time. A specific look in their composition and physical planning is also necessary. Doing that takes time. If I was to split my focus between artistic disciplines I’d never acheive those artistic goals and I’d be left to ruminate in artistic obscurity.
Specialization doesn’t have to be a dirty word. It also doesn’t mean that you have to give up on your goals of creating Art in more than one discipline. Catalogue those ideas for a later day. When there are limits on your time, specialization is a concept you’ll have to broach if you wish to be competent at any one discipline. Practice makes perfect so perfect one discipline at a time. Spreading yourself over several mediums and several subjects will leave your physical skills as an artist and your concepts under-developed and lacking in professionalism.
Until you have all the free time in the world pick a discipline and stick with it. Even when you find yourself with an adundance of free time you may find the demands of your artistic practice still confine you to one discipline. This is okay. At least you’ll be a Master!
For now, that is all. Goodnight.
