All original images and text are copyright 2008-2021 Liz Sweibel


Tuesday, April 6, 2021

I drafted the paragraphs below weeks ago, and found I only had to make minor adjustments.

I thought I had something new to say, but rereading the last two posts I see I already said most of it.  If anything has changed, it's my growing detachment from art in a gallery space.  Or maybe art in any location that highlights the gulf between those who participate and those who don't.

My teaching feels more pressing, more gratifying, more of a contribution.  Visibility is a (and maybe the) key word here, and links the teaching I'm drawn to with the art I (might) make (and where it might go or what it might do and for whom).  Impact.

It is also about students' visibility in a brutally tough time. The compassion I can show those who are suffering is keeping me connected to the world.

The external world and the internal me have become cross-currents, each directing me toward a certain kind of work.  It's a shift from the private toward the public.  It's my lesser interest in studio work (that I'm not compelled to make and no one may ever see) and my greater interest in taking photos.  The immediacy of that is gratifying, both in making each picture and in sending it into the world.

I see people crumbling, even as we now have reason to be hopeful.  Exhaustion seems embedded in me.

Follow-up July 28:  Same

No comments:

Post a Comment