The following is an excerpt of a lecture given to Ohio Northern University students at the start of my laminated wood and carving course. It offers insight has to how I think and work.
Developing an Idea for Sculpture (by James Mellick)
Ideas That Move Me
I am often ask where I get my ideas. Sometimes the ideas move me but more often I have to move the idea. When ideas move me it is usually an emotional response to an event or long-term observed human behavior. An artist spends a life-time allowing themselves to tap into the deepest recesses of sensitivity. This sensitization and development of hyper awareness becomes almost a sixth sense also known as "insight". It is both a blessing and a curse. While you learn to see through, behind and sometimes beyond observed things and events, there is a possibility of becoming too sensitive, leading to cynicism and depression. When an event or observation moves me toward expression, the process of making art can be a form of exorcism. In a way, it is a form of speaking the truth which in turn sets me free.
More often the development of an idea is a combination of reason and emotion which more correctly channels the primary emotions of humor, lust, sadness, anger and outrage. When one spends a life time developing their sensitivity, emotion can be the enemy of "truth". Sometimes I observe things over a number of years and then finally an event that hits closer to home triggers the need to make a statement-now. Truth for me is the repetition of certain events or behaviors, not only drawn from the subjective experience of my own life but also the objective knowledge of a liberal arts education and a continued interest in all aspects of life. Time and letting an idea grow for a number of months or years is the operation or act of reason. If an idea in the "waiting room" is significant, it will keep pounding on the door until it is expressed. When the element of time is put between the emotion and response, very often an inspiration will die because it was not a very good or significant idea to begin with, or, in the longer view, it turns out not to be true. In this way I save myself the pain and drudgery of working on an idea for which I have lost my passion.
I don't know if the younger artist is more emotional than the older artist. Maybe they are just emotional about different things. I do know that I was more idealistic when I was younger and that is good because idealism is closely associated with hope. Hope suggests a better tomorrow, a better life, peace on earth, environmental health and justice for all.
The difference between the idealism of the youthful artist and the idealism of the older artist is the experience of time. Our emotions are constantly bombarded and manipulated by the media. I have no doubt that news organizations set certain agendas and choose stories based upon the political and social values and emotions of others. Visually sensitive people respond to sight before concept. We see bloated and starving children, a man beaten by police, burning forests and mudslides, a sinking oil tanker, abused and tortured animals, mass burial sites, the carnage of suicide murder, military reprisals and most vividly the atrocity of the Trade Towers destruction and mass murder. We are emotionally manipulated by terrible images which are beyond our ability or power to correct. It is easy to feed us emotional images but harder to explain reasons or concepts causing the problems. Being wise and thinking about causes is where reason balances emotion in getting at the truth.
Me Moving Ideas
Most often the artist is active rather than passive when it comes to the muse of inspiration. If we lead normal lives, we have many other responsibilities and distractions that keep us from creative thinking. Most art students have other classes than studio art and do not have the luxury of focusing on one project at a time.
As a full-time artist who is not independently wealthy, I have to think about selling my work and keeping my integrity at the same time. Few artists who are emotionally moved by an idea are motivated by the potential sale of the artwork. When Picasso painted Guernica in 1937, he was commissioned by the doomed Spanish democratic government to do a mural for the Paris Exposition. I wonder if Picasso would have taken the risk of painting Guernica without government support. I doubt that Goya had a buyer or was thinking of a buyer when he painted Third of May or any of his Horrors of War series. Most artists can not spend their creative lives taking risks like Vincent van Gogh who only sold one painting and lived a miserable, lonely life.
Like writers, visual artists can experience "writers block" when under pressure to come up with significant ideas especially when they need new work for an exhibition. Such external motivation still requires the self-discipline of the artist. Studio art assignments in the midst of other school responsibilities, prepares the art student for the balancing of creativity with the reality of life.
When I move the idea, it is usually more formal or abstract in design. The motivation is usually the experimentation with form and any meaning or subject matter is often secondary. The content or message in the work is more about the aesthetics of the form. Whether I move the idea or the idea moves me, I use reasoned intuition gained through trial and error in composing the sculpture. My personal belief is that art has to function aesthetically above all else, no matter what the motivation is to create.
Separation and Creative Thinking
Brainstorming ideas for sculpture is a quiet, contemplative and spiritual time for me. While I am constantly drawing ideas from life and locking them away in my subconscious, when it comes to conceiving a new idea, I have to block myself from all distractions-a quiet place with no radio and no TV. Mornings are my most effective time for creative thought.
There are times during the day that an idea with potential comes to mind and it usually something in response to what you hear or see. These small revelations need to be jotted down in text or in a sketch so that as the day becomes complex they will not be forgotten. If the idea was a good one, it will still look good later on under other circumstances. This is why I encourage students to keep a sketchbook of observations and ideas. To keep a running diary of ideas is a good discipline for thinking creatively on demand. When you go back over the sketchbook and you notice ideas that still appeal to you, there is a good chance that the idea is worthy of being made physical. It is so much easier to let a sculpture die at the concept stage rather than losing interest in it half way into the process.
When I become serious about working up one of these ideas in waiting or moving the idea, or if an idea has recently moved me, I may set aside half a day to clarify the concept and form in solitude. 20 years ago a critic referred to me as a "Romantic Modernist" due to my content and form which was untouched by the deconstructionist attitudes of the 1980's. Because of how I hatch my ideas, I think I may be somewhat of a "Romantic Mystic" as well.
When I'm contemplating what I think will be my next masterpiece (and it is good to be in the state of mind to think that every new work will be your next masterpiece) my thinking is more of a prayer for revelation. Call it the muse, Supreme Being or God, I work with the sense that I'm being given clarity and insight when developing an idea-that someone bigger than me is working through me and I'm just the facilitator of the process.
I am a control freak when it comes to process. I think ahead in the process and rehearse every step. If people think that the conceptualization is the most expressive part of the way I work, there is plenty of room for positive accidents and serendipity throughout the process. My mystic view comes from the experience that no matter how much control I think I have in the process, two things happen that are beyond my conscious effort. First, viewers discover meaningful aspects of the finished work of which I was not aware. Second, the impact of the finished work is often more than what I had intended or hoped for. It is as though the process took on it's own life and got away from me and in some strange gestalt sense, the whole became greater than the sum of the parts, or in this case, greater than my conscious efforts. I think that if a sculpture continues to reveal itself and takes on life of its own after it is completed, it is a sign of strong work. This does not happen very often for me.
In the contemplative process, and if the work is narrative, I think of symbols that will carry the meaning and often layers of meaning. If it is a dog allegory, everything from the color of wood to the breed of the dog is part of the allegory. Then I think about secondary forms that will occur within the body, on top or around the dog that not only function to enhance the design but also are symbolic to the content on another layer of meaning. In these secondary forms my intent is to achieve a certain unity where shape and content become one in the same.
Developing Ideas as a Younger Artist
It is normal for the young artist to create art about art. Often the young artist will investigate the styles of art history before their own artistic voice finds them. The content about their visual art and their writing is internal, often about themselves or their family because that is what they know best. They have not yet made the connection with their external lives as content for art. Youth tend to participate in and create popular culture rather than observe culture. They tend to think in the moment, in particulars rather than looking for universal truths or the bigger picture. I do not expect the young artist to exhibit ground breaking originality of content or form.
What I do expect is a high degree of curiosity, motivation, interest and energy to learn technical processes and develop an understanding of form. As I've stated earlier, this basic knowledge and practice provides a broad visual vocabulary of choice rather than ignorance when it comes time to express more developed concepts. "Outsider Artists" lack this training and academic experience but the strength of their art tapping in to highly personal ideas that only come from a longer time of experiencing life.
I have these suggestions for the art student who is faced with coming up with an idea for a sculpture or a painting.
First, learn the value of separation and solitude. Find a quiet place removed of all distractions, including friends. Learn to think without music or background noise. There will be plenty of time for those distractions once the actual physical work of art begins.
Next, if you are used to keeping a written or visual diary, you are a step ahead in the process of creative thinking, because you may already be aware of the things that interest you. Start with the things that interest you or things about which you have strong feelings, as a source for ideas.
The next step is to begin sketching out rough visual ideas. Don't settle on your first sketch, keep going and let the ideas develop from one sketch to the next. When you find an idea that you like, begin tweaking that drawing until you have a design that you like. If you can't fully explain the idea in your drawing, make notes in the margins so that you don't forget the thought that came to mind while drawing. It may be important to mull the idea over several days. It is very important to start with a visual idea that will continue to excite you for the following reason.
Some studio media and processes are more continuously gratifying. Other processes have rewarding phases but require more patience when the necessary steps of preparation become tedious and boring. On many occasions I've started a sculpture but soon found that half way into the process that I was losing my patience because I realized that the sculpture was not a significant idea. It reached the point where I would dread going into the studio. This is why I will not accept a commission unless I have the freedom to interpret the design so that it will hold my interest.
Because of the demands of time and deadline, the student will keep going and try to convince themselves that they like the idea just to get the work done. They will not have a sense of celebration or pride when the work is finished. They may even hate the piece and project this hostility on to the instructor who set the deadline. No one wins in such a situation. It is better to spend more time in the creative thinking stage.
Laminating, carving and finishing wood sculpture is an uneven process when it comes to mind numbing, tedious work and pleasure. Different people have different ideas of what "fun" is. All should find pleasure in the drawing. Some will find reward in the engineering and planning, cutting shaped layers on the band saw, and the carving. Less enjoyment will be found in the gluing and clamping process leading to carving. Less enjoyment will be found in the hours of hand sanding leading to the first application of a wood sealer, but these tedious periods are usually necessary steps to the exciting parts of the process. As an experienced sculptor of wood, I know what the rewards are and I know what to look forward to. There are little steps of excitement throughout the process that keeps me going and here are some of them.
I assemble parts of the sculpture before carving and I'm pleased to find that they all fit and the flat working drawing has translated into sculptural form.
Seeing the grain of the wood emerge in the final stages of hand sanding. All this time the surface has been hidden by the rough textures of carving and grinding.
Seeing the emergence of the modeled surface of the sculpture in subtle differences of light and shade.
The transformation of the wood grain figure and explosion of warmth when the first coat of oil is applied to the surface. All the stages of sanding were well worth the time.
Several Quick Sketches
For the animal allegory sculptures and large abstracts, I begin by drawing a small sketch and keep redrawing the idea on several pages until I arrive at an idea that I like. For small abstract studies and smaller animals, I work out the drawing full scale. The sketches for larger works are very rough and are more for getting the attitude, gesture or movement of the form. When I come to a design that I like, I'll erase all non-essential lines and clarify or redraw the design in simple primary and secondary contours. I do not need to model or shade the drawing because I see in my minds eye the carved surface of the sculpture. I may work up a reference model in clay, but more often, I wing it when it comes to carving. I recommend that student inexperienced in carving, rely upon a clay macquette as a measuring and tactile reference for carving.
The Working Drawing or Pattern
I find it easier to draw and design on a small scale, and then once the right sketch is simplified into contour lines that capture the gesture and structure of the form, I use an opaque projector to blow up the drawing to full scale on large, heavy paper.
Next, I trace all the lines projected from the small drawing, both primary and secondary contours of the form. When using this method, one should be aware of the possible distortions of the plan if the image is not centered in the projector or is not projected horizontally and perpendicular to the wall.
The traced drawing is just one view of the sculpture and usually a profile view. The next step is to redraw or correct the gesture of all the curved lines and to end up with one definite line, the right line, no wider than the point of a pencil. In this I'm more like Ingres than Delacroix.
It is at this point that I begin composing and drawing the interior patterns and shapes of the form as well. First I sketch the line and once I find the right shape, make the line precise. This part of the process is intuitive and expressive because I'm looking at the shape of the line but I'm also creating masses and voids, negative and positive shapes as well. There is also a huge part similar to engineering because I have to think about the dimensions of the boards I will be using, how the parts of the puzzle will be assembled and joined and all the time, thinking about the structural parts of the design for both function and form. For example, will the animal leg supports be exposed or hidden? If the support is visible I need to design that support so that it harmonizes with total form.
If I plan single boards on edge and perpendicular to the profile, it is at this stage that I will use a ruler to straighten lines and get the correct thickness of the board. I also use a protractor and determine any angles of joints within the design. Rather than engineering both sides of an animal, I usually make the drawing transparent like an x-ray and draw legs and supports for both sides in the same drawing.
If I'm doing a complex, extenuated form where a portion reaches out into space or changes direction, I can plan the joinery to accommodate changing the direction of the wood grain. For an animal, the wood grain for the ears and tail may run in a different direction than the rest of the body. This drawing shows me where two pieces of wood join on the same plane.