Manifesto
Wrapping up my senior year of undergraduate studies, I heard a pretty disturbing statistic: half-and-half, the common creamer, is not actually halved. Once I got over the shock, I also heard that 95% of art school graduates don’t actually go on to make art after getting their degree. (The other 5% are crazy.)
Fortunately, I was determined to be part of that 5%. And I’m determined to take as many people with me: to raise the odds a little bit in our favor. studiOmnivorous serves as a method to the madness: a way of encouraging those odds in myself as well as nudging my community to an appreciation for and active approach in the arts.
Each week, let’s hit something new. I’ve always felt that for me, being open with my work and my process to other people “keeps me honest:” that is, it keeps me working and creates accountability to myself for getting stuff done. These posts, and posts by guest artists, are about keeping myself and my community honest: working, active, and engaged with art. There are five main areas to the studiOmnivorous manifesto:
to Challenge and influence our creative thinking, because we feel art should ask questions, not just answer them;
to Exercise and develop our critical thinking, because we have a responsibility to ourselves and to our work to further the dialogue of art and artmaking,
to Engage and encourage our artistic community, because we believe that knowledge is power, and power should be shared; that we should be a teacher to anyone and that we should be a student of anyone; that art should sustain and value a community, not just the other way around;
to Explore and investigate our artistic process, because at the base of it, to be an artist is to make work; that we hold a responsibility to sustain our work not just on immediate levels but in finding the interior spaces that keep us exploring our work long-term;
to Document and share our artmaking efforts, because while we love dialogue, we believe in action; that you must choose to be a protagonist in your own life story if you are going to make your story great.
We’re not just interested in hearing our story, though. If you’ve got something to say… something you’re exploring… something you want to share and teach…Tell us about it. Art is more than a product, it’s an activity.
Let’s get busy.
I am impressed. The challenge you have outlined for yourself and others is meant to taken seriously, is doable and requires you to expand Art.