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Dreaming up the next project I never make process the main thought of the projected idea. But for many artists process becomes the idea. Sol Lewitt, a minimalist and conceptualist (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007), maintained that the idea behind the execution was what was important. The idea was simple: shapes, colors, line, pattern, basically the principals of art was all that mattered.
Guess what? You can own your own Sol Lewitt. Simply follow the instructions he gave to many museums and galleries for their staff to follow, creating a site-specific Sol Lewitt that would be erased after the exhibit. Your wall in your home could be transformed and you can safely say, it is a Sol Lewitt. He separated the ‘hand of the artist’ from the execution, however, each piece by someone else’s hand would be unique. The instructions left openings for individual interpretation and allowing subconscious hand marking. (Check out: Bill Mill’s java interpretation https://llimllib.github.io/solving-sol/1136/llimllib/ )
Ultimately for Sol, the process was in the writing of the instructions. I have had personal nightmares working with minimalists as an assistant following their instructions and not having the patience to finish. The idea of making line after line, next to one another, only to fill a magnificently large canvas just makes me ill. However, truly doing, with no thought, can be meditative and that is a key part of my creative process. When I start thinking of a creative idea, I have a grand idea that encompasses several works and then an individual one for the piece. The process starts and eventually it changes into a subconscious endeavor. As I previously blogged, the painting takes over.
I have now found my process with renovating homes to be similar. Many call this a flip but that term, for the house projects I have been taking on, could hardly be called that. A flip indicates a quick cosmetic improvement, fast turnaround resulting in a profit. Don’t get me wrong, I want to make it monetarily worth my energy, but more importantly, I want to have an idea that will transform.
Just like the way the painting takes over, the house starts to take form: a change in the porch, a revision in a closet, a transformation of a façade. These things just happen; sometimes because of an unforeseen problem to be addressed, but sometimes because the house starts ‘speaking’ to me, letting me know what I should do next.
Like Sol, I have my production woman, Ivelisse. She is my ‘hand’, following the written and drawn instructions and interpreting them to the workers she hires to make the production happen. Soon this project will be done and I will be proud to see a buyer enjoy this project as a home.
Vivian
