Soul to Series: Step 4
You’ve reached Step 4 - the last big push. By the end of this step you’ll know the subject and theme you’ll be exploring in your series and it will be aligned to your purpose and values in art.
Choosing the subject, theme or concept for your series might be the easiest step, or the hardest step. If you have a hard time coming up with ideas I included optional activities in the bonus activities. Sometimes you just need to pick something so you can make a series, not to find the ultimate perfect idea. If you struggle in this area, it is better to start making your series using literally any idea than it is to find the best idea - making any kind of work will inspire new ideas faster than fretting over it ever will. Let's start by getting to the heart of things - what are your values and purpose for making art? |
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Key Points
- An artist's values and purpose should align with their planning process and the amount of freedom they allow themselves. Misalignment can lead to frustration and ineffective work.
- Boredom with a theme or subject is not necessarily a problem to avoid, but an opportunity to explore more deeply. Artists can maintain interest by being curious, asking questions, and actively engaging with their chosen theme or idea.
- When choosing a theme or subject, artists should prioritize their criteria based on their artistic values, purpose, and comfort level with potentially controversial ideas. They should select an idea that excites them and meets most of their criteria.
- Artists can overcome uncertainty and confusion about their theme or subject by rephrasing their thoughts from "I don't know" or "I'm not sure" to "The reason I have this problem is..." This helps the brain find productive answers and insights into fears that can be addressed.
- Creating a "practice" series with less precious supplies and quick work can be a valuable way to test decisions and ideas without putting too much pressure on oneself. The best way to know what works is to get to work and see what happens, without fear of failure.
Artistic Purpose and Values
How you utilize the format of the series depends a lot on your own artistic values and the purpose behind your work. Are you exploring and discovering? Expressing and telling? Commenting and protesting? Preserving and commemorating? Healing and Growing? Each of these has a different relationship between you and your audience and might need a different process, a different amount of planning, and varying amounts of freedom.
How you plan and what your values and purpose are should play together nicely. If you want to be intuitive and expressive so you can heal, but you plan out each piece and spend most of your time upset over little details, you are out of alignment. If you want to create a collection that showcases your skills with realistic portraits that celebrate your culture, but then are working spontaneously with no plan or thoughts about composition, who your models will be, and picking your medium based on how you feel in the moment, you are out of alignment.
How you plan and what your values and purpose are should play together nicely. If you want to be intuitive and expressive so you can heal, but you plan out each piece and spend most of your time upset over little details, you are out of alignment. If you want to create a collection that showcases your skills with realistic portraits that celebrate your culture, but then are working spontaneously with no plan or thoughts about composition, who your models will be, and picking your medium based on how you feel in the moment, you are out of alignment.
Interesting or Interested?
When I asked artists what their biggest area of confusion was when thinking about creating a series, they almost always said “how to pick a theme I won’t get bored with.” We can only take our best guess if an idea will fascinate us all the way through to the end of our series, but I think boredom isn’t to be avoided - it is an opportunity to be more thorough. You don’t have to hope something will stay interesting to you - you can be interested in it and continue developing that interest by exploring it more deeply. It isn’t the job of your theme or idea to do all the work - you must dance with it, ask it questions, be curious about it, listen to it, prod it. You have the power to stay interested in it.
But how do we pick? First choose the criteria that will help you evaluate your ideas. In today’s activities, you will be considering some criteria like your artistic values, the purpose you want your art to fulfill, what you love doing in art, and how comfortable you are with the risk of alienating others with controversial ideas. Prioritize what’s most important and evaluate possibilities against those priorities. Choose the idea you are excited about that meets the most of your criteria.
But how do we pick? First choose the criteria that will help you evaluate your ideas. In today’s activities, you will be considering some criteria like your artistic values, the purpose you want your art to fulfill, what you love doing in art, and how comfortable you are with the risk of alienating others with controversial ideas. Prioritize what’s most important and evaluate possibilities against those priorities. Choose the idea you are excited about that meets the most of your criteria.
On Not Being Sure
Mindset Coach Alicia Wood talks about how the phrase “I’m not sure” or “I don’t know” can cause your brain to look for answers to why you aren’t sure instead of finding the answers you want. By saying “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” you are directing your subconscious to look for reasons why you don’t know. Instead, we want our brain to find productive answers. To do that we can rephrase it to “the reason I have this problem is….”
Feeling confused about what subject or theme? Instead of “I don’t know what theme to choose '' try “The reason I can’t settle on a theme/subject/idea is…” and see what comes up. I bet there are some good insights into your fears and once you see them, you can address them.
Another way to use this is if you have an idea you want to pursue but have reasons why you aren’t sure you should. Maybe it’s already been done, or it's controversial, or you’re worried it's pretentious, or it’s not your place, or you’re interested in it, but you don’t think anyone else will be. So you say “I’m not sure” and your brain gives you all the reasons why you aren’t sure and you get caught up in a spiral you can’t think your way out of. Try instead to phrase it as ‘the reason I have this problem is” or “the reason I’m afraid to pursue this idea is” and see if that brings awareness and clarity.
Feeling confused about what subject or theme? Instead of “I don’t know what theme to choose '' try “The reason I can’t settle on a theme/subject/idea is…” and see what comes up. I bet there are some good insights into your fears and once you see them, you can address them.
Another way to use this is if you have an idea you want to pursue but have reasons why you aren’t sure you should. Maybe it’s already been done, or it's controversial, or you’re worried it's pretentious, or it’s not your place, or you’re interested in it, but you don’t think anyone else will be. So you say “I’m not sure” and your brain gives you all the reasons why you aren’t sure and you get caught up in a spiral you can’t think your way out of. Try instead to phrase it as ‘the reason I have this problem is” or “the reason I’m afraid to pursue this idea is” and see if that brings awareness and clarity.
The Value of Practice
A half formed glimpse of an idea is a better idea for a series than a fully fleshed out perfected one (remember, series versus collection). Consider giving yourself limited time to pick an idea, let's say an hour, and then use that best pick to make a “practice” series instead of putting a lot of pressure on yourself to make a serious series. Use your less precious supplies, work quickly, and test out the decisions you made in the workbook. The best way to know what will work for you is to get to work and see what happens. Like a professor of mine once said “the answer is in the studio.” There is no failure in this.
Tomorrow is the last step. You’ll review, refine, fill in the missing answers and declare what you will do in your series.
Go to the activity
Tomorrow is the last step. You’ll review, refine, fill in the missing answers and declare what you will do in your series.
Go to the activity