Introduction

• What is art?
  • Painter Carroll Dunham → "craft-based tool for the study of consciousness"
  • A visual language, a survival strategy

Step One: You Are a Total Amateur

• Let go of being “good” and “making sense” → start thinking about creating
• “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” — Albert Einstein

Step Two: How To Actually Begin

• Start working when you wake up
• Just make a mark, start without judging— how can you describe your creations without saying “good” or “bad”?
• Make a drawing with only erasure: cover a surface with pencil, chalk, fabric, etc. and use erasers, scissors, etc. to make an image by removing a layer
• Make a simple drawing, then recreate it in the style of other artists: Egyptian, Chinese, Cubist, cave painting, Keith Haring, Georgia O’Keeffe
• "Art is like a burning bush: it puts out more energy than went into its making." (idea of ars longa)
• Find your voice, then exaggerate it

Step Three: Learn To Think Like an Artist

• "Stop fiddling and move on. The work will keep changing itself."
• Look hard. Look openly.
• Learn the difference between subject matter and content— for example, Michelangelo's David: subject matter = young man with a sling; content = grace, beauty, bravery...
• Be inconsistent (value = this can bring about "sudden densities"— moments when openings appear in your work, something shows you a new direction)
• "Chance is the stunning aurora borealis of creativity—a flickering instantaneity that sweeps across the skies of your work, leaving a trail that can make your work richer and stranger and better."

Step Four: Enter the Art World

• Learn to write about your work: "Instead of quoting the theories of Foucault, Deleuze, or Derrida, come up with your own. All art is a theory about what art can be."

Step Five: Survive the Art World

• "I always tell anyone criticizing me, 'You could be right.' It has a nice double edge; sometimes the victim never feels a thing.'
• You must prize radical vulnerability (a la Georgia O'Keeffe)