What importance does story play in the creation of your art work? And how can you use the idea of story to help you in the areas of your work you are looking to improve or change?
In this episode, we explore the use of story in the creation of art as well as look at how people insert their own stories into what they see as a way to understand how you can tap into that to give viewers (and buyers) a distinct and memorable way to connect to your work.
The 2023 Art Challenge is also discussed. This is a proposed project for short or long term, an art challenge a little bit different than the usual, but one that is sure to feed your muse all year long.
Find the 2023 Challenge at 16:45 in the podcast audio.
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CREDITS:
Cover design by Sage; Illustration by Olga Kostenko
Music by Playsound
Transcript
Follow the Story
Hello all you charming creative people. Thank you so much for joining me on The Sage Arts podcast. I’m Sage, your solo host today here to babble at you about story and the role it has in visual art, if not all creative endeavors. I’m also going to present you with a challenge for 2023, now that, hopefully, we’ve gotten over all the holiday craziness and can really set up a routine and focus. I’ll put in the show notes where that challenge comes up in the podcast so if you want to jump to that you can. It’s not a complicated challenge but you might want to keep a pen and paper handy so you can write it down and then figure out how to work it into your routine.
So come on in, have a seat, or if already seated, sit back, relax, or get your hands into your materials and joyfully muck around while I toss some, what I think are, pretty interesting ideas all having to do with the usefulness of story in what we do.
Hopefully my voice sounds a little better this week. I’m still struggling a bit with this cold so I apologize for any nasally lilt in my voice. I’m, as usual, in my podcast studio at my home in Southern California. I’m recording this on one of the few dry, partly sunny days we’ve had in the last couple of weeks. Earlier this week in our area, we got about 5 inches of rain over two days, while areas north of us and higher elevations got as much is 16 inches from that same storm. It caused a lot of chaos and , unfortunately, proved deadly in a couple of cases, my heart just goes out to those poor families. But, of course, the craziness made the news and I started getting messages from various people literally all over the world who remembered a situation that happen here six years ago where we got 5 inches in one day. We have a creek at the bottom of our yard which overflowed into our garden and swelled high enough to pick up our raised planters so that they were floating up against the fence.
That was, apparently, a pretty memorable story. Or, more likely were very memorable pictures because I posted these photos with the water up to the top of our compost box so you could see it was 2-3 feet high in the yard, with these planters all bunched up against the fence trying to float off down the creek.
It’s that kind of memorable story, a relatively unusual event that connected me in their minds with the news stories they were hearing even though that story and those pictures were from six years ago.
A good story, especially when it involves someone we know or we otherwise feel connected to, can elicit strong emotions and bring up memories we don’t otherwise spend any time recalling. That ability to draw forth memories and emotions is the real power of story but art, particularly art seen in person, has the added ability to connect with people in their personal space in real time by us sharing our creative experience in a concrete way, in that the materials we actually worked and wrestled with and the results of that are right there in front of them.
That is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how story helps us as artists. There are a myriad of ways story can be helpful and make the process of creating even more fulfilling. To get the most out of the smorgasbord of ideas I have for you today, I’d like you to ask yourself these question as you listen. What importance does story play in the creation of your art work? And how can you use the idea of story to help you in the areas of your work you are looking to improve or change? Keep those things in mind and maybe even jot down the ideas that really hit you as useful.
So, yeah, let’s talk story.
Story is important to everyone, I don’t think that can be denied. I know we may often think of story as a form or entertainment, but it is so much more than that. It’s integral in the fabric of our lives as a society. Think about it. The news we watch in the morning, those are stories. They’re even called news stories, but they are considered informational more than entertainment, although it can get rather entertaining at times. So definitely stories there.
When we talk about what we did over the weekend or on vacation, we’re also telling stories. Gossiping is storytelling complete with embellishments and all kinds of drama. Every social media post is trying to grab you with a story too, from a humorous doggie tale to personal stories of struggle or triumph, like when we post the latest thing we made. Even the ads are stories, ones of potential, of how you’re going to lose that stubborn fat with this new diet, then you get to hear a number of supposed users and their success stories along with it, so more stories. Then there are the movies and shows we watch, the songs we listen to and, of course, the books and magazines we read. Stories are everywhere, in every culture, and have been with us since the advent of language.
So as not to confuse you as we move into this, let me more thoroughly define what I mean when I speak of story in regards to art. I’ll be using it in the broadest sense and, not being the expert on the definition, I pulled up a definition from the Collins Dictionary, which I like for their often more in depth explanations… they say that Story is
‘A narrative, either true or fictitious, designed to interest, amuse, or instruct the hearer or reader.”
Or, in our case, the viewer. So, we’re really talking about any communication with other people that relays something of our experience, our understanding, or our view of life. We’re not necessarily talking about something with a plot, or conflict, or character development or even a moral to the story. We’re just talking about the things that we relay to others to share our life and what interests us.
I think we are all creating stories, all the time. It is so automatic most of us don’t even realize we’re doing it. But we need them. They add richness and color to our lives. I think considering story as you create can do the same for your art and your life as an artist.
Much like intention, which I talked about in Episode 1, stories give your work grounding and guidance as you create, if you’re aware of it, but it goes beyond that. Story, whether its detailed or ambiguous, personal or whimsical, plotted or plotless… whatever vestige of a story your work has, that becomes the avenue through which the viewer, and perhaps buyer, finds the connection that draws them to it.
Because you see, people don’t buy your work just for the visual draw but because it is a voyeuristic insight into another person, you, the artist. It hints at how you think, how you see the world, what captivates you and what excites you, so much, that you want to share it with others. These hints are more than just vague ideas that “She seems to like orange” or “he must be into horses”. These hints are stories, vestigial perhaps but your viewer will come up with a story regardless, maybe even rather unconsciously, but if the work doesn’t suggest story to them, it’s hard to see how it’s going to connect for them.
This connection I’m referring to is, yes, rooted in the origin of our individual aesthetics, those thing we see as attractive and alluring, what draws us, which isn’t always beauty, mind you. Why do we like different types of things. Why is one object seen to be of astounding beauty to one person and not worth a second glance to someone else? Yes, its’ because we have preferences, but where, or what, do those preferences come from?
Largely, they come from our experiences, right?, the interactions and encounters we’ve had, the challenges we’ve overcome or haven’t overcome … these are our stories. So when we respond to the aesthetics of a piece, we are filtering it through the stories of our experiences and learned understanding of the world. And this is why story in art is so essential even when it isn’t up front and apparent.
Note that last line… when it isn’t always upfront and apparent. I would say that most artist these days are not telling an obvious story with their art and I don’t think they necessarily should. There are those for whom story is everything and they want to convey it quite clearly while others just want to capture the essence of an experience, a bit of story from their lives.
For instance, Jackson Pollack’s drip paintings were created as an expression of his state of being in that moment, a transfer of the energy of his passion directly into the paint itself. The work Autumn Rhythm—you can google that or go to the Instagram page for this podcast, I’ll post it there– was created at a point in his career where his mastery of the technique was at its peak and it seems he could feel that and was channeling it into the way he directed the paint. It has all this organic swirling energy within a fairly limited color palette of beige-y browns, blacks and whites
He originally titled it just No. 30 but later changed it to Autumn Rhythm in order to better direct the viewer, and thus the story of what he thinks he channeled—that being the rhythm of nature represented in the swirls and drips along with the specific season represented in the color palette he chose.
Our sense of what story the painting has to tell may have nothing to do with seasons, and if he had left it as No. 30, we would not have had that little bit of direction, which some critics feel it could have done without. But if you connect with the work, it will most likely be because the rush and energy of the way he laid the paint and our association with the limited color palette, connects to a story or stories of our own immersion in such feelings and experiences. Maybe the painting reminds you of splashing around in the mud as a kid or maybe it brings up a story of speeding through a late season countryside in a convertible and the long drips remind you of the feeling of the wind in your hair. In work like this, there is an immense amount of space for the viewer to insert their own stories but they connect with the artist because the story the artist had in mind makes the work cohesive and the story directed just enough for us to create or relive our own full story within it.
On the other hand, take Picasso’s Guernica, depicting the bombing of the Basque town by that name in 1937 during the Spanish Civil war. If you haven’t seen this or don’t recall it, it’s filled with screaming figures including a dying horse, a mutilated soldier and a woman holding a dead baby. Picasso is not hinting at the story here but is slamming us with his despair and outrage over the barbaric order to bomb a civilian town populated mostly, at the time, by women and children because the men were away fighting. The town was on the road through which the Republican armies, which the Basque supported, would have to advance or retreat making it was a purely strategic attack, not a military target.
So this is that town’s story, the story of an atrocity that Picasso felt so strongly about, he used a mural commission job for the Spanish government, which I’m guessing expected something quite different, to create this huge and unforgettable image so it would undeniably loom over the viewer and, I’m sure he hoped, over the country. It’s also colorless, just black and white and gray, which is an easily understood metaphor for the misery created by the callousness of the Nazi German bombers and Spanish Nationalists who ordered the bombing.
Now the viewer isn’t going to necessarily know these details, (although now you do so hopefully that adds to the Impact of the work for you!) but the story of pain and tragedy is undeniable. Still there is room, as there is in all creative works, for the viewer to insert their own story, in this case, probably their own remembrance of pain and injustice whether it was personal experience or a specific story they heard or witnessed, something they had a related emotional reaction to. Such works can leave us feeling like we’ve just reexperienced our own stories and that is the magic of storytelling, visual or otherwise, isn’t’ it?
This insertion of the viewer’s personal stories, consciously or unconsciously, is at the root of the connection the observer can have to your work and your art, if you insert story in some form.
For me, when I go through my photography, for instance, I ask myself with each picture, is there a story here? If I don’t see a story it’s probably going to get deleted because if I don’t see a story, what is there for people to connect to in the photograph? Sometimes I do think a photo looks pretty but if I’m just drawn to a texture or combination of colors and there’s nothing else, I don’t feel like I have anything to share.
When I create with polymer and mixed-media I try to re-create the feeling of an experience that I had that really stuck with me. Although I don’t always start out that way and I’ll talk about that a little later. I’ve talked about this with other artists before and one of the things people seem to get caught up in is figuring out what experiences have enough of a story in them to be the basis for the work they’re doing. I think the problem may be that people are looking for too literal a story, or something really unusual and super memorable like a flood in their backyard. The fact is, we actually have story in our lives every day. It’s just matter of seeing it and determining if it’s something we feel driven to share.
I was listening to a podcast about podcasting, of all things, called step-by-step podcasting and the host, Sarah Mikutel, brought in a professional storyteller. His name is Matthew Dicks, D-I-C-K-S, and he has this interesting project that he challenges himself with all the time. He calls it Homework For Life and at the end of every day he writes down a story from his experiences that that day. So he goes through his day, aware that he’s going to have to write something down when the day is over which keeps him on high alert for story at all times.
I thought that was really cool and I’ve been doing that myself since the beginning of the year. Now, I write in a journal most every morning, it’s almost always poetry, but it didn’t usually have a lot of direction. I would just wake up in the first sentence that came to my mind I would write down and then see what it suggested and then try to build the poem off of that.
Now that I’m thinking about story, I wake up and think about the day before and what story, what special experience no matter how small, really stood out. It’s been super eye-opening to think back about an ordinary day, full of work, grocery shopping, laundry, workouts, and cooking dinner and try to find that one thing that really struck me, that brought out the childlike wonder in me, that made me realize something about my life or the world around me.
So, for instance, Yesterday it was about seeing the birds playing at the edge of the creek because, for one, we haven’t had a creek most of the year because of the terrible drought we’ve been in but also, when the creek came in, it was torrential but now the waters had calmed down enough for the birds to go play in it. And what I saw was just so much joy in their bouncing around between the bank and the branches and splashing about and twittering to each other. It was just a beautiful contrast to the difficulties of the drought and then the torrential rain and the difficulties it brought and yet it settled into this kind of joyful moment. So I took a kind of “you have to have the tough times to really appreciate the small joys” story from that.
So this is the dominant of story that I’m finding on a daily basis now. Some stories are bigger like the other day there was, we think, a grieving of crows a little ways down the creek, just this insane gathering of birds when of them one dies and it was so loud it woke me from a nap. So that became an obvious story for the day but what wasn’t obvious was why I thought it was a story worth recording. Once I dug down through my writing, I found it was my admiration for their unrestrained and dramatic display, much unlike our society’s zipped up rituals around death.
So what this practice not only makes me look for story but has also made me examine why I am drawn to these stories, and that kind of contemplation has absolutely churned up ideas for both my writing and my art work already.
This is the challenge that I want to give you for the start of the year which I mentioned I think in the first episode. I want to challenge you to spend the next 30 or 60 or 90 days, or all 365 days, of 2023, finding a story each day. The challenge is pretty simple and doesn’t take much time. You just take a couple minutes at the end of your day or at the beginning of your day, to write down a story of something in the previous 24 hours that struck you as interesting or important, to you or others. I have found it most helpful to write enough to explain what I saw or experienced and then why it struck me as significant.
It doesn’t matter how long or short it is–. It can be one sentence, a poem, a list of words, an essay or a fill blown short story if you like. That’s up to you—the important thing is just that you record something, which will train you to look for story every day.
Then you take it just step further. At least once a week, maybe pick the day, like every Sunday morning, use these stories as a source of inspiration for your visual art and create a piece that uses the story as a jumping off point, as the first spark of inspiration.
If you’re up for this challenge, take a moment right now and write down your specific parameters for the challenge. Here’s what you should write out:
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- How long will you attempt this challenge? 30, 60, 90 days or all year?
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- When will you record the story, at the beginning or end of your day? So write down morning or evening, 7am or 10pm or whatever works for you.
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- Where will you record it. I prefer to keep a journal, something cool and pretty that I enjoy using, next to the bed. Getting away from screens is important to me though. You can also use your phone or tablet or whatever works best for you.
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- Pick the day or days that you will create artwork from a story. Sunday, Monday, or Sunday morning, Friday night, etc.
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- Set the day and time you will start, preferably tonight or first thing in the morning, right?
The process of writing down the details of the challenge is important in setting you up to actually make it happen. We mentally feel more committed when we put something in writing. I also encourage you to put it on a piece of paper, or a white board or print it out so it’s literally a tangible commitment that you can set out and see daily. So if you’re not in a position to write it down just now, tell yourself when you’re going to do that.
If you’re not sure if this is the thing for you, how about you just do it for seven days, just one week. If you go one week, and you’re finding wonderful useful insights and all kinds of creative inspiration in it, then set yourself up a more definite challenge. Do we have a deal?
Even if the challenge doesn’t interest you, I think you can really get a lot out of making story part of your process or the way you think about creating your work. This could be particularly helpful if you’re having problems finding direction in your work or a piece starts to feel muddled. You can ask yourself “what is the story here or what could it be?” Or you can ask “what do I want people to feel and why?”
I understand that this approach isn’t for everyone. Some people don’t want to be that conscious of their purpose or thoughts while creating. That’s fine but chances are the unconscious mind is trying to spin stories even as you try to give it free reign. Our brains are always trying to put order to things and story is one of the key ways we do that. What I’m mostly pushing is that you look for story and if you just want to let it marinate in your mind and see what your unconscious self does it with it, great. It’s just a sure way to feed you muse.
You can also use this insight to not just help you in making art but to better enjoy and appreciate art. Every explanation of every piece of art in the entire world includes story. Can you imagine a plaque talking about a work of art you’re viewing not telling you it’s story, you know, what it’s about, or what the artist was trying to accomplish? You read the plaque because you are looking for that story. So, when you’re viewing a piece that you are drawn to but don’t know why, ask where the story is in what you see. And keep in mind, you’re not trying to find a right answer, it’s about asking yourself what you see in the work, what you’re pulling from it. It’s like looking at the clouds and deciding that one looks like a horse and the other looks like a whale while your friend sees a table and a train. They are both legitimate observations. You see what matters to you and that can help you define and appreciate the connection you have with a work of art.
The last thing I’ll touch upon having to do with story and art is one of the first things I mentioned — having story in mind while creating can guide the choices you make in your work to keep the design cohesive. Now, I’m not going to hash over that because what I’m suggesting is simply that you make story the basis of your intention. If you haven’t listened to episode on intention, I strongly encourage you to. I think it’s less than 20m minutes and it’s the basis of so many of the conversations we’ll have here.
When your intention is set story it gives you a rich and varied structure from which to make all your design choices. If every choice you make—the colors, shapes, textures, size, symbols, composition, etc.– is couched in the question “does this fit the story?” It’d be hard not to have a cohesive design.
I do want to emphasize that just because you’re using story to guide your work, it doesn’t mean you need to represent it in any literal sense. Pollock’s Autumn Rhythm had no leaves or trees or anything else that would usually symbolize fall to us but that was still the story that either guided his hand or was suggested to him out of the unconscious efforts he made while painting.
Which brings about yet another way to use story… you can work with story by working without intention initially until you start to see patterns or connections in your exploration of your materials. Once you do, you can start asking yourself what story is being told by what you’re seeing. This is actually how I create most of my work. I don’t usually sit down with a specific idea, more often it’s shapes or textures that I want to try and re-create and in the process of exploring the possibilities I start to see suggestions in the patterns, shapes, or colors I’m playing with. A little warning though. You may want to prepare yourself for tossing out a lot of your exploratory work. Most of the things I create while exploring don’t themselves become anything because I find a story in it and then I want to start from the beginning to ensure that all the choices I make feed that story. But that’s just how I do it.
I think the take away here really is that story can be another great tool in your artistic toolbox as well as an avenue through which you can better enjoy the work you create and the art of others. It also gives you the ideas and words to explain what you’re doing to those around you who are curious about your process or the meaning behind your work. You work doesn’t have to be intellectualized but I think it adds to the joy of the connection you have with other people when you can explain some of the story behind the work that you did. It also, by the way can help you name the work if naming is part of your process. There’s just so much to story and what it can do for you as an artist and a lover of art.
So, what do you say? Are you up for placing story in a more prominent position in your creative life?
If you are at all into this, I hope you will try the challenge. Find a story in your life every day. Write it down at the end of the day or first thing the next morning. If nothing else, you’ll have a Journal of little stories from which to draw inspiration for your artwork when you get stumped at some future point in time. However, I think you’ll find you’ll start seeing story and all kinds of things including in the work that you do and I think it will really enrich your process and, maybe even take you in a new and wonderful direction at some point.
So, I’m going to leave you with that for today. I hope to see you back here next week. I’ll be dropping these on Fridays, just in time for some weekend contemplation if that fits into your schedule. Otherwise I’ll be here waiting for you when you’re ready for me and my thoughts.
If you have some your own thoughts, please do reach out with comments, criticisms, your own wonderful stories, or whatever it is you like to share with me. Go to the contact page on www.thesagearts.com to send me an email or use the red button in the lower right-hand corner to leave a voicemail.
I also encourage you to join me on Instagram or Facebook on the Sage arts page, that’s Facebook.com/theSageartspodcast, or Instagram.com/theSageartspodcast all one word.
If you are enjoying these episodes and finding value for yourself and your art in what I’m doing here, consider sending support and encouragement through my Buy Me a Coffee page where you can send a little one-time contribution, as little as $4. That’s buymeacoffee.com/theSagearts, also all one word just shorter, theSagearts. There’s also an orange donation button halfway down the home page of theSagearts.com website. A quick shout and thank you to Laura Lee who bought me 3 coffees last week after listening to the Intentions episode. She’s been feeling like she’s been channeling chaos and now has some direction to work with. Love to hear that. Your comments, even more than the financial support really keeps me going and help with my direction too.
So, all my lovelies, go out and find those stories, feed your muse, and as Christie said last week, be true to your weirdness. Just own that wacky, creative, beautiful soul you have and join me again next week on the Sage arts podcast.
This episode really resonated with me. I have always named my polymer clay jewellery collections to help me remember each one. However, I think I can develop that into an actual story about each collection. This will help me market my pieces to customers when I do craft markets! 😀 I have always talked to my customers about my process but telling the story behind particular collections would be even more powerful. Thank you!