Sep
The Artist’s Secret Ingredient
I once heard a foolish woman say that it was impossible to love an inanimate object. She said that people could only love “God”, people and some animals. The woman was a religious teacher of the Popish variety. People like her strike me as folks who have fanatical religious zeal that is totally devoid of even a scintilla of love or affection.
For Heathens, this world and everything in it is as spiritual as any other. It is certainly possible to love a thing. Our keepsakes are but one example of this. We can love a memento, a book, a place, a work of art, an object of nature…so many things.
The subject came up because I was asked about one of my own arts. How can I take these things and make them so appealing. As with cooking, so with my “Thor Art.” The trick is to love what you are doing. You have to love what you are making so much that you want it to be wonderful. Even if you will eventually make a thousand of them, there has to be a genuine affection and joy when making each one.
That reminded me of the Popish teacher who spoke of something that she had obviously never experienced. When love becomes an intellectual abstraction or a matter of religious dogma, it is not love at all. It has become an empty word which is little more than a rhetorical device.
Do you want to make art? Do you want to make things beautiful? Look at the old countries and their rosemaling and folk art. They were the ways in which average folks could turn a mundane thing into something wonderful. We have so many more opportunities to do so today. Then as now, folks loved what they were making and wanted it to be the most wonderful thing possible. The key is love.
The artist infuses some of himself into his work. You can feel it. That is how you can tell the potboiler from the real work of art.
Let your love flow into your art. Love makes the difference.
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The “potboiler” is a work of art done for the sole purpose of making money. I once heard it said that the potboiler “…is something to live down…” More than a few artists have been embarrassed by their potboilers.
