For Emilia
Copyright © 2018 Leonard Koren. All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without
the express written permission of the author or publisher.
Published by Imperfect Publishing
PO Box 608, Point Reyes, CA 94956 USA
Book design by Emilia Burchiellaro and the author.
Special thanks to Peter Goodman, Nan Weed, and
Kitty Whitman for their help in the making of this book.
I S B N 9 7 8 - 0 9 8 1 4 8 4 6 8 6
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“Only be an artist if you have no choice!”
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“There really is no such thing as Art.
There are only artists.”
—E. H. Gombrich, art historian
Contents
2. Make something from nothing33
3. Stand out in a noisy and distracted world42
4. Get others to see things in very specific ways57
5. Make things that are meaningful70
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“If we drop beauty, what have we got?”
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Introduction
Is art really important? If so, what are the evidence-
based facts, the “metrics,” that prove its importance?
Or, is the value of art fundamentally not quantifiable?1
A premise of this book is that art is important because
art is part of that nebulous, unquantifiable dimension
of reality we sometimes call “the poetic.” Religion,
magic, and even love, beauty, and other forms of
non-rational understanding also fall into this category.
The poetic transcends the practical imperatives of life—
and yet it is a building-block of the identities we assign
to ourselves. The poetic is also (importantly) a well-
spring of joy, hope, pleasure, and wonder. . . . It is a
source of comfort and consolation when our fellow
humans beings let us down, and when we feel that the
universe really doesn’t care . . .
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Those who make art we call artists. Anyone can be an
artist.2 There are no tests to take, no certification required, and no particular skills needed. Similarly, anyone can call themselves an artist. (Conversely, anyone can be an artist but not call themselves one.) Accordingly, there are as many ways to be an artist as there are people on the planet.
Artists create from a subjective point of view:
– This is what I see.
(Or would like to see. Or could imagine. . . .)
– This is what I hear.
– This is what I feel.
– This is what I think.
– This is what I believe.
– This is what I question.
– This is what I am curious about.
– This is what I want to manifest.
– This is what I am.
(Or could be. Or would like to be. . . .)
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“Painting is the best way I’ve found to get along
with myself.”
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“I don’t teach because there really isn’t anything I can
teach, except what I do, which is the last thing that
would be helpful to anyone but me.”
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Artists are cognitively grounded in the aesthetic. That
is, they are aware of, and think about, the sensory and
emotive qualities of phenomena and things. Absolutely
anything can be the object of aesthetic consideration,
even things that don’t seem in the least bit sensuous,
like a series of random numbers or an abstract idea.
Every artist formulates their own problems to solve
and sets their own criteria for success.
Artists do myriad things. Six of these things are
discussed on the following pages. This limited (and
arbitrary) sampling is intended to emphasize how, in
totality, the work of artists has a substance, spirit, and
methodology different from that found in most other
types of work. Highlights from the lives of seminal