outsider art handbook #3

Outsider artists need just as much help as anyone else. Often this takes the form of telling them not to worry about any of the preconceived ideas about art that others try to foist upon them. What may be a cliche to a highly educated mainstream artist may be a revelation to an outsider artist. It all depends on the use made of that thing. Blondie used classical music to get ideas for their pop songs- and unless you know the classical music involved it is very hard to notice. Other pop musicians borrow unconsciously from the classical cannon and it may take a critic to tell them such a thing. All that matters is that you keep on making things. No one said it better than Andy Warhol when he commented that the job of the artist is make things, the job of the critic is to say whether they like them or not. The artist must keep churning stuff out, (as Warhol said, "the answer to the critic is always the same- make more work") and whether it finds a home or not is no business of the artist. He is in the production game not the liking or disliking game. Whether people like your work or not is of no matter- your answer must always be: make more art. 

That said, here are ten more outsider art ideas.

21. Art is not pure. Speak of something real. Use it to say something important.

22. Think about straight lines, subtle lines, outlining.

23. Is black a colour...sometimes.

24. Think about vitality rather than 'how good is it'. Does this picture have vitality?

25. People are scared of the heroic and drawn to buffoonery, irony, undermining. Find a place for the heroic, even a small place.

26. Primitive art parallels the rediscovery of the bass note, the bass line, the heavy bass. Repeating a bass note may be all that is needed. Find where the bass note is in your picture or art.

27. Beauty is like a pure note.

28. Art can be seen as two things: talent and vitality. Don't let your talent cripple your vitality.

29. Beauty is like harmony, a focusing, a bringing together. Some untrained folk singers warble around a note which they can't hold but can hit on and off. The effect is like wobbling around the beautiful, if you hit it by chance a few times that is enough.

30. Art is a minority interest. Always has been, always will be. If you can give your art away you're ahead of the game.