Robert Rauschenberg died yesterday. He was 82 years old and came from the same town (Port Arthur, Texas,) as Janis Joplin. In an interview with NPR that he did a while back, he said that he didn't work with ideas- only materials- he was curious to see how things looked. I think what he meant was that he distrusted ideas, alone, (read: concept or story-telling, or iconography,) to sustain his effort and keep him engaged. I don't know if this is true for everyone, but this is one way to sidestep the whole problem of imagery. (What picture do we paint today?) I think he might have been the artist who said, "take something, do something to it, look at it, do something else to it,..." (I'm paraphrasing, badly, and I may not even have the right guy- but if not, this seemed to be Rauschenberg's way of doing things.)
I believe that my own practice and approach may be, in some small way, similar; I'm not so much worried about the outcome as I am concerned with the process, both in selection and execution. It doesn't matter if I am empty or not when I start- something will usually happen, as long as I show up.
This usually means, if you are being honest and true to yourself- you are often working way out in front of any audience that you care about. It always takes them a while to catch up.
Goodbye, Bob.
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