As a young boy I drew and painted and cut and glued constantly. My parents’ refrigerator door was always covered with crayon drawings and construction paper handiworks. They were awesome. Or so my mother told me.
What I realized as I got older is that most of my projects involved duplicating something that already existed. Reproducing all manner of things precisely and quickly came easily to me. I was very proud of my skills, and they were viewed with an envious eye by my peers. But what I didn’t share with those peers — my dirty little secret, if you will — was that if you took away my visual reference, I was lost.
Out of a fear of being found out, of being discovered as a fraud, I became hypercritical of my work. I analyzed and critiqued and reasoned over every one of my creations. Nothing short of perfection would do. Uh-oh, right? Out of fear, I built a big trap for myself and stepped willingly into it.
Did I have trouble creating something original because of lack of training? I’d had plenty of art classes, both public and private. Was it cowardice? Maybe I just didn’t trust myself. Certainly I’m not the only person who has difficulty doing this. If we all were able to, maybe more of us would be painters or poets or art directors who created merely for the sake of it. Whether being one of ''those people'' is better than not is up to the individual to decide.
Growing up in a major art center of the American Southwest, I was fortunate to have known a number of significant fine artists. I realized then that there seemed to be a strong link between what type of person the artist was and what kind of work he or she produced. Loosely speaking, the more unusual the person, the more distinctive his or her work.
A sculptor friend once told me that I should keep in mind that perfection equates to lack of character. No one is perfect or completely devoid of character. Imperfection is natural. I thought about what he said much longer than I needed to.
The lesson he was trying to pass along became lost in my obsessive analysis and what I considered to be logic. I realized that I wasn’t like him. His way of thinking didn’t align with who I am. I’m strange but not strange enough to have that strangeness considered flair or even interesting. I’m interesting for other reasons. It occurred to me that maybe I was forcing a square peg (me) into a round hole (fine artistry).
From an article written by Mattias Konradsson and published in Graphic Design:
''Seems like the right brain is our creative friend, while the left is plotting against us. New ideas come from breaking out of the norm, ignoring limits and facts…The left brain, on the other hand, analyzes, sorts stuff, and dwells in details, generally sabotaging our creative thinking.''
''Ignoring limits and facts.'' What a bold way to be. This way of thinking is like nectar to my bee. But it seems that my bee is neither left- nor right-brain dominant.
Enter the ad agency. Here is an organization that is full of both right- and left-brainies. They are all good at what they do, they work well together, and they make an impact on the world around them. At some point all of these people have to connect. If you don’t know what someone in the production department of an ad agency does…the list can go on and on.
I’ll spare you a detailed report, but in a nutshell, we bridge a gap between the nebulous (I mean that in a good way) mind of the artist and the strictly defined parameters (I mean that in a good way) of account reps and traffic coordinators. We make artwork comply with specifications and particular production situations while maintaining the integrity of that artwork.
There’s a lot to know: software packages, parameters, costs, materials, etc. These things are constantly changing for each project and each of its iterations. Some are more challenging than others, some are more fulfilling, but every day is different.
Each time a project goes from one person to another, it becomes that person’s baby. It is affected by everything done to it or on its behalf. There is a certain sense of accomplishment once you’ve played your part in your baby’s life and sent it out into the world.
Perhaps there are people who are born with a hard-wired ability to create or to be mathematicians or gardeners or whatever. It’s apparent some people are more left brained than right and vice versa. As for me, I’ve accepted and even like having both of my feet planted firmly on both sides of my brain.
