Black Bucket Essays
Volume 1, Issue 1
“The survival of my own ideas may not be as important as a condition I might create for others’ ideas to be realized. ”
- Mel Chin
Julie Benoit
It is probably best to set the ego aside when working with others whether it be teaching, making art or collaborating on some other type of project.
As a teacher one ought to view the classroom as a place to share the ideas of everyone who is a participant within the space. A teacher should present an idea or ideas and encourage relevant conversation and questions amongst the students. Through these conversations and questions the students should discover their own voice, ideas and different ways to discuss them within their individual studio practice.
As an artist who is collaborating with others one must be fully aware and able to accept that their voice is just one part of the conversation. Collaborating is similar to having a conversation with an artist or artists and this conversation is documented through the ideas and art work/artworks that are created. Each participant must be wiling to recognize and welcome that their individual ideas are a means to yet a bigger and maybe more expansive idea.
The best part is the moment when all of these individual voices begin working together, whether it be in the classroom or in the studio, asking questions and sharing answers -- thats when we are able to get to the conversation which is where all of the engaging substance and all of the discoveries materialize.
Our studio practice should be an extension of these questions, conversations and discoveries -- that are happening in the classroom or within the group that we are collaborating with -- and hopefully generating more questions to be answered.
Volume 1, Issue 1
“The survival of my own ideas may not be as important as a condition I might create for others’ ideas to be realized. ”
- Mel Chin
Julie Benoit
It is probably best to set the ego aside when working with others whether it be teaching, making art or collaborating on some other type of project.
As a teacher one ought to view the classroom as a place to share the ideas of everyone who is a participant within the space. A teacher should present an idea or ideas and encourage relevant conversation and questions amongst the students. Through these conversations and questions the students should discover their own voice, ideas and different ways to discuss them within their individual studio practice.
As an artist who is collaborating with others one must be fully aware and able to accept that their voice is just one part of the conversation. Collaborating is similar to having a conversation with an artist or artists and this conversation is documented through the ideas and art work/artworks that are created. Each participant must be wiling to recognize and welcome that their individual ideas are a means to yet a bigger and maybe more expansive idea.
The best part is the moment when all of these individual voices begin working together, whether it be in the classroom or in the studio, asking questions and sharing answers -- thats when we are able to get to the conversation which is where all of the engaging substance and all of the discoveries materialize.
Our studio practice should be an extension of these questions, conversations and discoveries -- that are happening in the classroom or within the group that we are collaborating with -- and hopefully generating more questions to be answered.