Welcome to the dragon's blog...
Here you will find musings on the nature of Celtic art and perhaps some insights into its power and potential. Also, like a river, expect some meandering!
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Design and Discovery
by Unknown - 16:51 on 08 December 2014
Sometimes, we come upon, unexpectedly, a phrase or turn of expression that seems full of promise - like a ripe nut! 'Design and Discovery' is one of these...
How do we unlock such a thing? Well, how do we get to a nut (not the packaged variety, but one found in nature)?
Crack it open! - but gently - lest we flatten the whole darn thing and render the contents fudged, filthy and unappetising (for us at least).
Remember: a nut holds the secret of the whole tree...
I'm off for a coffee now but will be back soon. It's just after 5pm on Monday, the 8th of December. Let's see just how long this coffee break lasts!
It's now Wednesday afternoon on the 10th of December. Phew, that was some coffee break...
Let's carry on by asking: 'What is design?' We may then, with luck, come upon its partner 'discovery'!
When we practise design we are recreating; re-imaging the natural world. Designs are not just fancy layouts, cobbled together parts or decorative subjects / objects. A design that has the qualities of nature has to be seeded in nature, just as plants are seeded and sprung. If our beginning does not have potency (potential) it is not a true seed and it will be unable to unlock and grow into its full and natural stature. Each of us in a way is a design in potential. We have to discover how to unlock our energies and forms so that they come to and reveal their own rhythms, patterns and natural limitations. There has to be expansion and contraction - the rhythms of life.
Some starting points in design work are so innately powerful that they seemingly require little effort to grow. The trick here is to be able to hold and move with all the elements as they unlock. I would argue that only an artist with enough experience / understanding / energy is able to do this. This is why we often start with small, manageable projects before naturally travelling to a point of place where a larger vista opens up. A good artist is also a good designer. Through their work, a natural diversity of work is revealed - it's roots may still remain hidden! - as in nature. This body of work can also be seen and experienced as smaller related elements - in other words, the work naturally falls into themes and subjects.
The analogy of growth and natural forms (especially the tree) mirroring artistic / creative work is, surely, more than just symbolic. It does this too, of course, but the work itself can be so closely allied to nature as to quite directly express qualities of energy, experience and therefore begins to 'teach' (show) directly - not merely symbolically. Celtic art and design has the ability to do this, and I feel that many artists working in this (open-ended) 'tradition' need, if they are interested, to go further in seeding and expressing new, original work. 'Original' I take to mean 'close to the origin'. I say this because I see a lot of work which is pastiche and limited by past influence and over-copying. I've always copied very little - only for as much time as it takes for the keys of language to be won. At the same time I appreciate how artists are experimenting and trying things out. There's a whole mix of things out there!
After we have copied for a while and experimented a little - the advantage of the beginner who is not stuffed with rules and expectations - it is time for something else. What i found happening with my first original design was that after i had tentatively laid out a circular band of knotwork on the page, something else seemed to take over. The design seemed to explode out and express itself in ways that were surprising to me. In some ways I was both artist / instigator (investigator!) and witness. This is where discovery operates. A good design has to be discovered! Isn't it the same in conversation / communication and learning. Formal education is in danger of losing this essential lesson!
A key to original work is discovery. A good design is seeded; roots and grows like a tree. In some ways it is a tree. There are openings and closings, branching, cyclings and that sense of wonder, power and mystery.
Perhaps there's more to say here...
We'll wait and see.
Until the next space between coffee breaks...
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