Eva's Post on Bruce Conforth and How His Process Relates to My Own

In response to the interviewer’s question about the connection between Bruce Conforth’s writing and his music, Consforth describes the connection between when he does his best work in both. He says that this happens when he forgets the action of writing or playing music and it flows out of him. I think that the way Conforth describes writing being what is writing him instead of the opposite is his way of describing the unconscious process. Discussing being a fine artist and painter and the idea of the process being a performance Conforth explains that he needs to feel physically involved and consumed by that art making process. He talks about this all-consuming aspect of it leading to him working on basically one project at a time. I really connect to both of these concepts because that’s how it is for me when I paint. I get totally lost in it.

His perspective is that writing is important because ultimately we are all made up of stories and that is our only lasting imprint on the world. He addresses the idea that writing about culture isn’t ever just writing about culture but creating culture. Art and writing aren’t just a commentary on what is going on in the world, but they intervene into a cultural moment and alter it. I found this particularly amusing because it is directly related to the basis of a class on 19^th century French art that I am taking right now.

In the classroom he teaches the process of refining and working general to specific in writing. Its funny because of how this is how I’ve often been told to paint, but I have never listened. If I had to break it down I’d say I usually work specific to specific in a different way. He also talks about his belief that the only way to be a good writer is by being a good reader. For me the way I learn to branch out and try new techniques in my painting is by looking at others works. When I go to art museums I take pictures not of whole paintings, but of bits and pieces of paintings. I photograph snippets of small powerful painterly marks that I connect to.