A Late Bloomer?
This morning Natalya Aikens emailed a link to an article in the New York Times titled Late Bloomers by Malcolm Gladwell and I second her recommendation.
Wow. I think I might have found myself.
The article starts by chronicling the writing career of Ben Fountain, an author who spent 18 years writing before getting his first big hit at the age of 48. The article goes on to postulate on 2 different approaches to creative work - conceptual vs experimental. Prodigies, like Picasso, tend to be conceptual, they are born to genius. Late bloomers take a more incremental and experimental approach to their work.
The biggest "wow" part of the article for me is an excerpt from an article by David Galenson which comments on late bloomers:
The imprecision of their goals means that these artists rarely feel they have succeeded, and their careers are consequently often dominated by the pursuit of a single objective. These artists repeat themselves, painting the same subject many times, and gradually changing its treatment in an experimental process of trial and error. Each work leads to the next, and none is generally privileged over others, so experimental painters rarely make specific preparatory sketches or plans for a painting. They consider the production of a painting as a process of searching, in which they aim to discover the image in the course of making it; they typically believe that learning is a more important goal than making finished paintings. Experimental artists build their skills gradually over the course of their careers, improving their work slowly over long periods. These artists are perfectionists and are typically plagued by frustration at their inability to achieve their goal.
Okay - wow - that is almost exactly how I feel about my work. I often say that I’m still in the student/learning part of my career, believing that my work is no where near where I think it should be. I’m okay with this, going along one piece at a time trying out a new idea to see what it will bring me. After 7 years I have 99 textile paintings in the Structures series and I have no intention of stopping anytime soon. I’m searching for something that I know is there and seems rather illusive.
So now I have a whole theory about why I do what I do. I’m a late bloomer. Excellent - when I’m 60 my work will be selling for millions. Woohoo!
A Patron
The article makes an interesting point:
If you are the type of creative mind that starts without a plan, and has to experiment and learn by doing, you need someone to see you through the long and difficult time it takes for your art to reach its true level.
and goes on to discuss the patrons that Cezzanne (also a late bloomer) had in his life, such as Vollard and Pissaro.
The late blooming author, Ben, quit his job in his 20s and when I first read that I felt I was some how a slacker for not suffering the poor artist life and slogging through 18 years of hard work til I made it. Then around page 4 or 5 they reveal that Ben was able to quit because his wife was making a big chunk of money as a lawyer and he was a stay at home dad. Although his kids were in day care until the afternoon so he had large piece of uninterrupted time to work.
Aha - okay - so I no longer have such a patron, no wonder I’m going to work. I was a stay at home mom for 10 years and it was during this time I launched my art career in full. So I am quite grateful for that opportunity. My kids were never in daycare and I got a divorce as soon as my daughter went to kindergarten so I had naptimes to make art, but still, it was really great to not to have to work.
I’m now my own patron and this line from the article gave me pause:
This is the final lesson of the late bloomer: his or her success is highly contingent on the efforts of others.
Hm. Is that true? I’m a pretty self sufficient person that rarely asks for help and am pretty determined that I can do this, even with the day job (for now). Maybe I need to go hunting for some patrons. Anyone want to provide me a nice stipend to make art til I’m brilliant?
Posted by Lisa in: Being an Artist
Tagged: art career, david galenson, experimental artists, kids, malcolm gladwell, new york times, perfectionists, success, the day job






