Breaking the rules.
“What are you drawing ?” asked the teacher.
“A picture of God,” said the girl.
“But nobody knows what God looks like.”
“They will in a minute.”
A woman confesses: “Now art – that really is dangerous. Everyone laughs at you when you get it wrong, and then you have to live out your natural life under a rock.”
How do things change so much from child to adult ?
If they don’t know, kids will take a chance. Growing up means taking on responsibilities and with them come obligations and that means rules. We can’t help it. We have to go through this stage called adulthood.
The thing is, adults usually make the rules. Ask any kid.
A lot of teaching, including art, used to be done this way:
The rules were given and then enforced. Good thing human beings are resilient.
I remember having lots of unstructured time to indulge my enterprising little self and create all sorts of worlds. It’s called playing, but the bulk of all the important learning we ever do takes place in the first years of life.
Why can’t adults keep on playing ?
The adult mind takes what it perceives, weighs and measures it in comparison with what it already knows, and makes a belief. Beliefs are formed into rules to keep things nice and safe, so we know what to expect.
As soon as you say to yourself: “Now I’m going to make a work of art,” all your fears, beliefs, theories, and rules stand up and assert themselves.
I confess. I’ve always longed to break the rules.
There’s a lot to be gained by doing this when things get too stagnant or stuck, but a lot to be lost if you’re just being pig-headed. Don’t we all feel a little tug towards breaking the rules every once in awhile ?
Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1606-69 said:
“Of course you will say that I ought to be practical and try to paint the way they want me to paint. Well, I’ll tell you a secret. I have tried and I have tried very hard, but I can’t do it. I just
can’t do it! And that is why I’m just a little crazy.”
Really ground breaking artists don’t follow the rules.
Rules and principles of art were all rationalized and theorized after the fact. Great artists created their own way, and so can you too find your own way.
It’s not necessary to learn ‘the rules’, if they strangle the heart out of your unique expression. If it’s holding you back, there are gentle ways of breaking every rule. Everything you need to know is already there waiting.
The secret is in knowing you cannot get it wrong if you truly listen to your heart.
My artist friend Marie Armstrong offers these ‘rules’ for how to be an artist. I see them as “rules for breaking the rules”.
* Never dust.
* Wear an outrageous outfit to a somber occasion.
* Let a child use your sable brush.
* Use a whole roll of film photographing a frog.
* Get your dog to critique your paintings.
* Find beauty in the weeds in your garden.
* Decorate every plate of food you serve.
* Have a special relationship with someone over 90 & someone under 6.
* Try to paint the moonlight.
* Keep your hand open so money can come and go freely.
* Hang your laundry in an artistic composition.
* Believe you can do anything you can imagine.
* Talk for hours about the colour yellow.
* Never colour between the lines.
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