The Artist Athlete Podcast Episode 83: WTF is Art? with Julie Marshall
Listen in as hoop artist and self-proclaimed sparkling garbage, Julie Marshall, grapples with the question: WTF is ART anyway? And how the heck can circus artists make work that channels individual expression while maintaining technique, clarity of vision, and a relationship to the audience? This interview addresses âthe taste gapâ (as defined in the quote below) as well as topics such as body image, mental health, and the importance of being totally ridiculous.âNobody tells people who are beginners â and I really wish somebody had told this to me â is that all of us who do creative work ⊠we get into it because we have good taste. But itâs like thereâs a gap, that for the first couple years that youâre making stuff, what youâre making isnât so good, OK? Itâs not that great. Itâs really not that great. Itâs trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but itâs not quite that good. But your taste â the thing that got you into the game â your taste is still killer, and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what youâre making is kind of a disappointment to you, you know what I mean?
A lot of people never get past that phase. A lot of people at that point, they quit. And the thing I would just like say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work, they went through a phase of years where they had really good taste and they could tell what they were making wasnât as good as they wanted it to be â they knew it fell short, it didnât have the special thing that we wanted it to have.
And the thing I would say to you is everybody goes through that. And for you to go through it, if youâre going through it right now, if youâre just getting out of that phase â you gotta know itâs totally normal.
And the most important possible thing you can do is do a lot of work â do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week, or every month, you know youâre going to finish one story. Because itâs only by actually going through a volume of work that you are actually going to catch up and close that gap. And the work youâre making will be as good as your ambitions. It takes a while, itâs gonna take you a while â itâs normal to take a while. And you just have to fight your way through that, okay?â -Ira Glass
Mental health resource list:
https://blog.fracturedatlas.org/mental-health-resources-artists-covid-19
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