Getting It Off Your Chest (And Out There)

2 CommentsSunday • December 4, 2011 • by Imei

Whenever someone says, “I need to get something off my chest,” I flinch internally, accompanied by a conscious desire to hold by breath before whatever it is I’m about to hear is going to sail out of that person’s mouth and make a direct connection with my gut. If you think I’m being dramatic, try to recall the last time someone said that to you, and then landed a 100 pound zinger on you. All of us come in contact with difficult messages and themes, and if you are artistically minded, perhaps you have learned to tap into those ideas and express them through an art form, such as film or theater, music and dance. Here are some great ways to get those messages off your chest and out into the world.

When working with difficult topics, get it off your chest quickly. Try these tips, below.

Ways to Get Stuff Off Your Chest (And Into Your Art)

1. Watch other professional artists at your craft, and take notes. I’ll be attending a Zoe Juniper performance at OtB (On the Boards) Sunday Dec. 4 for a well-received modern dance performance by distinguished NY area dancers, “A Crack in Everything”. The interview by Zoe details her interest in conceptualizing sin using props, contemporary music and costuming, and providing a demanding choreography that gives the audience a sense that if one were to let go, all the “cracks” might appear, just as they do IRL every day.

2. Write it down. I used to carry a Moleskin pad in my purse, but with the invention of the smartphone, you can write those things down in a memo on your phone, or make a note using Evernote for you best ideas. Even if you wrote, “I feel f*cked off every time someone says (fill in the blank),” that note is telling you to attend to how many times you feel it, what exactly you’re feeling, and begs the question of what you want to do about it.

3. Free associate. Once you have a idea off your chest, take it out, shake it out, and hold it up to the light. Free associate other ideas. Name the first five ideas that drop out of your head after you “look” at the thing: grease, cat poop, jazz, environmental rape, despair. [OK, don't send me to a shrink for those words connected to one idea].

4. Imitate, journal, and then create your own. If an idea is particularly difficult for you to conceptualize, try imitating something else. For example, if you want to express anger, watch angry animals on Youtube, such as this kitty cat:

[Just as a mental exercise, have you ever tried to embody the energy of a frightened, and then let it uncoil out of your spine?]

5. Use a different medium. Since I don’t know how to draw, drawing is one of the first media I’ll try to express a difficult concept. Why? Because the effort required makes me slow down, economize my words or ideas in one frame, and rethink what is fundamental to my concept [someday I might show you a six-frame comic strip I've started on, starring my cats Lumi and C-M].

6. Watch other professional artists from a different medium. I saw Carolee Schneemann’s “Within and Beyond the Premises” exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery (showing until  Dec. 30, 2011).  Viewing this collection of filmaker, photographer, feminist, and performance artist in the exhibitionistic stream,  participants are exposed (no pun intended) to a wide variety of works including the pulling of a scroll from her vagina, to black and white photographs of kisses on her cat that one would be deceived if one tried to describe it short of intimate. The exploration of difficult themes (i.e. rape/assault, fury, repression, death, sex and gender) The pieces that grabbed me in particular involved the clawing of hands in heart-shaped paintings to conceptualize the violence and anguish of a physical assault.

7. Read. [Do I need to say more?]

8. Join a community with a message board to bounce ideas around. While the group,”Artist Study Hall” met in late Fall 2011, we shared our ideas out loud, used each other as surrogate muses, and drank a lot of coffee. The accountability and flow of ideas will help you get your ideas down, putting you closer to getting your ideas “out there”.

9. Be Lloyd Dobbler (except video yourself). In the movie, “Say Anything”, Lloyd drives around at night with a portable cassette recorder, rambling to himself. Think of it as a night time audio version of Julie Cameron’s “Artist Way” morning pages. While rambling to yourself, your mind may drop ideas like precious gems, and a great way to archive these ideas is to keep your phone camera rolling.

10. Do it. Every artist knows there comes a moment where you need to just shut up and get to work. Do it. Don’t dawdle, procrastinate, or start cleaning your house. If you’re picking lint out of your belly button instead of pulling out the camera and lights for that photography idea that has bounced around your mind like a ping pong for days, nine of ten guesses say you will end up with a pile of lint rather than a finished photo. Put the lint down and get to work.

Have you ever tried to communicate an idea through art that was very difficult? Share your ideas on how you got the idea off your chest and into the world.