{"id":3043,"date":"2009-01-30T06:41:22","date_gmt":"2009-01-30T11:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2009-01-30T09:45:28","modified_gmt":"2009-01-30T14:45:28","slug":"deciding-to-stop-deciding-to-start-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/deciding-to-stop-deciding-to-start-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Deciding to Stop; Deciding to Start Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

I remember the word and forget the word
\n                   although the word
\nHovers in flame around me.
\nSummer hovers in flame around me.
\nThe overcast breaks like a bone above the Blue Ridge.
\nA loneliness west of solitude
\nSplinters into the landscape
\n                   uncomforting as Braille.<\/p>\n

We are our final vocabulary,
\n                   and how we use it.
\nThere is no secret contingency.
\nThere’s only the rearrangement, the redescription
\nOf little and mortal things.
\nThere’s only this single body, this tiny garment
\nGathering the past against itself,
\n                   making it otherwise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Charles Wright, Negative Blue<\/em>)<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:
\n<\/p>\n

Those who would make art might well begin by reflecting on the fate of those who preceded them: most who began, quit. It’s a genuine tragedy. Worse yet, it’s an unnecessary tragedy. After all, artists who continue and artists who quit share an immense field of common emotional ground. (Viewed from the outside, in fact, they’re indistinguishable.) We’re all subject to a familiar and universal progression of human troubles — troubles we routinely survive, but which are (oddly enough) routinely fatal to the artmaking process. To survive as an artist requires confronting these troubles. Basically, those who continue to make art are those who have learned how to continue – or more precisely, have learned how to not quit.<\/p>\n

Artists quit when they convince themselves that their next effort is already doomed to fail.<\/p>\n

Virtually all artists encounter such moments. Fear that your next work will fail is a normal, recurring and generally healthy part of the artmaking cycle. It happens all the time: you focus on some new idea in your work, you try it out, run with it for awhile, reach a point of diminishing returns, and eventually decide its not worth pursuing further.<\/p>\n

In the normal artistic cycle this just tells you that you’ve come full circle, back to that point where you need to begin cultivating the next new idea. But in artistic death it marks the last thing that happens: you play out an idea, it stops working, you put the brush down… And thirty years later you confide to someone over coffee that, well, yes, you had wanted to paint when you were much younger. Quitting is fundamentally different from stopping<\/em>. The latter happens all the time. Quitting happens once. Quitting means not starting again — and art is all about starting again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(David Bayles and Ted Orland, Art and Fear: An Artist’s Survival Guide<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Finally, Robert Cray speaks to the power of a simple decision in just getting things going (click Play button to start, volume control at left; lyrics below)<\/em>:<\/p>\n

[audio:staygo_robertcray.mp3|titles=’Stay Go’|artists=Robert Cray]<\/div>\n

Lyrics :<\/p>\n

Stay, Go
\n<\/strong>(words and music by Robert Cray)<\/em><\/p>\n

You never stay
\nYou’re on the go
\nThree times a day
\nOr maybe more<\/p>\n

Where you run to
\nI just don’t know
\nI turn around
\nYou’ve got the Ford<\/p>\n

Didn’t put any gas in it
\nWhen you brought it back<\/p>\n

You’re out last night
\nThe night before
\nAnd the night before that<\/p>\n

Oh, you’re starting to worry me
\nCan I have the car keys back?<\/p>\n

In, out
\nIn, out
\nIn and out, just like a cat<\/p>\n

Never, ever stay at home, babe
\nIf you’re here it’s just to change clothes<\/p>\n

This in and out is driving me crazy
\nAre you gonna stay or are you gonna go?<\/p>\n

(Guitar solo)<\/p>\n

I’d love to have a date with you
\nBeing my wife and everything<\/p>\n

Tomorrow morning
\nWhen you get home
\nYou’re gonna find
\nThere’s something wrong<\/p>\n

I sold the car
\nAnd hid the phone
\nSo you and I can be home alone<\/p>\n

Now maybe we can take a walk together or something
\nThat’d be real nice<\/p>\n

Stay, go
\nStay, go
\nStay, go
\nStay, go<\/p>\n

Stay, go
\nStay, go<\/p>\n

In, out
\nStay, go<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(from A Shame and a Sin<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From whiskey river: I remember the word and forget the word                    although the word Hovers in flame around me. Summer hovers in flame around me. The overcast breaks like a bone above the Blue Ridge. A loneliness west of solitude Splinters into the landscape                […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,74,5,372],"tags":[889,939,940,941,942,943,944],"class_list":{"0":"post-3043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-music","8":"category-06_writing","9":"category-style-and-craft","10":"tag-ted-orland","11":"tag-decisions","12":"tag-stopping-and-starting","13":"tag-charles-wright","14":"tag-david-bayles","15":"tag-robert-cray","16":"tag-stay-go","17":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-N5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3057,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions\/3057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}