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ARTELLAGRAM 2-1-09:
"In the Studio"
An Interview with Artist Ally Cooney
(This interview is continued from the February 1 2009 Artellagram...)
Artella: Do you plan ahead when you're creating, or does your art unfold more spontaneously?
Ally: i always seem to have some kind of plan when i start and i can almost see it in my head before i lay down the first color or pick up the first piece, but does it turn out the way i envision it? No... NEVER (laughing). Sometimes i wonder if the materials don't have a life and a mind of their own, maybe making their own little plans while i sleep. They seem to define themselves as i work and i am often surprised at the result but the worst thing i could do is force that, to try to make it come out as i had seen it first. My best stuff is an accident.
Stephen King once referred to the creative process of writing as "falling through the hole in the page". When i heard that i knew EXACTLY what he meant, and you probably do too. It's that taking over of something you just can't define, where you lose track of time and forget where you are. To stifle that with some preconceived idea of what it "should" be would be a huge mistake. The process should fill us and trying to tame it is a control that is not art at all but more perfectionism and THAT really doesn't produce anything that changes people.
Artella: Is it important to be in a good mood when you're creating?
Ally: i'm sure that for some it is, but for me that may take some waiting for. i find i GET into a good mood when i can drop everything else and just hide with my "play" (sorry, but calling it "work" is just a lie). It can turn a bad day into something better and i find i often am no longer in a "mood" after i have been at the bench for an hour. Of course, some mediums lend themselves to this healing frame of mind, like pounding silver or ripping fabric - something with some nice expressive energy. If i can think of the silver as absorbing the gremlins, well... that helps too. And i have actually made some great discoveries in anger and in sadness. The approach to materials changes with mood, i think, and tho i know some who might be apt to "take it out" on the art, i'm just not one of them. You may get a different result, but let the solitude calm you and you may find that it helps to turn negative energy into something more positive.
Artella: I never seem to find the TIME to make art. How do you find the time, and what tips can you offer for busy people to help them find time for creativity?
Ally: i think the secret here is in having a place to work. It can be a table, or even a box to work out of but you have to be able to allow things to lay (artwork is like fruit, you know... sometimes it needs to "ripen"). i'm lucky to have a studio. It's small, just a spare room and only about 12 by 12, and overflows somewhat into the garage, but it's a pleasant, private place where i can lay out whatever i'm working on, close the door and leave it. If you are spending all of your time setting up materials and then putting them away when you're done, you won't have time left to create anything.
The rest is in discipline. Too bad i don't have any of that, but i find i have time for almost anything i want badly enough and i want this badly enough. (Sometimes children and small animals just have to starve for the cause) If you have a place to work even 20 minutes is valuable and useful and you will learn to do your thinking on your feet and create within that 20 minutes. The idea of a whole day to myself to create as i please also inspires me to get other things done. Reward yourself with time with your toys and you'll be motivated to do more EVERYWHERE.
Artella: What do you do to overcome or get past artistic blocks?
Ally: i guess this question makes me laugh a little because i consider what i do to be play more than work and somehow the idea of a "block" would indicate that i take myself pretty seriously and i just don't. But i do understand the frustration of having a deadline, such as for a show and the need to continue to produce long after i may feel like it.
i have to have a space to work in, to have several things going on at once. When i get stuck on one project, i just switch off to another and keep moving. If you have room to leave it all where it is, this isn't a problem. Inspiration on one project often leads to it on another and i think they feed off of one another. While i certainly don't treat what i do as an assembly line, the rotation of projects allows me not to sit and be stuck on anything.
Artella: What advice do you have for people who think it's too late in life to follow a dream?
Ally: Somebody is kidding here, right? i'm almost 50 and didn't even call myself an artist until i was 38. i hope that my best creation is a long way off. Younger than that i was too busy being a wife and mother to even have time to do half of what i do now. Art is one of the few places where age won't slow you down but only reflect a richer life experience. The only way to get over that idea is to run at it hard with your claws out. Prove to yourself over and over how wrong it is by just DOING IT. Women especially need to learn that often nature saves the best for last.
Artella: Do you actually buy much of other artists' art, or just use it for inspiration?
Ally: i love owning art by other artists, including the children i once tutored who have gone on to better things. i certainly am inspired by it but use it and enjoy it far more than my own. My favorite part of any show has to be when all is over and the artists relax. We all have time to walk around as we are tearing down and the money is put away and bartering becomes the form of our trade. While art by others most certainly does inspire me, i have saved and schemed for months to own something by an artist met at a show or came across in a swap. i can't imagine seeing nothing but my own work day in and day out.
Artella: Do you have any ideas for encouraging creativity in young children?
Ally: i've tutored home-schooled children in art as well as brought my son up in a creative atmosphere and i think the best way to inspire creativity in children is to give them the materials and LEAVE THEM ALONE. There will be times when you want to initiate a particular project with them, but for the most part they should be given time and space and materials to create with. Their efforts should be encouraged and us "big people" should stand back unless asked for help. Just like the stereotypical father who builds his son's race car for cub scouts while the kid watches television, we have to be careful not to interfere too much, not to ask for perfection and not to give them the idea that a certain outcome is the only acceptable one. When left to their own devices, children can create some amazing things and they also can find ways to use what i give them that i never would have considered. All children will create and enjoy it in some form if left alone with something to work with. They really don't need much help from us, we only want to THINK they do.
See Ally's wonderful products in The Shoppes of Artella, here.
 Want more artist interviews from Artella?
Take a look at our eBooks Artist Profiles Assembled and Artist Profiles Assembled, Vol 2, and look at the "Ask the Artist" column every single day in The Artella Daily Muse, our daily online creativity newspaper.
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