Life as A Permission Giving Practice

Having an intimate relationship with self-taught and visionary art environments is a fundamental aspect of my studio practice. I look to the intensity of rigor behind their work, at the attention paid to their own language of craftsmanship, and to their often prolific output as a benchmark. Art school can rob an artist of their creative agency—conflating a rigorous practice with academic thinking. These things are not the same, and rigor does not require the academy. Artists like Jesse Howard or Fred Smith had no concerns with the art world; they were concerned with digesting the immediate world around them. They engaged that world through the work they made using what was on hand and in mind at that moment. Their rigor was found in self-examination. They gave themselves permission to make the work because they had no external hang-ups to stop them. Living in and restoring Mary Nohl's home is a constant reminder of this. This presentation will address how her choices in making through color, material, and form directly relate to the context of the surrounding landscape, and how, as an artist, Nohl’s and other similar practices serve as a constant reminder that the answers I am often looking for are closer at hand than I realize. These artists push me to dive deep into my personal history as a driver before I look outward for direction. That is the most sincere form of practice I can imagine.