If you’ve been listening to Artifice lately, you’ve definitely heard me express a bit of struggle with posing the ART v. ARTIFICE question to my guests. I can certainly understand why someone would bristle at the idea that artifice plays any role at all in their creative productivity. Meanwhile, I remain CONVINCED that we all do some version of balancing here, and the discomfort is simply a result of language limitations. ?‍♀️ *see-what-i-mean emoji*

This past month, one of my guests handed me some tools to dig into this question in a whole new way…

October 2019 featured:

…When I posed the ART v. ARTIFICE question to Stacy (Ep. 32), she responded in a way that has really opened a can of thought worms for me. She talked about “the space between intention and intuition.” I think I could possibly just fully substitute those words for “artifice” and “art,” at least a lot of the time—I’ll say it again and again, these things go by different names for different artists! But, I totally get what Stacy means here. One’s intention can consider practicality, logistics, trends, market value, time spent. I would say, those things could fall under the “artifice” umbrella. Then, one’s intuition may alternately be fully independent, fully internal—trusting itself, requesting no outside criticism or moderation. I sometimes name THAT thing “capital ‘A’ art.” Words are words, you know?

I’m so glad I asked Stacy to clarify whether these things always feel linear to her. Does the intention always precede intuition? Or vice versa? I’m thrilled to know that, for Stacy, it’s not always one before the other. They interact in all sorts of ways. I feel this way, too! And once again, I have a new tool for these tricky conversations.

Now, more than ever, I am sure there is a way to talk with all artists about these things. I’ve been experimenting with a lot of new language in my interviews, and I’m excited to explore these versatile questions with more artists!

If you are having a light bulb moment about your own interplay of art/artifice, intuition/intention (whatever other words you use), please tell me! As always, I love to hear from you.

XO,

Em