Twyla Tharp's Art Biography

For this assignment, we have been asked to reframe the questions from Twyla Tharp’s, “The Creative Habit” questionnaire, in the context of our Spring 2010 projects for DXARTS 202. This is an exercize that is intended to create a reflection of our experience in this course.
I will answer the questions regarding the course project first, then in italics, I will explore them in the context of my life as a whole. My answers to these questions are a reflection of this moment, and are only the beginning to a lifelong answer.

1. After peeling away some of my initial desires in the original concept for my work, I was able to experience a moment where all the different facets of my emotional system, were linked, and fed each other. The different terrains of my psychological life, were now unified in their dependence on each other.

When I was 4-5 years-old in pre-school, there was a student volunteer instructor who was an illustrator, and he would sit with me for hours. We would create stories and characters, and I remember being mystified by how our imagination could be realized on a piece of paper. This was the first moment I remember experiencing an artistic translation – that a vision could be brought into the world.

3 & 4. The best idea from my work for DXARTS 202 is the image and sound of water pouring over the Man’s face to express his renewal. Although this image and gesture is symbolic throughout the history of religion and art, my piece captures a special moment when the Woman becomes water and splashes down on His face, creating a turbulent sense of purification. This scene also gives me insight into a feature of cinema, where an image or gesture in common use, can take new form because of the uniqueness of the actor’s performance and the images’ marriage to sound.

The best decision that I have made thus far in my life was returning to school about four years ago. Although I feel I have led an interesting life colored with characters, experiences, and creativity, none could have brought so much joy to myself, and the others around me, as being a part of my Community College and University communities. My best idea, was to explore more ideas.

5, 6, & 7. The idea that I felt was the weakest/dumbest for this project was the literal and linear flow of the piece from one state to another. This segmented approach does not express my own fluid and non-linear landscape of emotional experience. This feature still remains in the work today because I didn’t see it in time to change it, and it originates from my exposure to linear/literal form in consumer media. It is my job now to seek out more interesting and personal ways of expressing ideas – a closer examination of form.

8, 9, & 10. My creative ambition for this project was to experiment and learn new tools, and digital composition techniques/concepts, and discover new creative nooks within myself. One obstacle that stands in the way of the latter, is my tendency to settle on an idea without allowing it to breath and grow longer. For example, I was very quick to start shooting content, and was very attached to sme of my initial ideas, so when it came time to compose the material, some of my ideas had changed - but I was stuck with the old material to achieve the new ideas. Although I feel like my ability to organize and produce quickly is a handy commercial trait, I believe I should have waited another two weeks or so to start shooting with my actors – giving more room for the journey.

Ideas come to me in the form of stories, some stories are one-second long and others are three-years long. Some ideas appear to me as forms independent of narrative and psychological logic. There are also some moral concepts that appear within myself that are deeply important to me, such as beauty, love, irony, conflict, environmental awareness, spirituality, interconnectivity, and transcendence/embracing of our human condition. It is my ambition to bring these things out of the realm of imagination, and mold them into experiences on our planet and in our psyche. To achieve this, I will need to continue to engage with the world, explore myself, and master the appropriate tools.

12. I created a folder for this project, and during the quarter, I would add a piece of sound or video nearly each day. I would dedicate a week or so to each segment in the piece, collecting appropriate media for that particular motion. I also experimented with effects and composition tools everyday to eventually build comfort with AfterEffects. With a recorder and a camera, I eventually had a nice bank of materials to use for the piece, although very little of it made it into the finished work. I would also look at my day’s work every night so I could consider things as I fell asleep.

13, 14, & 15. My first successful act of creation for this project was the storyboards I built for designing the piece. It was in this process of visualization and composition, that I was able to start seeing the manifestation of the idea. The second successful creatinve act was deconstructing and stripping away everything that was in the storyboards so I could see where the essence of the piece was. Both of these acts were equally important, and their polarity allow for two key approaches to my art-making. The first is the act of adding everything to the pot, and gives me a large platter of options and directions. The second act is subtraction, and this allows me a discovery process to find my voice more clearly.

16. In the context of this quarter’s work and my own thoughts, I will address possible issues concerning the topics listed on #16 of the questionnaire: I think that the skills taught in this class, such as personal expression, are valuable to fulfilling art creation, but am convinced that they are also profitable in a commercial sense as well. The competitive nature of commercial media creates tough odds for artist to just show up and “make it”, but if someone can position themselves as a unique voice, I think they can create a specialized demand for their aesthetic. If you look at artists like Chris Cunningham, or Barry Adamson, they have created cult followings by persisting with their own voice and not compromising. I think artists and people in general should assess their power carefully so as not to abuse it or waste it. In this class, the critiques went fairly smooth because the TA’s did not abuse their power, but instead, tried to create a healthy exchange and offer their experience and honesty. Praise should be accepted humbly, and considered gratefully by the receiver, and constructive and honest when given. I see rivalry as healthy sport, and see competition as a motivation to push myself further. Work should replace entitlement, and play should come often. Work is in front of me to do, and play is right behind it. Art is the perfect marriage between work and play.

17, 18, &19. During this project, I was able to research a few artists, and the most impressionable (no pun intended), was Edvard Munch. His works were produced at the tail end of the Impressionist Period and are said to be one of the driving forces into Expressionism. The forms, gestures, and ambiance in his work, displays tangible forms injected with strong abstractions. Munch and I share a respect and drive to study and emulate tradition, but an even stronger need to explore and examine our own annals of expression.

20, 21, &22. For this quarter’s project, I would say that the entire class played the role of a muse for creating the work. Each person played a special role as a guiding spirit throughout different stages.

The muse is a guiding force, a relection pond, and a conversation surrounding the work at hand. I have several friends that engage me in discussion, not necessarily about art, but about desires, ideals, morals, hates, and love. My father always guides me to look deeper at my life and my work, and inspires me to truly engage with whatever is in front of me. He gives me love, criticism, and support on a regular basis.


23, 24, & 25. In the context of this quarter, instances of high-intellect, talent, stupidity, laziness, etc., were not put on a pedestal, but instead, addressed respectfully in critiques. During the critiques, I tried to remember that I was in the middle of a process, and that criticism was a supportive gesture, not an antagonizing one.

There are many times where I feel the pressure of success or failure looming over me, but I always try to remember that who I am and what’s important, is not eligible to scrutiny or glamour. It is important for me to succeed, but I’ve also started-over many times. I’m not afraid to consider what’s really important in this existence.

26. This project was more about the process of creating than it was about the result, although the final piece must faithfully represent my journey throughout the class. I am not as proud of the final work as I am of the discussions and discovery made during the course.

27. In the beginning of this project, my reach exceeded my grasp, but I tried to see it as another step closer to the final experience. I tried to allow myself zealous ambitions, while keeping reality close by for padding.

28. My favorite creative acts dring this project was the period when I was shooting the content and starting to compose it on the screen. The experience of shooting is so exciting, intuitive, and physical, and it gives me great pleasure to take that experience and mold it with the prescision of post-production. I love detailing and sculpting the chaos obtain during shooting.

29. I am scared of exposing myself, and losing control of my universe.

32. Mastery is a comprehensive knowledge of the tools and theory of a discipline, but more than that, I think mastery is seeing your specialty from many angles. This allows us the ability to challenge our own field, helping it to evolve. Mastery is openness, and adaptability.

33. It is my dream to laugh, love, and transcend our world through art.

Finale Process

After the critiques of my final demo, I have a much greater desire to find my voice, and discard some of my tendencies toward cliche imagery. In the last two weeks of assembling the footage and creating effects shots, I have discovered the art of subtraction in art making - although adding many elements into a composition at first has led me to discovering the method of subtraction.

It is encouraging to know that my work comes across as being well-crafted, and now my focus is definitely steered towards finding more unique ways of expressing myself in my work. For example, I think that creating a river of blood to portray anger in my project is still typical, but I am on the right path to finding more originality and abstraction. I also exaggerated the greens and brought up the reaching hand in the beginning, again cliche, but much closer. For my next project, the process of designing my shots, and examining my own vision will be a much more important part of the work.

The critique of my demo was an important moment in my life - it sets the course to a deeper examination of my potential in the arts.