Give me certainty

Artist-of-many-voices Lark Pien has written a post over at First Second proclaiming all her longing for the certainty I’ve been suggesting the artist dismiss as mistaken. I guess it must be a metaphor, but she describes a hole in her vision she longs to fill. She says she can’t see things straight on. That she has to bob her head around to see you from the edges of her vision and it leaves her longing for a whole picture. She writes:

experimenting with different media and acquiring new techniques is fun and rewarding, but i want to see straight ahead. i envy those who can and do. it is as if their heart and the place outside are tied together by a through line. if i run the floss from my heart, through the hole in my vision, will it emerge bound the world outside? as silly as this may seem, i desire this romantic notion. i think this would be nice.

If you’ve been at all interested in the question of embracing uncertainty, I recommend you read Pien’s post. She’s a counterbalance my views. I’m afraid she doesn’t quite state her own head on (ironic, no?). You’ll have to bob your mind’s eye a bit to catch her meaning and maybe that’s because she’s trying to give you a little sense of her own frustrations with knowing.

Letting you know about Pien is dangerous. If I’ve ever run across an artist who’s output could undermine the central tenets of my controversial “On Merit” post, it’s her. That’s okay, though. Understanding is more important than being right. And I wouldn’t want you to miss the super-speeded video of her making a multi-part painting. Go.

I don’t think Lark Pien will ever see all she wants at once, but I think it’s worth your while to watch her try.