Why Artists Need Fieldwork

By Thea Fiore-Bloom, PhD

Ever guiltily scoot out to a flea market, museum, or city park instead of writing or making art?

I do.

Next time you take a day off  (or a week off) from creating to go on an adventure, hold your head high.

Don’t label it as goofing off.

Label it as fieldwork.

Fieldwork for artists is a form of archaeology.

It is digging down and around for the what, where, and why of your unique genius.

Successful artists I’ve interviewed insist that both local and foreign forays improve your art, and even your art business.

And they do it in 6 different ways.

Here are the six different ways to experiment with fieldwork.

Alongside six beautiful benefits for our art practices and art businesses. 

So, pretend you’re Margaret Mead, grab a pith helmet and some water, and come with me.

 

6 Ways Fieldwork Benefits Artists &Writers and How To Do It Up Right

“Why do you go away?

So that you can come back.

So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors.”

― Terry Pratchett

Reason #1

Fieldwork Can Prevent Art-Related Burnout

Fieldwork can result in two kinds of treasure: physical treasure in the form of objects and mental treasure in the form of inspiration.

Unlike its evil cousin, resistance, fieldwork has you racing to your studio, not from your studio.

Michigan mixed media artist Graceann Warn (www.graceannwarn.com) gets so inspired after her art-related sojourns that, as she says, “I can’t get back to my studio fast enough; I have speeding tickets to prove it.”

 

Remember Julia Cameron’s concept of the artist’s date from twenty years ago?

If you’re like me, you used to make time for artists’ dates in your calendar.

But do you still?

If your soul is like mine, it’s asking you to put things like visits to vintage shops or strange maritime museums into your monthly calendar again.

But fieldwork is not exactly the same as an artist date.

It’s deeper and ultimately more influential on what you create long-term and why. 

Because fieldwork for artists involves picking places to explore that you know are directly related to your unique why in artmaking. 

Let’s examine the work of subscriber and artist Frank Connet as an example of what I’m talking about.

 

Reason#2

Fieldwork in Nature Can Be Better For You Than an MFA

Connet might go to a local tea house or even a 99 Cents Store for a fun artists’ date, but the woods are Connet’s creative workshop.

That’s where his fieldwork takes place.

Textile artist Frank Connet insists that his frequent, happiness-inducing escapes into the Michigan woods and other wild places have done yeoman service to keep his pieces fresh, meaningful, and in demand.

 

Connet was making shibori long before he realized his unique way of practicing this art of sewing, bundling, and dying fabric resembled structures of ice formations he always loved but only later came to photograph (see image below).

“My fieldwork forays into the natural world keep me intrigued and curious about my work and about what surprise and inspiration nature will have in store for me around the next bend,” he said.

Connet believes that his nature-loving buyers may unconsciously be drawn to the archetypal elements and patterns of the woods and fields that his cashmere shibori throws celebrate.

But fieldwork has more internal benefits for artists, which brings us to our next tip.

Reason #3

Fieldwork In Nature Calms and Revives Stressed Artists

Connet’s fieldwork in the forest has strengthened his art, his powers of observation, and helped him stay calm and confident under deadline pressures.

Here we see an image of a piece of Northern California beach kelp that intrigued Connet.

He took the seaweed photo years after forming the copper piece seen below.

Connet later noticed the resemblance between the kelp and his shibori on copper work and was intrigued.

For Connet, it was confirmation that his artwork was on target, aligning with his lifelong interior musings on form and pattern.

Fieldwork can help you confirm what needs confirming in your art or writing as well.

It can remind you that yes, you are intelligent.

Yes, you are filled with wonder.

And no, you are not nuts. (Even if friends or family don’t appreciate a nice piece of, say…found kelp… as you do.)

But what if nature doesn’t do it for you?

Reason #4

Urban Fieldwork Can Encourage Art-Related Epiphanies

What if natural or beautiful places are just not where your muses dwell?

I walk the nature-laden section of my urban neighborhood a few times a week, along a picturesque series of canals.

On a good day, I admire the beauty of the quaint painted bungalows lining the waterways. I stare at cats sleeping on patio railings and spy egrets with their reflections mirrored beneath them in the still water.

I get less stressed and even relaxed, but rarely do I have art-related epiphanies.

The epiphany days for me come when I explore the alleys between the backs of the gingerbread houses that front the canals.

In the alleys, I find old wood-paned windows from the 1950s, car fenders from the 1970s, lost letters, and odd handmade toys lying scattered against impromptu murals.

The combinations of weird and mysterious things stir the kettle of my brain.

How did that brand-new pair of boxer shorts get on the decrepit rocking horse anyway?

Even if I don’t bring anything home with me, I leave inspired. The ideas and the found ephemera for my assemblage often converge in abandoned places.

How about you?

For some of us, like Judy Wise, traveling farther away is just what we need.

 

Reason #6

Fieldwork Injects New Life Into Stale Marketing

Wise is a successful Oregon painter, teacher, and writer whose travels constantly feed her business with joy for life and art.

Wise now uses photos of her professional art classes abroad to add color and stories to her social media.

But I find her personal fieldwork-related art journal pages to be the most magnetic aspect of her marketing.

They stand out on noisy sites like Facebook.

Below is her double-page journal spread from before and during a trip to Oaxaca that the artist shared with her followers online.

What a fun, imaginative way to take your readers on a romantic mini-voyage.

This is a way to have your travels/goofing off also serve as playful marketing for you as a creative.

Would you be comfortable sharing a few art journal pages of your local or foreign adventures with your blog readers or social media followers? 

Our final tip is the cherry on the top and speaks to how fieldwork in general and geography, in particular, can help you soulfully celebrate where you have been on this earth and increase your art sales.

 

Reason #6

Fieldwork Can Increase Your Sales

“As an artist, all you have is your mind. Your mind is your best commodity.

The more you enrich your mind, the more you have to offer.

That is your value,” said agent Lilla Rogers.

“Another key to success in the art realm is to stay engaged, stay passionate. You must keep exploring and adventuring. Passion sells.”

“People buy your joy,” Rogers told me. 

“You need to understand the culture at large and the markets to find the best audience for your unique, inspired work. As an art agent, I know that my busiest artists are the ones who are having the most fun. They know how to tap into that place.”

One great way to tap into that emotional place Rogers speaks of is to make art about a physical place that lit you up. Try it, make art about a place you visited at 7 or 70, the energy will still be there, and art buyers will feel it.

 

The Value of Geography in Our Art

And don’t shy away from putting the actual geographic destination in the titles of your piece. 

 

My assemblage boxes with titles like “What Happened in New Zealand” or “That Room at Versailles” sold speedily.

I was so curious that I asked buyers how they found the obscure boxes.  

Turns out buyers search for work that encapsulates the emotions they felt in a certain magical place you may have investigated in your art.

Two buyers told me they both actually typed in the geographical place term like “New Zealand” or “Versailles” in the search bar on Etsy and found me that way.

Let’s wrap this up with one last suggestion for you.

 

So Go Away Already 

So go away and do fieldwork.

Even to do a little metaphorical archeology in a new nook in your old neighborhood.

You don’t need to fly anywhere alluring or spend tons of money to reap the benefits of fieldwork.

Inspiration and exploration are waiting for you close to home, in the next junk-filled alley, or Brazilian cafe, or old park 3 miles from your home that you’ve never visited.

Let your jottings, drawings, or memories from your sojourns remind you of your unique take on all that is.

 

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.“

– Marcel Proust

 

What do you think?

Have you ever created art from “junk”?

Or objects you found on walks in nature?

Let me know in the comments below. 🙂

Work With Thea

You might love these other Charmed Studio posts:

Beatrix Potter was the queen of fieldwork.

Read this post to find out more:

Beatrix Potter: What She Did With Mushrooms, Her Relationship With Her Postman, and 5 Other Things You Don’t Know About Her That Can Make Your Art Life Bloom

Or tuck a great beach read about one of your favorite artists into your carry-on when you go on your next adventure. Check out:

 7 Best Books About Great Artists to Take on Vacation.

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O’Keeffe the Thief: What Georgia Stole

The 3 Biggest Mistakes Art Bloggers Make: Number 2 Will Surprise You