{"id":4854,"date":"2015-02-04T21:18:35","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T01:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/?p=4854"},"modified":"2016-01-20T14:06:16","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T18:06:16","slug":"pearental-discretion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/archives\/4854","title":{"rendered":"Pearental Discretion"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>\u201cWhen people think about creativity, they think about artistic work \u2014 unbridled, unguided effort that leads to beautiful effect. But if you look deeper, you\u2019ll find that some of the most inspiring art forms, such as haikus, sonatas, and religious paintings, are fraught with constraints. They are beautiful because creativity triumphed over the \u2018rules.\u2019 Constraints shape and focus problems and provide clear challenges to overcome. Creativity thrives best when constrained.\u201d<br \/>\n\u2014 Marissa Ann Mayer <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I have been intrigued by the recent work of participants in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/TheMatchbookCollageCollaborationProject\/\" title=\"the group page at facebook\" target=\"_blank\">Matchbook Collage Collaboration Project<\/a>. Collage artists, whether working alone or in collaboration, are increasingly known for imposed restrictions \u2014 time, scale, format, or ingredients.  Early on I gained a healthy respect for the power of parameters, most likely because I was educated as a designer and trained as an applied artist. Years later, this respect was amplified significantly when I witnessed my nephew create thousands of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ommatidia.org\" title=\"Ommatidia by Brendan Adkins: fiction for the attention-deprived\" target=\"_blank\">101-word stories<\/a> as an exercise in creative writing.<\/p>\n<p>A big part of managing open-ended potential when initiating new work is to dig for an \u201cinner assignment\u201d that limits the options and sparks a creative impulse. Another good catalyst is to look around for an external constraint. I enjoy reacting to calls-to-artists that focus on an organizing concept. Even if I don\u2019t actually apply, the triggered intuitive process can be informative. Here is a piece that I just finished in response to the exhibition theme of \u201cHome.\u201d In addition to framing the possibilities, it provided an opportunity for me to work more three-dimensionally, explore color scheme limitations, and further investigate the combining of found materials.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Dixon_PearentalDiscretion.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Dixon_PearentalDiscretion.jpg\" alt=\"Pearental Discretion ~ John Andrew Dixon\" title=\"Pearental Discretion ~ J A Dixon\" width=\"400\" height=\"303\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4859\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Dixon_PearentalDiscretion.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Dixon_PearentalDiscretion-300x228.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 88%; line-height: 133%; margin-top: 336px; margin-bottom: 44px; color: gray; padding-left: 30px;\" align=\"left\"><strong><em>Pearental Discretion<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nmixed-media artifact by J A Dixon<br \/>\n11.25 x 9.25 inches<br \/>\navailable for purchase<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWhen people think about creativity, they think about artistic work \u2014 unbridled, unguided effort that leads to beautiful effect. But if you look deeper, you\u2019ll find that some of the most inspiring art forms, such as haikus, sonatas, and religious paintings, are fraught with constraints. They are beautiful because creativity triumphed over the \u2018rules.\u2019 Constraints [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,38,118,30,125,65,11,160,8,173,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4854"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4914,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4854\/revisions\/4914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}