Reflective inquiry and artistic practice: Identifying consistencies originating from experience.

摘要

Artists have familiar and unfamiliar experiences continuously throughout their life. The qualities that stand out the most from experiences define those experiences. These qualities contribute to a personal language an artist uses in studio practice. Experiences influence artist's processes, aesthetic and artistic development and material and object choice and use. From this, consistencies originate giving an artist's artwork a distinctive presence. Consistencies and experiences assist in locating past histories and traditions learned through experiences that exist in the artist's artwork.;This research study is a reflective and reflexive inquiry into the author's creative practice and the role and influence of familiar and unfamiliar experiences. Autoethnography and its methods were used to collect, analyze data, and observe and reflect upon past and present sites of creative practice, learning and experiences resulting in a descriptive narrative. The study was undertaken in multiple locations chosen because of the role each site plays in the author's creative practice. They were sites for self-reflection, observation and creative action and were limited to the author's teaching studio in New York City, his grandfather farm and wood working shop in Elon, North Carolina, and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont.;It was found that familiar experiences exert a consistent influence on artistic practice and contribute the most to the author's construction and use of a personal language. This personal language is used in the investigation and processing of experiences and construction of artistic narratives. Resulting from this are specific consistencies that are mediated by the experiences that contribute to their existence.;The influence of experiences on artistic practice contributes to a studio process that is ever changing to meet the needs of an artist at any one moment. It is a process that is arranged and constructed by the artist in different ways each time one engages in artistic practice. From these specific circumstances consistencies grow that allude to what is happening, but these consistencies evolve as the artist has continuous experiences. The process originates and is influenced by experiences, materials and objects and the individual artist. It is an unpredictable, unfolding approach.