Photo by Karim MANJRA from Unsplash
Discipline is a support system for Art. This statement has stuck with me for some time. I was recording a short video for my blog for makers when I strayed into the thought that inspired Discipline and Art. Soon after thoughts and ideas began dew dropping and formed some sort of philosophical framework for Discipline and Art as a subject to explore.
I know a person I will call Bishai. He is a prolific artist and craftsman. We had coffee the other day and he seemed quite frustrated. He opened up to say he has unfinished projects on his table and on most of them he has exceeded the deadline by up to two months. Bishai went on to admit that his life was on a free fall and he thinks that these delays have been caused by a lack of planning and determined routine. He knew what to do.
Discipline is a commitment to a way of thinking. A disciple is not just one who follows but one who has inclined his sense of mission to a working philosophy. The fruit of this inclination is that he becomes the embodiment of an ideal. If we derive our definition of discipline from this then discipline is tying ourselves to a form of artistic expression until we bring it out in its purity – without exaggeration or depravity. So we can say that every artistic notion streamlines us to a form of commitment. It is this commitment that enables us to work on a piece of art to its delivery of exactness.
Discipline, Art and Work
Discipline is what turns Art into Work. I remember a friend of mine who is a prolific photographer. His friends and relatives kept on asking him when he is going to be serious and look for a job (as if photography was no job enough). I remember him tying himself to a work ethic that bore unprecedented projects and now his friends and relatives say he works too much and should find some rest.
Many creative people do not look at their art as work. Society has molded the notion that the seemingly carefreeness of Art is not work, unfortunately many artists have resigned to that notion. When discipline kicks into Art then Work has started. The first principle of Work is Definition, who are you and what do you do – in that order. Work is derived from who the Worker defines himself to be and the kind of Work they produce. So work defines Worker and itself. When you come up with ideas they may seem to come through some subliminal imaginative download. After the lofty or spontaneous download has occurred art must get its feet concretely planted on the ground when you design some discipline to make it see the light of day.
Discipline has a component called process. The discipline needed to bring out art is what fashions our daily routines, associations and collaborations. Every piece of art you produce changes you. This is because every piece of art may come with its own fair share of discipline. Each art has a path. Art rattles the artist it makes him grow. This means when the artist filters or turns an idea into art he tempers himself to suit an accurate representation of the art in question. That tempering impacts upon him. Every time I write a long essay on any topic I begin to nearly literally feel like my brain is being challenged to grow. Writing makes me mind gym. For me the mutation of ideas as I write is almost physical and when I append the last full stop I can attest albeit how small that growth has taken place.
Repetition
Repetition is mastery. Repetition is meditative. It is an essential ingredient of discipline. It is what makes you skillful and agile. Repetition is storage – a segment of your mind bank is created to harness and improve techniques or skills that are repeated. But it is more than having a cerebral barn of routines and methods. It is turning the experience of rehearsal into an environment of fusion or creative permutations and possibilities. A master artist has the ability of arriving at a desired piece of art in many ways.
Sticking unto a line of commitment to produce art may mean you repeat some things. They may seem mundane and monotonous but you have not enjoyed art until what people consider as strokes of monotony become a well shaded portraiture. Repetition is seeing again, it is seeing better. It is adjustment to the rhythm and oscillation of the production of art. If monotony turns into frustration then it means discipline has lost its value and meaningfulness. A man who loves his art love also the monotony that comes with production of art. Art like a good movie has man takes.
Value and Meaningfulness as Grace
When we get frustrated in the making of art we ask ourselves ‘ WHY? – Why am I even doing this?’ Why means Value, it is the question of purpose and direction. Tucked deep into the question of why is fulfillment, measurability and deadline. You never work on most pieces of art forever at some point you have to finish it so that humanity may consume and enjoy it. So the malady of artistic fatigue is cured when the reason of making art stays at the forefront. I was rewriting a segment of a manuscript I am working on yesterday. After a full days work, I felt very frustrated. I had to consciously examine the reasons for the ‘toil’ I had seemed to get myself into. The work will probably survive because I think it is worth it.
Value and meaningfulness gives grace and make discipline more bearable. What value does, it constructively distracts us from the selfish gene especially when it docks into the mode of despair. Value and meaningfulness reminds us of every one else. Value demythologizes ‘art for me’ and reminds us of ‘art for someone else’.
Dead Art
Dead art is art that has not been subjected to Discipline. Which means it may never see the light of day and if it does it will be perverted or skewed. There is a sense in which before exact Art can be produced dead art must precede it. Not all artists are spontaneous masters it takes many takes before good art can begin to come out. But the many takes I am talking about heavily rely upon the determination of the artist to lose himself through discipline before he can find his new self in good art.
There is also the other kind of dead art which is art that we will never see because of the undetermined creator to master himself to be an appropriate filter of good art. I have killed books and manuscripts, songs and poems because of a voluntary dosage of lethargy. There are projects I have long dumped because the fire and zeal to finish them was extinguished around procrastination and lack of disciplined routine. The presumptive false ideal that tomorrow is another day has many times robbed the world and me at large of books and music they may never read or hear. Dead artist walking may not be a good mantra, but by and large many ideas are locked up in people who have given up on the idea of effort and death of the self-gene.
Sagifying Myself
My private definition of a Sage is a person that has stopped competing with time. He is wise to invest in a piece of creation wholly a minute at a time. I used to hurry because I thought my art is late and my moments are slowly ebbing away. In the event of rushing out pieces I threw out many little bombs of art that had hints of genius but with the same breath also carried with them a hint of fading mastery. So I have since decided to ruthlessly govern every fibre in me to first hone onto an idea of art then to excessively tie myself to its execution.
The discipline to do that may not be pleasant but a finished product from my end tends to arouse a sense of authenticity even when I think I may have done better. I may have to oscillate between creating art for everyone and which comes with its own pressure, or resolve to make art for that one faceless individual without the determination for an ovation. There may be a little wisdom in patience and pace of a Sage where instead of competing with time, I resign to cooperating with it and justify its linear continuum by filling it with deserved art. Discipline!
