A comment on my piece at the Seattle gallery show last month really shifted how I see my own work.

This older woman stood in front of my digital landscape for a solid five minutes. She turned to me and said, 'It feels like you painted the air, not the mountains.' I'd been so focused on getting the rock textures perfect in Procreate that I never thought about the space between things. It made me start adding more atmospheric layers to everything. Has a simple observation from a viewer ever completely changed your approach to a piece?

3 comments

3 Comments

matthewmartin7d ago

That's a really cool story. A friend once said my song sounded "lonely in a good way" and I never wrote a bassline the same after that. It's wild how someone can point out a feeling you didn't even know you put in there. Makes you want to chase that kind of reaction more often.

jennifer2047d ago

Chasing that feeling can mess up your work. You start overthinking every note instead of just playing. Trust your gut and let those moments find you.

milesbailey7d ago

Yeah, "trust your gut" is key. Makes me think of what @matthewmartin said about someone else naming the feeling in his song. Maybe the trick is to just make the thing honestly, and let other people do the feeling-chasing for you?