NOTES
It’s a tempting thought just to let the book speak for itself. I work in a visual
medium and make no claim to being a writer – the words tumble out in the wrong order
in an attempt to keep up with my thoughts. So I’ll use someone else’s words to
start. Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer-artist in the early-20th century, said: "If
an artist could explain his work in words, he would not have to create it." This is
less about finding the right words and more about the process of creating art. And
that’s what this book is really about.
All artists go through a similar process, no matter what medium we use. All the
explorations, attempts, failures, and adjustments teach us something about what we’re
trying to say or how we’re saying it; the unexpected discoveries, surprises, and
triumphs only add to the process. Any creation, whether it’s a painting, a poem, a
photograph or a song, exists at a particular moment. Its meaning and impact change from
one moment to the next, depending on who is looking at it, hearing it, or experiencing it.
This is part of what art is about. The artist creates the work, the audience responds to
it – there are no wrong moves here. Artists may be driven to create for any number of
reasons: a desire to communicate, a need to earn money, a deep-seated conviction... they
may not even know what the reasons are. None of this is important (though it might be
interesting) to the person looking at the work.
All this theoretical discussion is fine... but what does it have to do with this book?
There’s nothing here about the techniques of singing or making music; there’s
even less about the techniques of photography. It’s not intended to be solely a
history or a celebration of San Diego Opera – it is about opera; it is
about art and the artist. Talent may dictate that one becomes an artist instead of a
plumber or an accountant, but in all other respects, artists work at their jobs the same
as anyone else. Anne Truitt notes in her Daybook that we’re different from
the plumber – not special – because we spin our work out of ourselves, discover
its laws, and then present ourselves turned inside out to the public gaze. What’s
important are the reactions of both the artist who presents this work and the audience
which experiences it.
I find that all artists are searching for a way to express a truth that is important to
them. In that search we are by turn motivated, enthusiastic, questioning, passionate,
doubtful, afraid, and confident. We generally know when it’s right, even if
we’re not always sure what it is. And part of that knowledge is learning to
trust the process; there’s nothing abstract about this. The process is what it’s
about; the resulting photographs or performance mark where we were at a particular time.
It’s hard to visualize, but these pages attempt to give a look – a very
subjective look – at the entire process. From opera to this Company to individual
artists, it’s all the same story.
