The Art of Mistakes Interview with Melanie Rothschild

Self taught artist who never thought she was very good at art.

After graduating from college she felt relaxed and had intentions of just 'playing'

She used her anthropology design references in her head to inspire her to be creative

Started off with frames that she had from her family business - designed them and sold them

Went to a few art classes and always felt like she was the worst in the class

She calls her techniques the 'Gorilla techniques' - things that she stumbled across on her own and made up

'The tool of my trade is mistakes'

Originally used dots on her frame designs to cover up the mistakes

'Mistakes for me are guide posts to ideas i never would have come up with'

I find it interesting that she talks about the idea of feeling accepted. with the encouragement of making mistakes, it allows people to feel accepted and welcome to the 'art table'. I feel like there are a lot of rules and restrictions with art which create huge amounts of pressure so the enforcement of mistakes allows people to feel more comfortable in creating art.

Image, Idea, Context

Making Mistakes

Making mistakes - learn from them. You do the whole process again, so you are developing new skills and becoming more skillful. Opposed to digital where you literally press the undo button. You are not necessarily learning and getting a greater understanding of the process.

What makes analogue illustration more interesting than digital?

Mistakes are important its how you learn from them.

Jackson Pollock compared with Roy Lichtenstein - the paint splat made into something digital. 

Melanie Rothschild 

Accidently spilled a whole gallon of paint into her workshop. When it dried she was able to peel the whole thing off. She then became obsessed with spilling paint, letting it dry and peeling it off. She became obsessed with the idea that mistakes lead to new ideas. Setbacks along the way can be a catalyst for new ideas and adventures.

Winston Churchill - 'success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.'

'Goal mistakes' - choose purposely to take a risk, for success, coaching and trial and error.

Image analysis

Shepard Fairey - Obama 'Hope'

Powerful colours - red symbolising importance. this is contrasted with the shades of blue which perhaps shows juxtaposition between that and the text 'Hope'. Blues are usually associated with quite sad emotions. The face is half and half perhaps suggesting the look into the future but shadowed by the past? Or I guess it's just the American flag split into the two states - Democrats and Republicans. Produced in 2008 for the Barack Obama presidency campaign.








William Morris - Trellis Wallpaper.

Inspired by the gardens at red house. Colour are quite subdued and restricted. Washed out. Mediaeval. 19th Century. Reaction to the Industrial revolution - hand made painting. Infatuated by nature and authenticity.
      

Images that relate to my quote

I looked at both digital and analogue concepts when searching for images. I wanted to see the comparison between digital and analogue art. I stumbled across a few really interesting pieces of work, like Melanie Rothschild who creates objects with dried paint, from her initial 'mistake' when she accidentally spilled paint on her floor. I discovered that a lot of modern festival sub culture posters are screen prints (analogue style) which shows that the younger generation are starting to be really drawn by the niche, unique, redundant style of art which suggests it will come back into fashion. 

Finding Sources of Information

LCA Library

Source 1 - book 'The Craftsman' 306 SEN - Richard Sennett.

The book is quite engaging and relevent a lot of knowledge and opinions. I used the LCA Catalogue library. 

Source 2 - 'Understanding digital culture' - Vincent Miller 306.24. Book, LCA Catalogue. 

Source 3 - 'Lomo Life - future is analogue' 779 - this book backs up the quote quite well, so it is a very useful source of information. 

Google Books (preview)

Source 1 - 'film is not dead' Jonathan Canlas + Kristen Kalp. Internet.

Source 2 - Dialogue - Anders Soman-Nisson 

Source 3 - Real Academy - Robert Allen Bartlett

Websites

Source 1 - Introduction to digital photography - differences between analogue and digital.

Source 2 - Melanie Rothschild: The Art of Mistakes.

Source 3 - the art and science of mistakes.