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27
Mar
2019
At an art show, I chatted with an artist. In her studio, she explained, artists painted collectively.
I found that hard to comprehend. “Don’t you get upset when someone meddles with your vision?” I asked.
“Sometimes,” she agreed. “If I’ve done a canvas built of blues, say, and someone plops a blob of orange into it. But then my blues take on a different mood.”
She clearly believed her creed – many minds can work together for common benefit.
I like the idea of working together in a community. For one thing, it’s much more enjoyable than working alone. But I can’t imagine a dozen different painters producing a Van Gogh or a Rembrandt. (A Picasso, possibly.)
Perhaps my skepticism results from working with words. After 60 years, I’m convinced that editing by committee never produces a better text. Never. Friend and fellow-writer Isabel Gibson called “group editing” the “most pernicious form of compromise known to humans.”
Categories: Soft Edges
Tags: collaboration, Art, collective work, editing by committee
13
Jan
2016
Tags: collaboration, work
10
Categories: Sharp Edges