Is there urgency?

One artist’s query.

From my studio wall.

Urgency in the context of visual art, signifies the reason for making art in the first place. It is what keeps us, as artists, going from one work to the next.

If the work is lacking urgency, there is no reason to make it and consequently a lack of productivity.

Urgency begets criticality in the work. It’s what makes the work compelling. When there is urgency, the artist is tackling topics that rustle deep within them. To make strong work, the artist must begin with the questions, concerns and topics that resonate from their core. An artist friend of mine calls it a mosquito bite that needs to be scratched. I call it urgency that begins as something warm within and emanates out raditing it’s heat.

To make work that addresses outward concerns without the artist’s own personal insight is just spectacle. And spectacles are short lived.

What does urgency look like?

For me, it is a propensity to keep going even when there is no outside reason to do so. Urgency is a quiet freneticism of intentional actions, one upon the other, to seek and dig deeper. A work of art tackles the artist’s queries but never fully offers a solution. Good artwork never should; as this closes the work down rather than opening it up.

When there is urgency the artist moves from making one work to the next, open to all possibilities that her/his/their point of view can express.

Urgency is by nature, urgent.

It is the reason for continuing forward. Without urgency, there is no critical point of reflection and the work will reflect this. All art is just pigment and materials applied in a unique way. It’s the artist’s approach to urgency that makes the work powerful and worthy of deeper consideration.

What happens when there is no urgency?

Personally, I was unaware of the impact urgency had until I discovered it in my own work. There comes a point - or several throughout an artist’s career - where the artist, through a lengthy process of trial and error, realizes they have made something beyond comprehension. They are absolutely floored by what’s in front of them and take a deep pause. It’s an incredible moment where the artist asks themselves, what did I just create? And how can I create more of it?

The answer lies beyond technique. As every artist knows, you can’t just mimic a process and duplicate that incredible feeling. It stems from something much deeper that the artist has to tap into fully in order to truly realize it. Urgency goes beyond the physical. Urgency is when all aspects of the artist and their work converge into one.

When this happens, an energy of excitement and knowing begins to build as the artist realizes the importance of their discovery. This energy can’t be ignored. It demands attention and a full commitment to the truth of the thing you are doing. Urgency becomes a renewable battery from which to work. The artist who thinks that they are energized from external factors will only ever experience urgency that is fleeting. True urgency is built deep within. When you experience it in your own work, there is a realization that what you do matters deeply.

Urgency isn’t something you can put together haphazardly.

It takes honest reflection and a deep understanding as to what is your true perspective and how is that embedded in your work. The artist must have faith in the process of making in order to arrive at work that begets urgency. This is very difficult to do when you’re unsure of what you’re doing. It’s much easier to grab onto some external concern and co-opt that as your reason for making art. Without true urgency in your work, the artist will inevitably get bored or feel defeated with their output. Simply said, it has to come from deep within.

Once you have urgency, it is up to the artist to keep it. This requires a level of criticality in the work.

For me, I continually ask myself the question:

Is there urgency?

If there isn’t, I know the work is not ready or it is beyond repair. If I don’t feel a level of urgency coming from the work, I know I have to get mentally back to that root reason for being and making. And if I have temporarily forgotten what that is - or it has shifted - I take the time to rediscover it. There is a lot of distraction and noise out there, all telling you about various forms of urgency. But they are roadblocks to the true urgency I am looking for in my own work. Those have to do with my way of seeing and experiencing the world and what I choose going forward.

What am I going to create with all the information, knowledge and experiences I have been witness to?

Or as artist Enrique Martinez Celaya states:

Where do you stand?

I know the work has to feel important, relevant, and urgent in order for me to believe in it and then fully support it as it enters the world beyond my studio. Taking a stand and continuing to work from there is a scary place to be, especially in the beginning. But is there any other place from which to make your work? I think not.

It’s easy to be in a mode of production, especially when there is momentum around your work. But if you’re producing without urgency, the energy around the work suffers and begins to fizzle. Reminding myself to consider whether there is urgency in the work is an effective tool that resets and revitalizes the studio practice.