Final Project

True, during the last few months I got to know certain artists, but before anything else – I was privileged to get to know certain people – human beings!
Indeed it was my privilege to hear their fascinating stories, discuss a variety of ideas and thoughts and encounter new environments.
For all of that, and more, I am most grateful!

This project leads to many interpretations and different conclusions. However, I do not intend to discuss here but my own personal view and interpretation, which are based on my familiarity with both artists and materials. I do recognize, of course, that from this point forth, everybody can draw their own conclusions.

I have chosen artists who are in different stages of life and career. Some are already very established – achieved international fame and appreciation and won many prizes and awards, while others are young starting artists – still struggling, searching for the right way, experimenting in various fields, seeking exposure to all genres of the Visual Arts, aspiring to leave their own unique impression.
Most of them are free agents and are not tied down to any fixed place or location – they actually live and create, simultaneously, in several places in the world, or they live in one place but work in several. One way or another, the imprint of the "open global world" is noticeable about them.
They've all emphasized and even defined the importance of the environment to their creativity and creation!

But what exactly is considered – environment of creation and creativity? What is it made of – what goes into its making? Is it definite, fixed, with (physical) boundaries, or is it changing or even mobile?

The results of my research show that artists would go to any length in order to establish for themselves the right environment that would enable them to create. Even if the conditions are far from ideal, or the circumstances are forced, artists would always manage to find their own niche for creating, because this need (to create) burns in their bones and the urge is imbued in their being. Accordingly, we can see (in this project) some artists who work from a small room in their homes, or turned their parking into a studio… We can also see other artists who own spacious and established studios, yet, they continue their creation process after work-hours at home, or while they travel. "The creative process is an addictive and endless journey!" (Priddle)
The inner will and need to create everyday something new – to make nothing into something – is what drives many of the artists. Others are driven by an urgent wish to communicate, tell a story, transmit a massage, and realize their abilities and themselves.

The urge of some artists to constantly invent and create – to self surprise – comes from within the creation and stirs them towards colorful journeys and far searches in unknown, distant and mysterious locations. Other artists, again, prefer to look and search in their immediate surroundings and mostly within themselves – to make something into something-else – because everything is there: one only needs "to look around the world" (La Spada); " to walk through the world with open eyes" (Luckhaus); to sort and process the offerings of the environment, because " Art and Creation are everywhere, they can be found on every corner, in life itself, in its most day-to day activities...It's just about looking with intensity and understanding its deepest meaning.."(Canudas). It is possible to create anywhere and everywhere. However, the stages of observing, sorting, processing and communicating – are the things which imprint the artist's unique qualities upon his/her creation.

Artists also aspire to be involved in the shaping of their surroundings and try to mold them to fit their own needs or concepts. For example, Canudas, who is highly involved through intensive activity and writing in the social and urban designing of his environment in Barcelona; or Ivanoff, who regards Designing a means of social protest.

Since artists aspire to design their living environment, their interaction with it becomes an integral part of their creation. Most artists indicated the landscape where they live – whether urban or countryside – as an ever flowing source of inspiration. Even the artists that chose to live in big cities because they needed both the urban pulse and landscape for creating, also turn to Nature – the City's green lungs, a park or a river – seeking inspiration or recreation activities (Luckhaus, Aqua, Palmer); Other artists chose to live away from the city, in a farm or a secluded area in the countryside – to create within the evergreen thickness of a forest, or by the blue sea and its white beaches (Priddle, Cazes, Suneson).

The artists who work as free agents, usually chose to have their studio inside or in the vicinity of their homes – in order to integrate successfully self realization and an artistic career with meaningful contribution to and active participation in the family life (Priddle, Suneson). Certain artists chose to have their studio not directly at home but very close by (Aqua). All these elements clearly indicate the significance of home and family to the creative artist (the family narrative appears time and again in the notes of Morales, Aqua and Suneson).

The daily-routine components – proved very significant:
Most of the artists get up fairly early in the morning, and as soon as they have their first coffee (interestingly enough, they all prefer coffee in the morning! Nobody has mentioned any other preference, like tea, for instance!), or a light breakfast, sometimes while they have it, they right away reconnect with the global world – they turn on the computer to check their emails. This means that strait from the very intimate moment of waking and getting up in the morning – they already feel the need to tie in with the big world.
Most of them invest at least 12 hours a day in their work. Also, many of them are very partial to all the genres of Art and therefore, the creative process practically accompanies them through the day: "Most things I do are connected in one way or another to my work, on different levels of consciousness, or – if they involve creativity of any sort – they turn into work projects which I then continue with for clients... This can be both a blessing and a curse at the same time" (Luckhaus).
Most of the artists self prepare their breakfast and light lunch, but dinner belongs to the time of leisure or to the time with the family. Partiality to American food (Coca Cola and Hamburgers) is global and crosses all borders. However, aside of it, most of the artists do prefer particular unique local dishes (Fu, Canudas, Ouso).
Most of them dedicate their leisure time to family or friends. Interestingly enough, in many cases the best friends are also artists or designers and sometimes even studio partners.
For recreation – they mostly hang in coffee shops and restaurants or visit the theatre, and some also engage in sports, sometimes even competitively (Canudas, Priddle, Suneson).
Most of the artists pointed at music and book-reading as sources of inspiration. It is important to note therefore, that they read diverse world literature along with books about Art and Designing (La Spada, Aqua, Canudas).
The music many of them listen to as background or source of inspiration is mostly classical music or world music. For some, music is actually an integral element of the lifestyle and creation (Aqua, Ivanoff).
The sum of these elements – of intimacy, family, social relations and intellectual tendencies – form a kind of an environmental mosaic in which each of these artists lives and creates, i.e. their "creative environment".

Global vs. Local
The local element is easily recognized in all the artists, in their expressed love for their homes as well as the surrounding view or nature seen from the window. The global element is emphasized by the mobility and frequent traveling around the world, the ability to work (create) in a borderless universe, the use of Internet for data and information as well as the flooding of markets by international commodities. Notwithstanding, some of the artists clearly noted their reservation as well, of the Globalization processes because of the negative impact upon the uniqueness of individuality and locality (Priddle).
Although the world is global and "open", the artists still retain each, an individual "sub-environment" that contains only what they choose to bring in from the "global", in order to maintain a common platform with colleagues and peers. This leaves them free to develop each an individualistic and unique creation out of their personal synthesis between "global" and "local".
A world without borders provides high levels of mobility and exposure, but these essentially are obstacles on the way of creation, i.e. the artist's need to create something of nothing and self surprise. For these things artists usually look (besides in the "global" and "general") within themselves – inside the individual environment that they've each created by molding anything into something of their own: i.e. – their steady and established environment – consisted of elements that they themselves have selected to include in, like books, music, friends, recreation activities, TV programs and the use of computer (they all have computers and email). The degree to which each of them would allow physical or virtual self exposure vis-à-vis the global world, or even the extent of self mobility – are in effect imbued in each individual "environment".
This is what I call "sub-environment" or "creative environment" – i.e. the personal, individual, unique environment inherent to each artist, because it contains his or her selection of contents, whether drawn from the global sphere – public, national or international culture, or from the private, intimate and unique one. These selected contents play a major role in the artist's self created synthesis between "personal" and "general", "global" and "local".

Prior to launching this project, I used to think that since the world was shrinking gradually into a mere "global village", there would be no significant differences between environments of different artists. This was my view until I've encountered two important aspects that also became focal points of my project:
The first point is – that although various countries around the world commonly share the Visual Culture, in some of the countries the local culture still exists and even becoming more enhanced. Often, it actually carries the banner of substantive protest against Globalization.
The second point is – the existence of "sub-environments" which are self created by people, particularly artists, wherever they are. Every artist manages to fit him/her self with conditions suited to his/her specific needs of self expression and creativity. Suitable environment is not necessarily the ideal environment. Often, it is the outcome of forced circumstances (money, family, health, etc.): an artist can create on the computer at home, in an improvised workshop inside the home parking, or in an ever changing hotel-room, (if he/she happen to spend much time on travels - for shooting campaigns, giving lectures or demonstrations, etc.)
What proved strikingly interesting about this project – was the realization that artists indeed created their own unique (and therefore different) environments, consisting of habits, hobbies and forced circumstances, and affecting, consciously or not, their creativity and creation.

I hereby thank all the artists who allowed me a look into their private world, their life, family, loves, aspirations and longings!