The One About Motivation and Hannah Perrine Mode
Rope Team (III), 2020 | Photo courtesy of artist.
A constellation of ceramic knots made from muscle memory (Rope Team III, 2020). Cyanotype exposed with glacier ice, dirt and stones (Hydrologic Consequence, 2018). Melting ice in shades of colors chosen to represent the memories of artists that when melted create delightfully diaphanous paintings (Collective Memory, Niad, 2019). What I find motivating about Hannah Perrine Mode’s work is how often the act of making - the process itself - really is the art.
It’s clear that there’s a thread through her work of using the performative nature of her art’s creation as a way to connect viewers to the medium. In this case, connecting us to the land under our feet, the water that gives us life, the ecosystems that bear witness to our decisions. Signaling to us that the only way we make progress is to get involved. In fact, one of Mode’s biggest motivators is finding a way to educate the public about earth sciences in new and unconventional ways.
Collective Memory: NIAD, 2019 | Photos courtesy of artist.
That being [well] said, there’s something in particular that continues to strike me in my creative heart when it comes to the act of making, of process. It’s the idea of submitting with whole trust to a process... submitting to the materials and method the original intent, knowing that whatever the outcome is, is exactly what it was meant to be. Reminds me of the way I feel when I see a plastic bag floating in the wind because of that time when I was 15 and watched American Beauty.
Hydrologic Consequences, 2018 | Photos courtesy of artist.
Mode’s work dug up in me a few tenets of motivation I’ve learned over time as a creative. I thought I might share them with you here:
Permission
You might second guess yourself for days or years. What you want to do/make likely takes less than that. Give yourself permission. Sometimes all it takes is jumping in to know you swim.
Practice
Two things are simultaneously true: failure is constant and can be found as soon as you go looking. If you are always learning new ways to do and be better, you are not failing. Keep going. It’s a practice.
Value
There is not a thing you have made that wasn’t worth making. There is value in attempt, in breakthroughs, in infusing the creation with your perspective - please keep sharing it with us.
So, go on!
Get out there and create that thing you’re not sure you can pull off! Nine times out of ten, once you get going, you’re going and that’s the hardest part.
AND/OR:
Get out there and find one thing you can feasibly do to help the causes that concern you. We are always one step away from giving our better ourselves to this world.