You Cannot Hide: bits of grandeur from bogart

Two sets of gems from Anne Bogart's A Director Prepares: 

First: Key words from each chapter on these seven aspects of art: (memory, violence, eroticism, terror, stereotype, embarrassment and resistance). 

Then, ten fabulous reminders.

I was grateful to rediscover these entrances into creating new work when going through notes from a Creative Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Arts class in 2015, my second trip through Bogart's fabulous book of Seven Essays on Art and Theatre. I hope they offer something to you as well. 

First, Seven Aspects of Art:

I. Memory

remember                    deepening                    history/her-story                
                   ancestors                           accessing                            perceiving
   go back                   contextualizing                improvisation                    make alive again

II. Violence

        commitment                                  keep it                       restrictions                
risk                          resurrect the dead                articulate                       cruel decisiveness
           construct                                       exactness                   freedom
    act                   choose death                                repetition                 allow failure

III. Eroticism

invite                off-balance                  disorient               adventure                  desire
           tension                       restraint                   moving                    sensation
   awe                 attention                    curiosity                 experience                 interest

IV. Terror

                fear vs. safety                                        awake                         penetration into life
disorient                        uncontrollable chaos             not knowing

V. Stereotype

fire under cliche                          inherited shapes                  repetition
                               push through                               solidarity                     limits
transformation                                embodiment                     container

VI. Embarrassment

                                        get out of own way                       obstruction                        
letting go of authority                                     vulnerability                    listening as teacher
                                       half shame/half glory                        personal
assumption = sleep                                             revelation                       intimate
                                              lie tells truth

VII. Resistance

overcome                                                    always there                                             struggle    
                obstacle => challenge => wow                       expression --> expression
                                                                       reframe:

To chaos, control, backdoors, accidents and insecurity. Photo by Lacie Slezak.

​Now for 10 Fabulous Reminders:

1. You cannot hide; your growth as an artist is not separate from your growth as a human being: it is all visible.

2. Every creative act includes a leap.

3. You cannot create results; you can only create the conditions in which something might happen.

4. To enter paradise you usually have to go through the back door.

5. Allow yourself to go off balance.

6. Insecurity is O.K.

7. Use accidents.

8. Walk the tightrope between control and chaos.

9. Do your homework and know when to stop doing your homework.

10. Concentrate on detail. 


And a few questions: (those in blue found in my notes, others from me right now)

How do Bogart's seven aspects of art pertain to your art form?
What is driving your creative practice right now?
What questions are you asking right now in your work?
On whose shoulders do you stand?
What are you trying to control? What is the chaos teaching you?
What is the paradise you're trying to enter? Is there a different door?
How are you falling? What are you catching?
What do you see when you go off-balance? How do you see differently?