what do you say

...when you don't want a collaboration? Don't get me wrong, I have thoroughly enjoyed this class and our collaborations. I think that it has opened my mind to new forms of art and ways of thinking. But what do you say when you really just want to do a project on your own? When you really don't want input from other people- at least not until the critique portion of art making. I am a photographer- by the nature of the art form, I am confined (usually by myself) to small, dark spaces. Maybe it's in my nature, maybe it's that I have been using a darkroom for printmaking for over a decade at this point- but I love that most of the time I am art making no body sees it until it is done. There is no influence, there is no last minute suggestions for change- it is simply my art.

This might seems like I don't want to collaborate on art projects any more, but that is simply not the case. I do! I just want some of the things I make to be all mine. Argue against it or not, but I (as all artists have) was once asked why I make art? My answer then and now; to make art. Sometimes it has a message, sometimes it doesn't. But I make it to make me happy, to fulfill an expression, to create. Though we are in an academic environment and are subsequently surrounded by art, artists, and art making there are of course going to be outside influences and others input. But I can't help but longing for a studio of my own, or an hour alone to create. I think that is why I chose primarily to create at home. My space isn't as big as I'd like, or even as I need, but it will suffice for now.