ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the completion of the new artwork and its launch into the outside world to have a life of its own. The artist must judge whether or not the artwork is finished, and she must separate herself from it sufficiently to be able to let it go. This separation can only be achieved satisfactorily if the artist recognises the new artwork as a true reflection of an aspect of herself. Letting the artwork go may be experienced as a relief or as a painful wrench as it moves from the province of the artist herself to that of the audience. This chapter argues that, to make her work available to the viewer, the artist must have abstracted her experience sufficiently to loosen it from its ties to the specifics of her individual experience and to open it up for other associations. The chapter draws on philosopher Susanne Langer’s work on symbolisation, writing by psychoanalysts Donald Winnicott and Ken Wright, and the work of educationalist Anton Ehrenzweig. It follows Patricia Townsend’s own process of completing and exhibiting artworks and includes quotations from interviews with John Aiken, Sian Bonnell, George Meyrick, Dryden Goodwin and Hayley Newman.
