"Another time factor is output: proofing and printing. That is, getting your work out of the computer and onto paper and having it satisfy you. It can be time consuming and expensive"
About this Quote
“Proofing and printing” sounds like the boring part of creativity, the chores you rush through to get to the “real” work. Buffy Sainte-Marie flips that assumption. She’s pointing at a hidden drain on artistic time: not inspiration, not even execution, but the friction of making something physically legible, shareable, and good enough to stand by.
The intent is practical, almost tutorial-like, yet the subtext is sharper: control is expensive. Getting work “out of the computer and onto paper” isn’t just a technical step; it’s a confrontation with permanence. Onscreen, you can endlessly revise and stay in the safe glow of possibility. On paper, the piece becomes an object with edges. You can’t pretend you’re still “working on it” when it’s sitting there, accusing you. That’s why she adds “and having it satisfy you.” Satisfaction is the true bottleneck, because it requires choosing a version and accepting its limits.
Context matters. Sainte-Marie came up in an era when distribution meant physical media and gatekeepers, then lived through the digital shift that promised cheap, instant output. Her line quietly punctures that utopian pitch: technology doesn’t erase cost; it relocates it. Ink, paper, test prints, reprints, the time spent proofing tiny errors you suddenly see only when it’s real - these are the taxes artists pay to move from private draft to public artifact.
It’s also a subtle defense of craft. If output takes time, it’s because the work deserves the dignity of being finished properly, not just posted.
The intent is practical, almost tutorial-like, yet the subtext is sharper: control is expensive. Getting work “out of the computer and onto paper” isn’t just a technical step; it’s a confrontation with permanence. Onscreen, you can endlessly revise and stay in the safe glow of possibility. On paper, the piece becomes an object with edges. You can’t pretend you’re still “working on it” when it’s sitting there, accusing you. That’s why she adds “and having it satisfy you.” Satisfaction is the true bottleneck, because it requires choosing a version and accepting its limits.
Context matters. Sainte-Marie came up in an era when distribution meant physical media and gatekeepers, then lived through the digital shift that promised cheap, instant output. Her line quietly punctures that utopian pitch: technology doesn’t erase cost; it relocates it. Ink, paper, test prints, reprints, the time spent proofing tiny errors you suddenly see only when it’s real - these are the taxes artists pay to move from private draft to public artifact.
It’s also a subtle defense of craft. If output takes time, it’s because the work deserves the dignity of being finished properly, not just posted.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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