There is a place for technique.
There. I said it. I feel better now.
There is also a place for feeling. That is becoming more and more acceptable these days, so I don't feel it's as likely I'll get yelled at for that one.
There are people who are all technique. There are people who are all feeling. Most of us who make things --which, occasionally, we bravely call 'art' --find ourselves somewhere in the area in between, wandering around.
When it's all about technique, you start to lose your understanding of your own and others' humanity, I think. That is when we like everything uniform and efficient and clean and, frankly, perfect. Perfection doesn't exist. In this worldview, whatever you make will never be good enough unless it is technically perfect, which is impossible. People of a technical mindset tend to be linear thinkers because it is easier to isolate parts of the whole and address each part individually. The attraction to this way of doing things is it keeps everything ruthlessly simple. It has direction without purpose.
When it's about feeling, you start to lose direction and perspective --eventually, you start to lose your understanding of your own and others' humanity, I think. That is when nothing matters but your feelings and bathing yourself in them. That is when we like everything burning and torn down and built up in our image and given a patina of gold mined at great cost. People of an emotional mindset tend to be lateral thinkers because it is a function of an internal state, and therefore, whatever is felt is addressed. The attraction to this way of doing things is it requires only reaction, so there's not a lot of advanced prep work required. It has purpose without direction.
I think the in-between area is the right place to be --at least for me, that is where I feel most comfortable in the things I make. In writing and in visual art, I appreciate understanding technique, and sometimes, the structure helps facilitate what I'm working on. It gives me a framework to work within. In writing and in visual art, I appreciate feeling as well, particularly as this is more my natural state of being. I am a highly-emotional person (although I'm used to keeping those feelings tucked away), and it comes out in strange ways in the things I am working on.
I am content with being somewhere in between, and I work on both; technique is easier to work on, but I'm also working on getting in touch with my feelings more and understanding what drives the impulse to create and what I'm drawn towards ( I know what I like, but I'm not always sure why, and that's okay). By learning in both these areas, it should follow that what I learn shows up in what I make, and I find that an exciting thought.
Where do you fall? Are you more technician? More dramatic? And how is it working for you?