You Have to Make Your Own Art
“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.”
I remember the first time I was introduced to alcohol based markers in high school they were messy and bled, like watercolors, on vellum and I wasn’t sure what to do with them.
Much of my young artist life was spent in the pursuit of being able to create very realistic looking art. I felt I was less talented than other art students who could take a couple pencils and some paper and create a drawing that looked like a photo. I still knew in my gut art was my life, but I didn’t know what to do with that feeling either.
One day in class I drew this orange. I didn’t desperately try to make it look like a real orange. It was a quick exercise. I tried to represent the shapes, the color variants, and work on blending colors together with this new tool.
I remember my teacher saw it and reacted strongly to it. “It feels just like an orange,” she told me. I was grateful for the praise at the time because it encouraged me to keep playing.
Today, having this flashback upon seeing the orange teenage me created, I can understand more deeply. Art is not about perfectly rendering your subject. It’s about the feeling. You have to make what you feel. For some people it’s realistic and for some people it’s abstract. For others it’s in between, or it’s both. Somewhere along the way you figure out, you don’t need to create like anyone else. You have to make your own work.
“Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.”
In an effort to foster a creatives community I’ve started a Facebook group called Art is a Record, the same name as this blog. I would love for you to join in the fun as we discuss creative living, projects, art, and life.
