Group Forums >> When they said to pick one thing and stick to it, they didn't mean you. >> The Artist
The Artist
|
Posted 5 months ago A successful artist, a true artist, is one that is capable of being devoid of style. Not omitting one's own artistic characteristics, but having the ability to create in different media, different dimensions and evoking different reactions. The artist should have the ability to take something of simplicity and exude beauty from it, whether it be line or form, displaying its aesthetic quality. In this same sense the artist undergoes some form of gradual education, the process of learning everything in order to forget it all, whether it be by university or self-ordained discipline. |
|
| Posted 5 months ago I agree to a point... though it is not in my scope of talents to mimic others, but I definitely have my own style, to the point that my art, written or image has its own sense of language. My book of poetry for example has over 200 illustrations that have iconic sense of language. Everything in it has a meaning as intertwined with the progression of art of word and image. William Blake would be a perfect example of this. But as how one would measure success, if it would be in the world or personal achievement, then one must decide where one wishes to explore and define such success. Though I do wish I could at times be void of style, but I am not much of chameleon... a jester in the king's court, and playing midst the shadows and flames where mortal kindred lurk in their terrible and wondrous dream... there I have mastered my art, cutting to the wick of the soul.
Scaramouche... in Twilight's Shadow... a Dream... |
|
| Posted 5 months ago How can you change styles .... if you paint or create from the heart? Scaramouche...you are a poetic soul.... |
|
|
| Posted 5 months ago CC, it's not changing styles if you don't always come "from the heart", from the same source. I know that I have made plenty of work that my heart had nothing to do with, as I'm sure you have as well. It doesn't diminish the quality or importance, it just can't be tied down, or identified. Like, "oh that has to be a creative claudia piece". I'm trying to say, "no f-ing way, creative claudia made that piece". That is without style, without boundaries. Think of Picasso's journey from "boy at the altar" at age twelve, through cubism, blue, rose, etc. He might as well have penned a pop song for the beatles to top it all off. |
|
| Posted 5 months ago It can be a little tricky when one tries to apply limitations to things...especially when it is something like what makes a true artist. It is good to be able to work in different mediums and styles and such, but not being able to do that would not mean that someone is not a "true artist" or a "successful artist" for that matter. There are plenty of true and well known to famous artists out there who do only one style, or a couple at best, but this does nothing to diminish their standing as artists. I had a friend...now my late friend...who used to say that one could not be a true artist without studying art history. I didn't believe that then or now. I've known many a great artist who knew little to nothing about art history. Once again an example of the failure of strictures in labeling people. Ya gotta be more flexible, ya know? Myself I started out by doing recreations of famous artworks, in miniature. Once I got to where I felt I was competant at that I went on to discover what I liked to do, art-wise. I work in many mediums from photography to sculpture, textiles, painting, ceramics and jewelry. I hope to try many more processes. But to look at the world with blinders on, saying "This is the only way" seems like a waste of time and energy. One would only be keeping one's self from seeing some other wonderful things out there I think. There are as many pathes as there are people. The pathes are many...the way is one. |
|
|
| Posted 5 months ago I understand your point and it is well taken, to understand and to able to mimic many styles is a talent in itself. Marcel a master magicain at the arts, I doubt there is little that is not within the scope of his talent. Your artistic concept is almost Taoist, to simply be everytthing and nothing at the same time. It is broadening your talents to different levels. Something I have a great difficultity doing, just being me is complicated enough and trying to do all I want to do and accomplish is challenging enough... but I think that has something to do with being ADHD and my wife suspects a little bit of OCD, though I tend to think of them as my personal quirks... it may have a little to do with it. Whether or not it comes from the heart, well that is a personal venture and discovery. Like my friend's accountant. I won't go into the details, but just imagine a Mel Brooks typical Jewish account with room full of pictures of all his first clients... football player, ballet dancer, clown, (who my friend Steven, Zeppo the clown was the only one who had three photos) plastered across the wall like rare postage stamps or pictures of all his children. The man loved accounting and considered it an art form. So no-one can really judge except for the one who creates.
Scaramouche... in Twilight's Shadow... a Dream... |
|
|
| Posted 5 months ago I'm right there with you wizard of the ben, by no means do I wish to put a veil on the human condition of 'artist'. What I was initially trying to insatiate with everyone was that desire to achieve these measured, these understood, yet strictured nomanclatures of the art world. Hey, Basquiat is like a cold beer in summer to me, but if I was privy to some high-realism of his, some dramatically engaged forum of another ambition, I'd be floored. I just believe that being an artist deserves and takes some credibility, some merit. Some can do without, others shouldn't get away with it. |
|
| Posted 5 months ago I THINK THE GREATEST PAINTBRUSH IS YOUR HEART POWERED BY THE BRAIN. WHEN I APPROACH AN IDEA, I ALMOST ALWAYS START WITH A THUMBNAIL SKETCH. NOW, THIS LETS ME SEE IF I FEEL THE SAME WAY VISUALLY AS I DID IN MY BRAIN. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR ME IS HOW DO I WANT THE PIECE TO TALK. I REALLY FEEL THE ART NEEDS TO SPEAK. I HAVE PAINTED FOR 35 YEARS. I HAVE BEEN VERY DISCIPLINED IN A LOT OF APPROACHES, DUE TO THE FACT THAT I WAS AN ILLUSTRATOR FOR A LOT OF THOSE YEARS AND CAN PAINT IN 8 DIFFERENT STYLES AND 12 SUB APPROACHES DUE TO THE FACT I HAD A LOT OF CORPORATE CLIENTS. HAVEING SAID THAT, PAINTING IS A LANGUAGE OF MANY LANGUAGES. IT SHOULD TALK TO ALL, NO MATTER HOW RICH OR POOR. COPYING , JUST TO GET SOMETHING ON CANVAS OR WHATEVER, IS JUST LAZY. THE JOURNEY OF WORK LEADS TO BETTER WORK ETHIC. I WOULD HOPE THAT EVERYONE WOULD EXERCISE THE HEART MUSCLES. GOOD LUCK |
|
| Posted 5 months ago i'm supposed to have a style? crap! back to the drawing board... |
|
|
| Posted 5 months ago fin. |
|
| Posted 4 months ago To me are is the opening of the artist soul. Revealing his or her inner thoughts and feelings. Putting it all out there for everyone to enjoy and see. |
|
|
| Posted 4 months ago There is a dichotomy within the realm of artist. There are those that like art, want to be artists, show up to art classes in college mimicking what they think artists do, dress and smell like. These people feel gratified because there are others who like art too, like to skateboard, grow dreadlocks, talk about art and be a part of it. They will likely continue to make art for the rest of their lives for they don't know any better. And that is wonderful, for it suits them. Then, on the other hand, there are artists. |
|
| Posted 4 months ago How many of you artists love to be in Jail? If you confine your self to a certain style for a life time its like locking yourself up in Jail and loosing the key. Are you going to sit there and ask your self what is the purpose of your life? Or are you going to live free exploring all the possibilities ? Real artists are free thinkers .. free doers, free dwellers. They allow themselves to change, learn and grow as well as their art. They don't seek a comfort zone !! Successful artist often provoke and challenge themselves and others and above all have reverence for life and respect for their own art and what it represents.
Style when it becomes one thing for the lifetime of an artist it becomes a mold ..Think.. "Generic" "rules" "confined" "Cliche" "commercial" and has a shelf life just like the hippy styles of the sixties and seventies suits and dresses or like the flapper dress...An artist style should evolve and grow and change over time. It reflects the artist interactive ideas and intellect and skills and a collective experiences and interaction with his(her) environment and the various influences to cross paths with. A style is as good as the period it was created in and for a specific phase in the artist life, but not for the life time of an artist.
As Important, an artist art work regardless of its style contains an invisible grid; like a watermark, this could be the intensity and preferences of color, the way the colors are mixed before reaching the canvas, the mood in which it's applied, the brush stokes, or the way one holds a pencil to draw and its direction. It could be all the little technical stuff that only you mastered, or just few. It could be anything you maintain through your lifetime because you just do what you do unconsciously. All these things are only known to the artists or those who study his art closely (experts). Keep in mind an art work is a living thing .. it has a life of its own regardless of why and how it was created and by whom. It is the first level of communication with the viewer. An artwork is always interpreted in so many ways as much as there are recipes in all the cook books in the world. Also it is a relative experience to the artist , to the collector and to the viewer, and to the critic and to the art history scholar. Each one interprets and interact with the art according to their own understanding and experience. So as an artist and to be successful you should aim to connect with as many people as possible with as many ways as possible and still be true to yourself when you create your art and never mind the style unless that's what really important to you in that phase of your life. An art work is a visual communication tool it should be free of particular explanations. I am not talking about (commercial and graphic art) those are arts meant for commercial use and subjected to offer and demand and a lot of other variables dictated upon the artist). Now if you measure your successes by how much money you make out of your art and meeting sales quotas then you might as well become a creative commercial or graphic artist it sure dose offer instant gratification !!!!
"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness, Kindness in giving creates love."
|
|
| Posted 4 months ago This is to right-brained for me. Or is it to left-brained??? Oh Hell I forget. If it feels right do it. Think of all the time we spend over ANALizing everything. Zone out and create!!!!! Ahh!! I feel better now. |
|
| Posted 4 months ago Good show Lyles! I can never remember this left brained, right brained either!!!!! i just think a good artist must keep streaching himself, even within his own vocabulary, or style! i do mixed media, and I started out elsewhere, (with formal art) but my fingers, not my intellect ,guide me. (Boy! that might be a good thing)!!!! I want to show how the sea and land the moves, the critters in them; and also show their heartbeats! And I don't care how!!!
|
|
| Posted 4 months ago Wow, a lot of great points of view, I really enjoyed reading them all! As far as I go I think it is a crime to turn your back on your own style your own creative fire. At times I have had to drop my style to make a buck and still at other times I have stuck to my guns hoping some day I would be discovered and doing it my way would be the key to becoming a chubby artist. Looking back, I have sold a multitude of things done my way, but the time needed for the right person to come along and buy something was not consistent enough to make me anything other than a skinny, slightly starving artist. So in my experience the criminal is the one who ultimately reaps the greatest financial rewards and the hopeful idealist is the one who sits and waits for that right person to come along often times starving in the process. I don't want to be a criminal so I choose the blue collar life with a job I could do with out, and seemingly endless source of inspiration which I can only attribute to doing things my why. Some day I would like to have both pieces of the pie, a job in art, and the time to spare to feed and utilize the creative fire. |
|
| Posted 4 months ago WOW....DEEP! I'M REALLY NOT IN THE MOOD FOR DEEP AT THE MOMENT BUT I WILL BE ANOTHER DAY SO i'LL RETURN THEN! :) "The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own." -- Benjamin Disraeli |
|
| Posted 3 months ago in my honest opinion "an artist has no definition...... an artist is unlimited." just like art in itself. |