Feb 4th 1-2-3: Why You Love Art
1: Why You Love Art ( 1 minute read )
I find that I’m very hard on myself, and my art.
I aspire to create works that both inspire, and evoke emotions to a similar intensity of the works that most inspire me. In this endeavor I’ve come to learn that there is simply too much to learn. The well of knowledge that holds the ‘key’ to unlock the art I would be most proud to create is endless; the goal of trying to suck up all that knowledge is futile.
This reality can be frustrating at times, or angering other times, but most commonly I find that it leads me to arrogantly try to prove reality wrong.
I work, and practice day & night, only to look back at my work with utter disgust and discontentment towards my artistic inadequacies.
I frustrate myself and ultimately flash upon that nagging thought that inevitably attacks in these moments.
“What am I even doing? chasing this white rabbit of an artistic aspiration. I should just quit while I’m ahead.”
When I find myself in these moments, I suppose one could say that it is a blessing my pride is too large to actually quit. But I’d offer a different perspective. I believe the pride is exactly the reason why these thoughts even appear in my mind.
My pride chooses to chase the aspirant image I have built in my mind, so much so, that I end up struggling to enjoy the process of actually making art.
I lose myself.
I forget what made me love art, and made me choose this path as an artist to begin with.
That’s the real reason why my art suffers in these moments.
From a more practical, or logistical perspective, I get so sucked into being overly critical towards the ‘technical’ or ‘approach based’ aspects of art, and the art loses all heart and care.
When I look at my schedule, I typically find the parts of the process that I first fell in love with completely missing. Typically in lieu of my time being devoted to the aspects I ‘think I must know to make great art’ .
To put this much more simply, I guess what I’m doubling down on here in this entry is an idea my brother actually wrote about in a recent entry.
Don’t forget your hobbies, don’t lose what made you choose this path as an artist.
Those things you used to do that brought you so much joy?
Go do them.
Make a conscious effort to devote time to them.
Because once you lose them, you lose heart and passion; and art without heart or passion, is no kind of art I would enjoy experiencing.
Now go remember to do the things in your art that you love, and make something uniquely YOU!
2: Creative Prompts From Us (ex. Write a short story, a poem, a song, or draw a quick illustration of these! Let your imagination run free.)
I. Think about what activity made you fall in love with your respective medium of art, and make a conscious effort to do that activity for about 30 mins a day.
II. Think about how you can create something within your respective medium of art, that is inspired by the activity that got you into art.
3: Inspirational Quotes From Others
I. “I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart.”
-Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch Painter
II. “Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”
-Salvador Dali, Spanish Artist
III. “Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.”
-Bruce Lee, Hong Kong-American Martial Artist and Actor
Thank you so much for reading!