I wanted to start a wee section on my blog for all the things that go through my head...
This could get very interesting 😂
This weeks thought:
What kind of artist do you want to be?!
This is a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.
Do I want my work in galleries, do I want to sell every painting I produce, do I want hundreds of thousands of followers and likes? Is my art for the many or the few?
I love painting pop culture, figures I love like Hendrix and Bowie but I want ultimately to create powerful art that makes people feel something. Not that pop art doesn’t do this but I want to eventually create something on a deeper level. This might mean not everybody gets or likes what I produce.
If you can sustain a living by painting popular versions of iconic images do you step away from that to be taken more seriously? And to be taken more seriously by who exactly? Who decides what is valuable and what isn't?
Who decides where your art belongs? Is it gallery worthy? Could you compete with the big artists? These are all things I ponder.
I think wherever this art path takes me it will be down to others to decide where my art belongs and ultimately what kind of artist I become. Obviously I can direct my art into a certain direction but its down to other people, buyers, fans of my work, gallery owners etc to decide.
When it comes to painting style, I don’t think it’s something you can force. I just have to be myself and paint what I want to in my own style. If you try and force things then you're not being true to yourself and it will definitely show.
I have been inspired by many different artists and I recently attempted to paint something similar to a painting that I fell in love with. It just didn’t work because I wasn’t being myself. Every stroke was forced and I hated what I’d painted. It felt fake to me.
Its like if you see someone who has the best style fashion wise, of course you can take inspiration from that person but if you take that persons style and blatantly rip it off you can tell a mile away that it's not your own.
I think my philosophy going forward is to paint what I like, let it come naturally and hopefully the deep and meaningful paintings will happen 🖤
