“Creation is the artist’s true function: where there is no creation there is no art.” Henri Matisse
Art is about telling our story. We each have a different story; colored by past experiences. Even children from the same family, who experience the same event, will have a slightly different take on it. The uniqueness that makes us who we are, colors everything we see and do. We like different mediums, have different ways of using them, and enjoy working in different styles.
Village in France
Even if our choice of medium is different, and our choice of style is different, as artists we have two basic things in common: the need to create, and the need to awaken an emotion in the viewer. We want someone to hear our story. For emerging artists, it may be as simple as getting the technique right. “Hey, look what I just did! Someone tell me they like it.”
Color of Memory
As artists grow and develop however, we find we have a more sophisticated message to impart to the viewer, beyond getting it right. A subject that becomes our motivation, a style that becomes our signature. The subjects are as varied and as different, as individuals are diverse. It may be about the feelings we have for something important to us, paying homage an idea, a political statement, a social issue, or maybe the subject is as simple as an element of design: line and mark, shape and form, color, or texture.
“I think that when one is young it is the object, the outside world that force’s ones enthusiasm; one is carried away by it. In later life, it’s something within himself, the need to express an emotion, that leads a painter to choose his point of departure, one form rather than another.” Pierre Bonnard
We have learned, through years of creating, what motivates us to use our medium of choice, and create.
Asian Influence
Although we, as artists share the need to create and the need to have someone want to view our work; at each level, in this creative journey, we have another need. It is to bond with like minds: so we can share ideas, techniques, and challenge each other to grow and explore our chosen style and medium. Having a community of like-minded people who can mentor, critique, and encourage our efforts, is important for growth. We all need to appreciate, respect, and value, the differences. But…we find support and growth in our chosen style and medium, in “commonality.”
“Our chief want in life is somebody who will make us do what we can.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson