Making and breaking the rules
It’s been about a week since I last posted and I don’t feel at all guilty about it.
Sixteen posts ago I said I was going to do a design a day as a challenge to myself, to get better at art and stuff. Days passed, blogs got posted, designs got shown...and a lesson got (re)learned.
As an artist I must make rules for myself. My mind is a wandering tangle of randomness that could sit thinking about just about anything all day long. I get lost in possibilities hamstringing myself with what if’s. So, I must make rules and stick to them. When do I do stuff, what do I have to do, where I have to do it, how do I have to do it...
Until I decide to break my own rules.
Like being of the middle of a painting creating to a rhythm in my head, and then shifting the tune. It’s ok to do, because I decided to do it for whatever reason I decide to come up with. It’s a weird philosophy, a way of living, but, as an artist trying to create his own world it’s something I have to do.
The rules of society frustrate me. So many unspoken and spoken bits seem designed to hold people back from being themselves, from reaching greater heights, from doing anything that could really bring them joy. Now, aside from the anti-social activities like murder, (certain kinds of) mayhem, and destruction, why bother to follow them?
Trying to blast out a design a day is most definitely something I could do, and even though I haven’t been posting I’ve been drawing and painting like a madman.
I’ve even been selling my paintings, which is really dope. But, what I found it beginning to do was put me in a rut of repetitiveness. The business end of my brain was like, ‘EFFICIENCY MOFO. DO STUFF THAT MAKES MONEY EASY!’ Which began to kill off that inner child that makes my work me. That freedom to go where my gut told me began to fade.
Stopping the series (for now) began to open up my mind again and it’s been a struggle to get back to the point where I was before, with ideas flowing like water and working on the ones that might take more time, but gave me more joy. And, in art, it seems the stronger emotion the artist can muster, the better the piece. I also realized that this silencing of my gut had started even earlier...when I started my website to try and make money.
It’s a crappy position for artists to be in, having to make money off their art in order to do art, as it can be stifling.
Looking through history that’s the way it’s always been, so I can’t and won’t complain. In a way it helps to strengthen the artist and sharpen their wit on what to create. After all, what is art without an audience. I’m still new to all of this, so figuring the balance or finding someone to do the business for me is still far off.
For now I’m going to continue creating and breaking rules for myself. Whether it be stopping a series I committed to, or switching things up in the middle of creation, as long as I can see a good reason for changing the tune, I will. And, I hope you will begin to as well. Life puts too many crappy rules on us that shouldn’t be followed because the only thing they do is lead to other people’s happiness. Since I’m not other people, I think I’ll try and follow a path that brings me happiness.
Hope y’all have a great day!
Don't forget to check out my designs at www.iamwessel.com
Wessel
