And are you challenging yourself as an artist?

It was not my Friday morning plan to write a long blog post, but I couldn’t help myself. I was over at Holly’s blog this morning and saw a post she wrote yesterday, about the recent tea towel show I was in. Within the comments is a very interesting discussion going on in response to a comment from Pippa Rex. And I felt compelled to share it here with you and also offer up my thoughts on this subject, as I was one of the artists in this show with bears and birds and cuteness in my creations. And really you might wonder about this yourself in regards to my style of creating and also in the art world in general. It’s a really wonderful topic and another reason I love blogging so much, because we get to have these kinds of honest and insightful "talks" with one another in such an open forum.

So here goes, a very long post for today. The comment from Pippa Rex:

"Now I am not just talking about these tea towels but I have to finally say this as you finished your post by talking about the risks taken in the art world. Does it not bother you that most of the "art" posted here and on other design blogs is all the same. It seems to me that there is an awful lot of silhouette trees and birds, childlike drawings of little girls and bears etc and they are all done by various artists. I guess that I think that there is little risk there. I read your post about how peoples houses are all becoming silimarly decorated (How many "Keep calm and carry on" posters can this world handle? I feel the same is true of this "art" world. When did art stop being controversial or at least personnal. Is this form of art really not just craft?"

My response:

"Hi Holly ~ thanks so much for sharing and Maya, again thanks for inviting me to participate in this show. I am truly loving this discussion via the comments. So thanks to, to Pippa for bringing it up.

Since I am one of the artists of the show and you can clearly see my towel in the images above with both a bear and a bird (and good lord, another owl!) on it and cuteness just dripping from it, I feel inspired to share my thoughts here.

The funny thing for me is that a) I never thought I would make a living as a painter and b) I never at all thought about letting "cuteness" especially with animals be my subject matter. In fact one of my favorite stories to tell is that my photography teacher in college told me once that "cute doesn’t sell". The style that I presently work in developed all on its own. I just remember trying to paint a character for a show theme a group of us had almost 3 years ago now and that was so much fun, it inspired me to go further, and challenge myself with creating characters, because it was something I didn’t think I could do. Then through the process of daily painting more and more of them literally kept appearing in my paintings.

It was like a creative faucet had turned on and it couldn’t stop. And I would ask myself the same question, "I mean really, can I paint another bear or a bird?" but the truth is I couldn’t help myself. And looking back at my childhood and what I created even then, the attraction to cute has been there from the beginning. And every time I try to push myself in a new direction, it feels forced. So these kinds of childlike drawings embodying a certain innocence, joy, hopefulness, simplicity~ they represent the truest part of me right now at this time in my life.

From a small business perspective, it is convenient that these themes are trendy right now. I have even been asked by galleries to paint them because they are "what sells". And I have to be honest and say that as an artist who makes a living with their art, I am always walking that fine line of, "is this my true inspiration and is this something that will sell?". So there is a part of me that wants my work to sell because I love what I do so much and I want to keep doing it, and there is a part of me that is always trying to challenge myself and ask the questions you are asking, especially because I pride myself on not making decisions based solely on financial survival, and most importantly I also want to keep growing as an artist. Somewhere in the middle is where my creations find their voice.

I am also continuously influenced by the art that inspires me and am often interpreting and incorporating what I see in the world around me, into my own art. I do think that while we see a lot of the same themes as you mentioned with "birds, animals and childlike drawings" in art and featured in the world of design and design blogs ~ there’s a reason that it is received so well. I feel that there is a present theme of happiness, and beauty among many of the artists creating work today, and I think people are in search of more of that in their lives and this kind of work, and the design blogs that feature it are reflecting that back to them. It happens to be the art I personally collect, because I too want more happiness in my every day. And I when I look around my home and feel uplifted by what I see, it feels so good. When I travel the internet and visits beautiful blogs like this one, I feel good. It’s that simple. I just want to feel good more of the time.

I often feel that "controversial" art is from a pushed place of the mass idea that somehow "art isn’t good unless it’s controversial". There are artists for whom controversy is their true voice and you can tell that it’s genuine and compelling and interesting. In the same way that artist’s who paint sweeter, less controversial images are either faking it because it’s popular, or it’s also their true voice. Either way I find that genuine art in any form speaks to most people. And really in regards to taking "risk", ANYONE who is willing to create ANYTHING and share it with the world....now that is truly RISK. Every time I put something I make out into the world, it feels risky to me. Every time I wonder how will this be received? Even writing this comment, I wonder. And then I remind myself that however it is received is ok, and that all I am asking from myself is that I be satisfied with what I put out into the world. I really just want to keep creating from my heart and let that be what continues to call me forward.

Which, in closing I have to say that translating my style and my characters to a tea towel for this show, was challenging and so much fun ~ it opened me up to a whole new world of creating that I am just at the beginning of. "

The photo above is me painting at my grandparents home in Germany, when I was 15. I loved it then, and I love it now. And you see I’m painting roses. :)