Breaking The Rules

I remember some of the very first impressions art made on me in my life very fondly. It was a connection with the artists in my life that I had admired that inspired me to give it a try; to see if I too could find some happiness in exploring my own creativity. I wanted to see if I could maybe even earn a living with that creativity like my Uncle was doing. I'll never forget some of the first "art advice" he had given me. He told me that no matter what, I should create what made me happy and to do it how I enjoyed creating it. Sounded great to me, so I went with it. My Uncle passed away soon after. I was 14. It wasn't until I got much older that I began taking a big interest in art again. I remembered his advice, and rekindled my love affair with art by going to shows and galleries to get some inspiration. Since I found myself falling in love with so much of it, I let my Uncles advice again act as my guide and I started studying artists like Frank Frazetta, Patrick Nagel, Jean Michel Basquiat, Jim Lee, Frida Khalo and many others on different sides of the art world. I couldn't decide who I was. I wanted to do it all. I wanted to break free from limitations. But the other artists and gallery curators I had spoken with advised me to find my identity as an artist and stick to it. They suggested that unless I had a style that art enthusiasts and curators could identify me by, they would not be interested in my work. Now this totally went against what my Uncle had told me. I just didn't know if I wanted to be confined to painting or drawing the same way for the rest of my life. I mean, I may as well go get a job on an art assembly line. My love for art came from tasting all that it had to offer. I explored that love by trying to understand it. I wanted to explore it's beauty by touching it with my own hands and the only way to do that was to create a little bit of it all on my own. I couldn't imagine eating the exact same dish for the rest of my life knowing the wide variety of food out there. So perhaps there is this unwritten rule that says an artist must stick with an identity, style or genre to maintain some artistic status quo so that you can become more marketable and easy to package. With all due respect to all of the incredibly talented and successful artists out there who follow those rules, I simply cannot. I do not know what style, genre, medium or subject matter I will create tomorrow. And I like it that way.