Entry #7

I’ve been looking at a lot more art lately and trying to broaden my understanding of what art can be. I have thought in the past that my idea of what makes good art is narrowed by the fact that I didn’t go to art school, and that I was missing some essential context that explained why a lot of the work I see is good. While I think this is true to a certain extent, I also have come to the conclusion that most popular art is a bunch of crap that exists to feed the egos of both artists and collectors.

Art is self expression! But if you make your art with the intention of presenting it as self expression then it stops being true. You must express yourself naturally through your art in an effortless sense or else it is just posturing. The way you instinctively make a mark is self expression! The colors that please your eyes that you choose are self expression! But a canvas painted a blue texture ceases to be real self expression because it you have forced the feeling. The end result is what matters.

Detail and form are necessary to convince me that you’re a good artist. The quality and craftsmanship of the end result matter far more than the “Feeling” you intend to evoke in the viewer.

Art school seems to have taught you how to appreciate something that isn’t there and how to convince your innocent viewers that there’s something worth looking at. If people need to be convinced that it’s good or interesting then it’s not!! Get your head out of your ass and draw like a human being.

Children make the best art because they don’t know how to fake it.