As creatives (or all people for that matter) we often think we have to deliver a unique product (or song) in order to be worthy of recognition or to earn some applause, or to even satisfy our own inner critic. It is difficult to feel at peace when we are comparing ourselves subconsciously to transient standards. We live in a world in which we see so many things and we have to conform to a long list of capricious media gimmicks that change from blogs to vlogs (overnight) for example. Apparently, those who still write blogs are now old-school. (However, I am still committed to this little project of mine. Recording yourself talking to your cell phone camera daily, I still find a bit "frightening".)
With regards to visual art or fine art (or any art), if we look at the millions of art works (ours included) which are listed and available at the press of a button on the internet, we can easily break out in a cold sweat, because every single subject we can dream of to paint or draw or sculpt has already been done and it would be futile to view the significance of our own creations, against the background of the vast internet gallery. Fortunately, the desire to be creative is still stronger than the world wide web.
When I look at my own work or my own portfolio as a digital unit on my laptop – as other artists do, I suppose – I often smile when I look at the simpler soft pastel works, I made; my heart feels peaceful. Most of the time, these works did not take long to create, because I was not trying to stretch the boundaries of my medium or media, for example. I used a very basic technique which I knew would work and within two to three hours I had created an unassuming piece that speaks to my heart (and hopefully to the hearts of a few others too). I found a quote by Paul Cezanne that says, “An art which isn’t based on feeling isn’t an art at all … feeling is the principle, the beginning and the end; craft, objective, technique – all these are in the middle.”
I do not know if the father of Cubism would have approved of the sketch I included here. It is a soft pastel piece I made in 2002. (Soft pastel is a lovely medium to work with but once the work is done, and it had touched us deeply, simplicity changes to complexity, because it needs to be framed as soon as possible to protect the powdery surface.)
I particularly enjoy the topics and themes that you write about and find it uplifting, even to put to practice in my own life. Thank you. They are really touching the "deeper" parts of life.