I don’t usually have a guest blogger on my blog, but over the years Zian and I have become good friends. Zian is oozing of originality in her art work and has a wonderful sense of humor, and has the ability to put into words, what I can only feel and think. For so long, I have resonated with what she talks about, a few paragraphs down, about the social media and all the art looking the same. I’ve often spoken it on my own facebook page, only to be shot down by some other Artist, thinking it’s all okay, and they can’t see that it’s all the same. Have they all become so numb from seeing all the same, that they all expect it and accept it? It’s like they are all being herded like cattle. For me, I want to see something fresh and new….show me something new and original! Smack my senses into next year!
This Blog entry, below, was written and posted by Zian Silverwolf, on her own Blog: http://ziansilverwolf.blogspot.com/ With Zian’s permission, I am posting her Blog entry here. For the more Artists and “want-to-be” Artists that read this, the better.
Zian has many wonderful, thought provoking posts on her blog, and I want to help bring awareness to these facts of being Original in your work and thoughts. I hope that you find her writings thoughtful, and useful in your own creative life. I urge you to follow Zian’s Blog. From her Blog, you will also find links to follow her on Twitter. Go to Zian’s website http://ziansilverwolf.com/ and check out her Fantasy Art and hook up with her on Google +1, and Facebook. She’s a remarkable Artist and Person.
~Debbie Flood
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03 March 2012
By Zian Silverwolf Copyrighted Material. Please acquire permission from Zian Silverwolf before copying or using the written content below. Thank you.
Art by Whom?
I just had a look at a blog where a number of art works by different artists were being displayed; great work, fantastic finishes, wonderful concepts.... Except that there wasn't a great deal of difference between one style and the next. (bar one artist - and I took a longer look.)
Artists don't seem to be particular in creating their signature beyond their actual signature these days. Having a similar style and finish seems to be coming more and more of the norm in the creation of art.
When I look at an art work, I anticipate being able to tell which artist it is, just by looking at it - distinctive and telling style is not just a part of being original, it is a part of the artist distinguishing themselves as an artistic identity.
Sure, people argue these days that there is no such thing as original, it's all been done before - I think this argument is a cop out for people who are angry that they don't have a larger imagination. Every individual who is capable of pronouncing themselves as an artist is capable of combining that which has come before with their own perception and interpretation of their individual experience. It is not just content or subject that is the action of art - it is the revelation and the evolution of the artist as well that creates a work of art that is beyond the crowd.
I can look at a Turner and know it's a Turner. I can look at a picture untitled, unsigned and know at a glance it's by HR Giger. I can look at a Dali, and know that no matter how many worshippers try to emulate his style, it will always be his.
"The Persistence of Memory" - Salvador Dali (courtesy of Wikipedia)
The question is, why emulate another artist? True, to be spellbound by the works of our art heroes is inspiration and motivation for we artists to strive and continue to burn for our own work - but that's the point isn't it? OUR OWN WORK.
Art has always suffered the mainstream prejudices of the uninitiated art lover - the works being displayed on social media, blogs and websites are, in the majority, the same flavour. And usually show up next to the kitten in the bonnet with the funny joke. Such is the nature of the public gallery, and we live with it. However it seems to me that artists themselves are buying into the circus of the acceptable artist - I know with certainty a number of artists who refuse to publish what they really think because they want to be acceptable - they want people to like them.
Whoever heard of an artist who wanted to be liked?
Liked?
A likeable artist never broke the social mould, never put themselves forward as the beyond that they sought to create - artists, burdened by their constant and consistent observation of the world in all its schisms and motivations, haunted by their own dreams and drained by the persistence of apathy that surrounds them, rarely view themselves as anything but idiosyncratic quasi-mythical disturbances in reality. It doesn't mean that they can't get along with other people - they're just not other people. I'm privileged to know some of the people behind the mask of their online persona - why aren't you?
So if they're not other people, why is the art starting to look the same? For that matter why are the artists on social media all starting to sound the same? For all that the public are willing to mouth cliches of 'be different', and 'live outside the box', they continue to respond to that which is easily recognized, for them. But an artist should be easily recognized - by their own work.
Links
Turner - http://www.william-turner.org/
HR Giger - http://www.hrgiger.com/
Salvador Dali - http://www.dali-gallery.com/
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