Quote of the day (8/15/2014)

photo credit: wishafriend

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”
-Oscar Wilde

One thing that I respect about artists is that none of them created their art in the same manner. Each artist did something different. Each one put a little bit of themselves into their work in order to make it 'theirs.'

We seem to be losing that as the years go on. There was so much in terms of individualism back in the day. Nowadays, we have music that sounds exactly the same, art that looks the same, and many book plots that we've all heard before. There is not individuality. Either a person is copying an icon of the past, or they are trying to 'one-up' the competitor next to them.

What happened to us as artists? Why are people coloring in between the lines?
When I was in college, I took a lot of art classes. I loved art. Most people took art as a 'bird course.' I took it because art made all the chaos in my world go silent. I was able to fully relax. It was my therapy.
When I took Drawing I and II, my professor both loved and hated my drawing techniques. I sort of steered off course from my classmates and did my own thing. Sure, I'd be drawing that bowl of fruit, but I would be adding warmth to it and shade. In my eyes, it came out beautifully. My professor hated it at first because it wasn't textbook. After the first half of the semester, he began to love it. He said that it was my signiture technique (I also loved using charcoal. I was the messiest person in class because my hands would be completely blackened from the charcoal, LOL).

I've always been the one who 'colors outside the lines' in terms of the way I live my life. Sure, I've tried to submit to what society expects of me. But, I realized that it wasn't ME. I was born to be different. I'm an individual.
Even with writing, I don't follow the rules. Sure, I know the basics and I know when I need to obey the rules. However, during my 'off time,' I'm going to do my own thing. When I'm doing with for clients, I'm professional. When I'm working on my blogs, I'm casual. Even in my professional pieces, I add bits of my character in it. I don't want my posts to be one-note.

Folks, Oscar Wilde is right on with this quote. You won't find more individualism than in the works of art.