So much of art is a war between your own ears. I mean, some days it’s a dance party where everyone is invited and happy. And other days it’s just yelling.
And there are legitimate problems to overcome with composition and design and color, etc but a lot of it can also be folded under another umbrella called Permission.
There’s this weird struggle when you’re learning any art form. You want to be unique but you can’t help but use what is already out there as a guide to what's real and valid art.
Painting doesn’t hold a monopoly on this. We do this in all art forms. There’s a reason why if someone uses a guitar and writes music that follows a verse, chord, verse, chord, bridge, verse, chord structure it will be called music much quicker than what we’d call what a 2-year old would create with that same guitar.
Art, all art, is a cultural creation. We are cultural creatures. That reality is just part of the deal.
I want to create something unique. I have to believe that I can do that if I follow my own instincts closely and carefully. So on the one hand, if I don’t see what I’m creating already out in the world, that’s great! But it’s also not. Because it could mean that I’m making 2-year-old guitar noise.
So in that wire walk, I’m trying to give myself permission when it comes to working abstractly. Permission to follow my instincts even if they lead me through noise and ugliness and chaos and mess. THAT’S the path to creating art in your unique voice. That’s the path. There's no way around that. So better to accept the trickiness and the confusion and the at time frustrating times and just GIVE MYSELF PERMISSION to wander down the path.