Fairly often people tell me that they think I should do knock-off art. They know that like most artists I'm not really making anything so in order to meet the bottom line they suggest I do Georgia O'Keefe style stuff or golf course paintings or whatever. Here's why I don't do that even though it might mean I'd be able to afford all my art expenses.
Once you get known for doing certain styles of art, you basically get pegged. The industry wants to be able to count on artists to produce the same style, reinvented over and over again. Collectors in general want their collections of one artist to look right when hung in the same room. We all can see a Van Gogh and know immediately what makes it a Van Gogh for the most part. It's his unique style.
Although most of my art fits easily into the 'home decor' category, there is only so vanilla I want to be. I've done a few pieces that are a bit too much in the trendy category as it is. I know impressionist landscapes have been done before but for me that is who I really am. I actually took an art quiz on the BBC and it confirmed that my personality type/ age/ gender naturally likes the kind of art I do. I may do my own take on O Keefe one of these days because I do love her art, but I want to make it my own, not peg myself as an O Keefe mimic.
The other thing is that very cheap copies of most famous paintings are readily available from underpaid workers in china so it's not a market I want to compete with. I get fliers in the mail for $99 'Original Oil Paintings' and these are probably what they are. For one thing $99 doesn't even cover my supplies most of the time (depending on the size of the work), let alone labor. It's not a market I'd ever be able to be competative in. There just isn't a lot of profit in it, let alone enjoyment.
So while I continue to draw inspiration from many of the masters as well as new and even unheard of artists, to me it is very important that to stay unique and true to my own style as well. I do always appreciate input and ideas and requests to paint things I've never done before, but copying other's work (even the stuff in eminent domain) is just really not for me. Thank God it's illegal to copy liscensed characters. That saves me from having to do murals I'd deplore and never put in my portfolio.
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2 comments:
I took the test and scored Impressionist as well! That was a pretty interesting test. I also scored as someone who "makes others feel at ease"...somehow I doubt that though...
I especially liked the quote they supplied by Monet: "For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment... It is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value."
That's very true, especially for landscapes and nature in general. I think that's why, most of the time, a photograph just doesn't do nature justice. A photograph may capture an accurate visual record of the area, but hardly does it capture the experience, the feeling, or the movement. Impressionism can often offer a more accurate experience...
...also tha culurs r purty.
I've really been discovering that personally in my work that art can capture what you see better than a camera because we don't necessarily experience everything in a realist sense. That when you create art it more accurately expresses what you see than what the physical eye or camera sees. Especially when it comes to color.
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