Just saying the date that way scares me sometimes. "This is how.. you remind me.. of how TIME REALLY FLIES!" For a long time now, I've been hiding a big secret. Some define art as expression... while others define it as entertainment or hobbies. I'm sure there are many ways in which a person can define art, but adopting a certain definition brings with it a number of varying characteristics that govern the type of material you produce and get to call art. People see this differently. For me, learning about those differences was FRUSTRATING! So much so, that for a long time now, calling myself an artist was something offensive. Rather, I considered myself a producer.. one who simply produces work. Work that many people like- commercially successful you could say.. and that I could hide behind. I look at it this way, if I could do something pretty technically sound, throw in a little style.. and specifically follow a mainstream way of doing things, I'd fit right in. In no time, people would start taking notice.
You know what.. they did. But at a price. You lose yourself to it. To commercialism. To conformity. The thing I've been learning recently--- art is about individualism! Whether you use it to address or express.. about yourself or through yourself... it is individualistic. The way YOU see things. Sometimes we have the rare privilege of meeting people who alert our attention to this crucial fact. That we don't make art.. our art makes us. It is a piece from within.. one we intend to share with the world. Learning these principals, I now have a new form of appreciation you could say. One which earnestly wants to break the mold. And I say... FUCK YEAH! So here's to EXPRESSING myself as a newborn ARTIST!
This was an expressionistic digital painting of my girlfriend's best friend, Olsa Papandili- a Jazz singer and Violinist from Albania.
And my lovely girlfriend, Desara Tytymce.
