Recently I've noticed a whole bunch of seminars, webinars, books, workshops, etc., about how to paint passionately, boldly, fearlessly, how to find your inner child… My response surprised me: I felt sick to my stomach.
Why on earth would anyone want to be robbed of her personal art journey? Why would anyone want to follow someone else's path, use someone else's experience/ insights instead of pursuing their own personal art paths?
Skipping gradual, natural, self discovery to be hot housed into someone else's idea of what an artist should be/do is my idea of artistic robbery! The last thing I want in my art practice is a program, a map, “training wheels,” to save me from dead ends, from what may seem like pointless floundering around.
As I see it, each person's unique journey should be thrilling, full of surprises and fun, with lots of learning! These life long journeys are where we learn to persevere, learn to be confident and brave, and eventually come to understand who we are as artists and where we want to go.
When people ask me to teach them to paint I tell them to buy the materials they want and then go at it! Maybe that's too right brained and intuitive a response for some folks - but that's me!
