To Create One’s Own World – updated 2018

Day #5 of Art Week at The Napkin Dad Daily 

This is the essence of art.  This is the most important truth about being an artist.  This is the single indispensable characteristic for creating art.

It is simple, and to teach it is simple.  To be an artist, you have to admit who you are.  You have to tell the world you love naked people.  You have to tell the world you love the color red and only red.  You have to tell the world you love the smell of oil paints more than the smell of food.  You have to tell the world you love the discarded cutting from the bottoms of the flowers more than the flowers.  You have to tell the world you love flowers so much you hate that you aren’t one.  You have to tell the world you like asphalt more than grass.

In other words, you have to admit your passions, no matter how absurd, silly, perverse, scary or mundane they are.  Do that and find YOUR way of expressing them, and you will be an artist.

Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman

“To create one’s own world in any of the arts takes courage.” – Georgia O’Keefe, 1887-1986, Artist