Poor, poor artists.

I wonder what other people had against Pablo Picasso?

 

Oh, I know what it was. It was the fact that he didn't 'fit into the mold', if you will. A very wide majority of people thought that his paintings were weird and not good. Of course, as there always is in a situation such as this, there was a group of individuals that did love his art work because of its abstract nature. But, poor Picasso would remain for the majority of his life as The Misunderstood Cubist.

I thought that this paint was not only particularly enticing, but also pretty pertinent as it's 'Two Girls Reading'. 

Picasso once said, and I quote "Everyone wants to understand art. Why don’t we try to understand the song of a bird? Why do we love the night, the flowers, everything around us, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting, people think they have to understand. If only they would realize above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only an insignificant part of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world though we can’t explain them; people who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.”

Whilst you and I, in this day and time, revere Mr. Picasso for his gumption and daring soul, back in his day he was ridiculed and misconceived. Yet, he stood firm in what he knew and now his paintings (and many like it) line the vast walls of many a museum which render homage to him and his ability to see the world differently.

Let's look at the facts.

In his day most painters were doing 'Real Life Paintings'. Things like the following...

 

Not that there is anything wrong with the above images. They are indeed very beautiful and the painters must have been very talented. But Picasso dared to venture out of those bounds and demonstrate the complexity of the human condition. Moreover, he did so with everything he painted--people or objects.

 

He stood his ground, shared his art and in the long run was admired by many for generations to come. Even while the world told him he was wrong, he knew, deep down in his heart that he wasn't.

He followed his heart. Personally, I believe that that was the biggest sign of a true exemplary human being.

I wonder why people misinterpreted Vincent Van Gogh?

I'll be the first to admit that Mr. Van Gogh had a wide array of personal problems. They ranged, some say, from drug use to alcoholism, to depression, to God knows what else. As the matter of fact he said "I have put my heart and soul into my work and have lost my mind in the process." Such a powerful statement, and that's a conversation for another day--one that I'll be happy to have at some point because in many ways I can relate wholeheartedly. But, I'll reserve it for some other time.

One of his most famous pieces was this...

Personally, I find it so beautiful, and truly I see the world in a very similar way. I can sometimes 'feel' the colors that engulf us, time after time things become tangible to me. I relate so much to the power in Mr. Van Gogh's art--and power it has, trust me. It has the power to open the heart and mind to things that many might otherwise miss. Mr. Van Gogh's art is absolutely awe inspiring.

While others were painting things like...

The difference was night and day. People would paint what they could see with their eyes. Van Gogh painted what he could see with his heart.



 

Mr. Van Gogh once said, "There may be a great fire in our hearts, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke." Here is my interpretation of those words...

While an individual may have a passion for something, many times there is also an element of fear in perusing that passion. Other times there may be people snuffing out that passion, and other times still the person may find him/herself defeated by the status quo and what they have to say and consequently that passion dies down.

 

Art is expression and expression is art. They are two sides to a single coin--one side meant to compliment the other. I'll explain.

One cannot supply art to the world without expressing what lies beneath. Yet, the human need to express oneself is the backbone of art.

However, when one is brave enough to venture away from conformity there are one of two responses...

The naysayers who fill ones mind with negative feedback. IE:

• You're doing that wrong.


• That's not as good as you think it is.


• You should try again.


• That's incorrect.


• That's not how everyone else does it.

Those who appreciate. IE:

• Wow. I've never seem anything quite like that.


• I really get it.


• It's pretty cool.


• That's amazing.

And it always seems that the latter are more then the former. Why? Because the human being has been molded to a certain set of beliefs that allows no room for question. Conformity at its best. We've been forged to believe that if things aren't just so then they are wrong.

My view on that is the following.

What's the point in ART if the world tells you your not allowed to SELF-EXPRESS? What's the point in any of it, if one cannot be oneself?

I know what you're wondering. You're thinking to yourself, "What the heck does that have anything to do with anything?"

Indeed! What is the point?

Those who know me best, know me for my parables. I use them often in bringing a point across.

 

While some things are blatantly wrong, others are just a matter of opinion.

~Y. Correa

 

My best friend calls me a sledgehammer when it comes to reviews. I'm really not. I just candid. I will point out things that are genuinely wrong with a work. The things that are a matter of perspective I leave alone. Because while some people might not like it, others might enjoy it.

Why do I say all this?

Writing is ALSO a manner of ART, and like with many paintings some people might misjudge style for bad grammar. When indeed it is not, it is simply the 'strokes of that artist's paintbrush'. What do I mean by this?

I've been told several times that my writing 'needs work', I've been told that I'm doing it wrong, or it's incorrect. I've been told that I use too many exclamation marks, or incomplete sentences. I've been told that I have weak/fragmented sentence structure, and God knows how many other things. A wide array of 'stuff' that people point out. What they do not realize is that those things are that way on purpose. It is a signature--my personal style. I make it that way because I want to; NOT on accident or because it's wrong.

Conformity is man's worst enemy.

Like any good nonconformist, I do things MY WAY. That includes my writing. Why? Because MY WRITING is MY ART, and if I have to live the life of an outcast--like Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh--than so be it.

I'm not going to say that I'm ALWAYS right--I know that I'm not. I'm not going to say that everyone else is always wrong--I know that that's not the case either. But, I WILL say this...

I WILL NEVER EVER COMPROMISE MY ART OR MY INDEPENDENT STYLE JUST TO ADHERE TO OTHER PEOPLE'S OPINIONS.