Crisis of Art

I was going through an art crisis last night and forgot to post. If you've been reading you know that I've been battling with myself about how I want to paint, between abstract and figurative styles.

I like both of them and I think I will continue to do both of them for a while but I have decided to go into a more abstract path. I've always been drawn to modern and minimalistic art and over the years have sketched many ideas on what I would do, but an artist is under extreme social pressures. I know that sounds funny since an artist is supposed to buck expectations and follow his own path but those expectations can be a gigantic lead cloud that seems to press you down into a little cube where people can quantify you.

I often wonder why people. especially art galleries, try to pigeonhole artists into a narrow category. Artist's are living beings and as such they, like everything else, will change over time. To expect an artist to only paint, or make art, in one style his entire life would be like me saying to you that you can only watch one type of TV show, or read one type of book your entire life.

If I tried to force you into this you would think that I was crazy. And yet that is exactly what people expect of artists. It's unreasonable.

I'm just glad that I'm not widely known for one type of art yet, it will be less of a shock for people, though I do think that my friends and family are going to wonder what I'm up to.