If we are thinking about other people’s work when we are making art, then we are not really making our own art. The activity of comparing, admiring, and imitating other people’s work is a very different activity than making your art. These two activities should be kept far apart as they don’t help each other. Making strong art is accomplished more easily by looking within ourselves.
Where do you look when making your art?
In gratitude, Nicholas
48 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
Totally LOVE what you say here! I’m a “new” artist and get so caught up in comparing myself to others. I’m also someone who is a seeker & into personal growth. All of this is so relevant to that as well. It all goes hand in hand! Thank you for sharing this wisdom. Helps me to breathe easier & to know to just focus inward & trust! Thank you SO much!!
Thanks Nicholas! Really needed to hear this again today and remember it everyday! 🙂
If I had a dollar for every time I got screwed up in my head by looking at other people’s work, well, I wouldn’t have to worry about making money from my art!
I read an article by James Clear awhile back in which he commented on the Helsinki Bus Station theory. The theory speaks to what you just talked about. It’s easy to forget why you make art in the first place when you are so busy comparing your work to that of others-it’s just too much input and can derail you. It’s the derailing thing that is the problem. It can take all of the pleasure out of the process can’t it?
Another very relevant and timely post. Thank you!
Libby
One of my favorite quotes about making art is by Paul Klee: “Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe graphic fruits fall off. my hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will.”
That is what happens with me too. I go into my art studio with an idea perhaps and when I come out I have created something totally different. It is as if something beyond myself is guiding me. It only happens really when I get quiet enough and allow it to happen.
Exactly! and often laugh and often consider it my weakness that I cant stick to a composition.
Yeah we just have to laugh a lot…
That’s brilliant, thanks for sharing that quote!
Yes! Those are the best days… I so agree with Nick too. Love these vlogs — thank you so much.
I like the word vlog… Well I really enjoy making them then connecting with everybody on Sunday so it’s a win-win. Thanks RG
Tracy thanks for that great quote! I’ve never heard that one. The same thing happens to me, So much so that I don’t even bother trying to plan anything anymore… thanks
I find when I plan…it disturbs my true intentions.
This is my biggest weakness and this discussion is a good lesson for me. My work is MY work and I have to stop comparing and enjoy my creativity and ideas as well as growing my skills. Thanks, Nicolas, for reminding me.
Thank you for differentiating between art related activities and making art/painting. As you said the other day it’s nearly impossible to feel badly while you’re making art. There is a huge amount of FB commentary, information and stimulation atop the course material. Way too much to be helpful if I try to take it in over a short period of time.
Yes everything can be so overwhelming especially with the Internet. Your art making can be a private quiet affair it brings you back to yourself and is truly gratifying and calming….
Well I look at others just to learn alot from it. And I find hidden things within myself that maybe never would have come out otherwise. I never compare cause I am doing my trip in artmaking and I am pretty new at this.
“The inquiry is inside. …That’s the beauty of it.” – Nicholas Wilton
Words to live by. Thank you Nicholas. For me, this applies to life inside the studio as well as outside the studio. Shedding the need to compare – allowing inquiry – connects us with ourselves profoundly and deeply, and ultimately (and a little bit ironically) connects us with our viewers.
Yes Doris exactly. Are is life.
Thanks Nicholas, very important topic to bring up.
Hi Kai!
Right on! It is a different activity to admire another artist, well put. It’s the little voice inside my head that wants to be doing that, than another artist comes along and I want to be making that and on and on. When I am just inspired to go to the studio, that’s when it’s a help to admire other work. Also, thinking of how it would fit in a gallery is another creative suck!
It’s so helpful to be reminded of this. Thanks!
Great point! Thank you!
Love this Nick,…..What an awesome reminder. I spend a lot of time looking at other work as well,….and you’re right, if I don’t get it all out of my head before I start it stops me from feeling the stillness I need to look within ; its like noise,…and I can’t hear what my heart is telling me with it there, cannot become a clear channel for my own unique, authentic creative voice if I’m thinking about someone else’s work. Heading to the studio,…thanks again.
Awesome Caroline!
Thank you for bringing up this important aspect to making your work. I wish I had given this more awareness early as I’ve have made this mistake before and it caused a lot of difficulty unnecessarily. And it is just not as rewarding.
I agree. It’s crucial to stay on my own center, trying to discover my voice is a quest. But recently seeing the dialog between Matisse and Diebenkorn I realize that, for me, it’s ok to have a dialog with Diebenkorn… I’m inspired… learn from his work. I feel validated having seen how he did this with Matisse. Like a sponge… I try to learn, to teach myself to paint. I have learned a lot from these videos too! I resisted your idea of working on a lot of paintings because of space… but plunged into a series of small paintings and voila… I get what your talking about! Valuable to stay open to what you say!! Thanks for these videos…I look forward to them. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
So glad Candace… I think artists are just lifetime learners! It’s really is what art is…
Such an important message Nick, Thanks
Love framing all the talking, looking at others, etc., as a different activity. So helpful.
Excellent reminder Nicholas. How about looking at other’s work being inspiration and doing your own work being expiration (as compared to the Zen breathing in, breathing out).
Kind of interesting idea… I wonder if expiration is the opposite of inspiration?
Hi Nicholas. I was using it medically about breathing, but if you look at it from other aspects in can mean ‘the end’ I guess. Have to be careful with that one!
I agree!!! YET……I will not deny the influence of all the artists from friends to the so-called ‘masters’ !!!
Thanks so much Nicholas. I’m always looking and telling myself I must see more artists works so I know what’s going on. What a great lesson to learn for me. Thank u so much for your wonderful videos. Each one has touched a piece of me. I definitely will feel this one when making my art..
A screenwriter had an idea and talked to people about. Discussed it whenever he could. Eventually he was asked when he’s going to write the damn thing. I don’t need to write it he said, I’m getting all I need talking about it.
Funny
I can’t remember who the quote is from but it goes something like this: When I start working in my studio I have all my friends with me and family. My agent is there and a few galleries. Eventually they start to leave until it’s just me and if I’m lucky I leave too.
George that’s right that’s so, so good!
Very well said .Julia Potter
When my spirit body becomes the conduit for creating, magical things happen. I have to remind myself to get out of the way.
I agree with others I love you vlogs it seems you touch on things right when I need to hear it. This one especially. WOW great insights thankyou
It’s probably because just like everyone else I’m making art too right now… These vlogs are not really planned as you can see… I just think of them as I making art, As I’m re-remembering things that are helpful to me in my process… then I just put them out here so we can talk about them and I often hear that the the Timing of them is just right for some people. Synchronicity is a wonderful thing and a universal principle that I pay more and more attention to.
Thank so much for replying and Best of luck on your show. I am so many will love and appreciate your great set of works.
Nicholas, you are so right on!
Great points, Nicholas. Thanks for sharing. I think when we’ve been making art for awhile, it is easier to slip into this ‘internal’ space. It is a place that we visit over and over and over again until it is a well-worn path, and we can access that sacred space within as our practice matures.
Yeah that idea of the well-worn path that’s really good… I think a lot of people can resonate with that description. Thanks
Thanks all for the inspiration – Nicolas – you are so right the art is inside us and it is important to rember why we are doing it. And to quote my Mum “remember who you are doing it for (yourself)” what others think and how you compare doesn’t matter. Having said that she and I are great lookers and commentators at/on others work – but that is another activity – as is trying new techniques whether solo or in a class – I must remember that.
Nick, you have a wonderful way of clarifying things. Thinking of all these activities as separate helps to much. Thank you!