Lately I have been feeling slightly stale in terms of my subjects and concepts. I do however feel like I need to finish all my already-started paintings but that may be unrealistic. A couple of these I'm still excited about working on, but the others almost feel like a chore. Is that bad?
Since I moved up to Boston I have been considering going back to school for painting, but when I start to get into the research it's REALLY overwhelming.
First off, I feel like as someone who is self-taught and who doesn't have a super deep existential meaning behind a lot of my work, they would look at my stuff and immediately decline my application. Apparently I'm supposed to have one cohesive body of work and be influenced by all these historic artists. Who made up all these rules about art? I thought the whole point is there are no rules? I painted an eggplant because I don't use purple a lot and I like purple right now. Is that not deep enough for art school?
Second of all, I'm not sure if my work is supposed to have purpose? Is painting for the sake of painting and for the love of painting not meant for art school? Would I become one of those art-school people? I have ZERO knowledge of art history. Maybe if I took an art history class that would change my outlook?
To end this self-questioning post... I do want to say that this post isn't about me wanting you to say "oh julie your work is great!" this doesn't need to be a love-fest. I know most of you follow this blog because you connect with my paintings in some way, and that means more to me than any degree from some artschool ever would. This post is more of an external dialogue... how do you evolve in your craft?? Is there an underlying theme that leads you from one body of work to another?
(photo taken on return drive from the Twist show where we encounter Lemon-head sized hail and this rainbow)
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