Managing influences and inspirations

“True being …is not in the shapes but in the dreamer.”
--Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

“I dislike cults and –isms. I want to paint in terms of my own thinking and feeling.”
--Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986)


Recently I was speaking with an artist friend who had taken a class with a renowned west coast painter and decried the fact that the course was dedicated to instructing the entire class in how to emulate the style of the “Teacher,” even to the point of creating similar artistic images. The influence was clear in my friend’s new work, obviously the strength of the artist’s instruction was still dominant in her mind—and this sacrifice of personal vision for a set of new techniques seemed to really bother my artist friend.

This was not the first time I have come across this feeling in fellow painters—I was warned not to take a course from so-and-so because “they make you paint like them.” In fact at one seminar I was given a list of professional teachers who were to be avoided for just this very reason. Now I understand their fear, a nagging worry that the strong influence of a dominating personality and easily adopted techniques or “tricks” that suddenly show up in all one’s drawings and paintings will overwhelm a hard won personal style. And a fundamental critique of my own work was “Stop looking at other art,” since it seemed it is easy for me to copy other images/techniques, and clearly I have not lifted my own technical mastery to the level of a Picasso who can “steal” and adopt into his own style in a new and effective manner. My copies have always been easily identified with their source. In fact I can remember visiting a west coast art show and talking with an artist about her work, recently selected for a movie set, and I promptly came home and made two paintings in her “style”—it was less a source of inspiration as a verification that I could emulate the style.

However, the idea that we should avoid influences while we are learning is nearly impossible—everywhere you turn there is graphic design, historical masterpieces, lasting good art, folk art, downright bad art and amateur dabbling—in this world of modern media, there is little doubt we can avoid being influenced. But as Campbell put it, mythical “shapes” are not the true being, it is the dreamer. As an artist, we must synthesize the lessons, influences, and broad array of input into a personal vision. Inspiration often comes in the guise of a dream, personal thought, individual vision. And it most often comes as the result of dedication and hard work, exercises and materials. Sometimes a strong willed teacher will seem dominate, but a focused and dedicated individual will always rise above these influences and incorporate them or disregard them as they build a unique personal painting style.

So, I recommend that one embrace learning wherever you can find it, and reject it only if it doesn’t fit. It is your dreams that make true art.