Originality:
Originality is often considered the proverbial carrot on a stick for artists. Everybody wants to do something that nobody has done before, but in all likelihood, somebody has probably done it, whatever it is. I don't think we can go as far as to say that everything has been done, because there's an awful lot to do, in doing everything. (For the sake of discussion, we will proceed anyway.)
If we set out to paint an original picture, what would it be?
The landscape might be a likely candidate... what are the chances that somebody sat up their easel in this very spot, facing this very direction, on a day just like today?
It can be argued too that the still life, when very extensively arranged, can create as original a picture as the next genre.
And surely nothing can be more original than portraiture. If my model hasn't ever sat for a portrait, I have a winner! Or how about my first self-portrait, that too!
But not so fast, the fact that these genres even exist, doesn't that mean our pictures are only adding to the pile?
It is all semantics from here, I’m afraid.
(Better to spend time painting, than thinking about being original.)
(07/29/08)