I'm quite a happy person. In fact, I am so happy that I could laugh at silly stereotypes people tend to make up about artists. In general, we are either crazy or eccentric (this fully depends on your financial situation), unable to control our quirks and unpredictable, tricky nature. In the other end of archetypes of an artist lies a brooding loner, retiring from the society and spending their life in silence, shadows and solitude.
I'd like to think I am neither of those. I'm your average quiet neighbor in the flat, the broad framed figure clad in black going around her town on her daily business. I don't really even think I'd catch anyone's attention while going about my life, as today's people have grown so self-centered and we'd like to think that we are always the center of the attention. That is not the case, thank goodness.
I am like everyone else for that matter, updating my social media sites with alot of little things I don't even think people will find interesting in the end, such as what I am doing or eating, or who I am going out for a walk with. For some reason I still want to display that outgoing, happy-go-lucky side of myself, rather than ranting about negative things most of the time.
That is, in nutshell, how I view myself. I acknowledge my unoriginality, but still focus on the happy little things that can brighten one's life, while still regularly exploring the dark corners of humanity and its products. It feeds my endless curiosity, which eventually led into me becoming an ”artist”.
Somehow that word feels wrong in my mouth, for all I really like to do is play around with visual means. I draw influence from everything I see and find pleasant, and somehow incorporate it in my future work. I like seeing the result of my efforts almost as instant, which is why visual arts is what keeps me interested and entertained. My strenghts are good old traditional and digital drawings and paintings, while I love to experiment and broaden my skillset by doing pyrography one day and sculptures the second. Stylewise, if I had to title myself, I'd probably be a cartoonist, since I also take a lot of liking to comics and animated cartoons.
As it is with my own work, I pay attention to art by others the same way. The more eye catching I find the piece, the longer I delve into it. Of course this is a matter of taste, but I am having hard time finding any deeper meaning in paint splashes on canvas. It takes something more delicate and controlled to catch my attention and stop me to wonder how the picture was created. Photography often gives me the same vibe as the regularly exaggerated idea of the kind of art you see in galleries; random lines and splashed paint. However, the more I have experimented on those less invigorating tools of creating art, the more I have learned to appreciate the things I see others do and in contrast, what I usually do. And in the end, if I am lucky and something has gotten through to my thick skull, I might even successfully mix what I have learned into what I usually do.
One thing I don't often incorporate into my work is social criticism or satire, since I feel I could easily go overboard and be meanspirited about it. I enjoy seeing others do it though, and appreciate people who are ready to speak their minds through their art. I don't think I am quite there yet myself.
All in all, I guess I pay alot of attention to the effort put into one's art, and I like to see it on paper or canvas, or otherwise. The next in the list is of course the immediate feeling I get from the artwork: it could be either a nagging, negative sting or a warm, fuzzy delight, I appreciate it all the same. As long as the art I see provokes some sort of spark in my mind, either in good or bad, it's definitely worth the attention. I enjoy pictures with intertextuality, but I must admit I often miss them, because I don't really bother to go online and read on the subject the piece of art is addressing. But when I finally get a reference, I usually find myself admiring the said piece for another good moment. Same goes for political and social satire that I can relate to, and often a good laugh can overwrite the poor quality of the artwork. Take South Park for an example, despite the overly simplistic and trippy animation style, their humor and way of discussing today's phenomena keeps me entertained and I can look past the unappealing first impression.
As often stated, art (and beauty) are in the eye of the beholder. I don't get much joy from expressionless lines or splashes on canvas, while someone else just might find more meaning in those than a piece of art depicting something more literally. Despite that, if I only bother to take a second look, I might notice the effort put into the work and can take my time to reflect on how it was possibly created. I love seeing people create new things and new methods of creating art, and perhaps I'll eventually be one of those people myself. However I don't want to force myself to come up with something entirely new and different, but rather spend my time experimenting on different things I keep learning. That keeps visual arts interesting for me personally, exploring it's different branches and seeing what I can learn to do with them, and continuously get better at it. It is a game for me.