I have recently been struggling with creating art and having the motivation to keep going. One of the central issues that has been on my mind deals with the nature of my drawings. I can't help but consider my work as a "mere copy" of the "real thing" since I always use a reference photo whenever I am drawing anything. If I am drawing someone's dog, I look at a photo and draw from the photo. If I am painting a landscape, I look at a scenery photograph as my reference. It's been difficult to consider my work as good as the real thing and recently, I came upon a passage in a book I am reading that stuck with me and helped me view the situation in a more positive way.

"You may be somewhat critical of your painting, suspecting perhaps that it is less beautiful than the real thing it's depicting. In this feeling, you join thousands of artists over thousands of years. But remember, your painting is important and beautiful because it is your unique and personal response to nature's beauty, something handmade by a human being enchanted by nature's colors." 

I tend to be overly critical in nearly everything I do and this is an important reminder that the motivation for creating something is important because it can be due to being inspired by beauty. Acting upon inspiration like this is a worthwhile and meaningful goal and it shouldn't be portrayed as "merely copying nature."

Words to Live By

I end up resigning myself by saying, it’s experience and each day’s little bit of work alone that in the long run matures and enables one to do things that are more complete or more right. So slow, long work is the only road, and all ambition to be set on doing well, false. For one must spoil as many canvasses as one succeeds with when one mounts the breach each morning.

-Vincent van Gogh