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Official Artist
Simon Birch
Painter
556,287 views| 168  Posts

Lea

Success is such a relative thing.

Here is my idea of success this week. Just this, roughly 1 sq foot of oil paint, was a leap forward for me.

And the last shot is the 20 odd blanks canvases all waiting to be filled. These are commissioned works waiting to be produced. Busy little modified monkey.

almost 14 years ago 0 likes  10 comments  0 shares
Simonbirch 4e simonbirch
that's grace huang, just started it.
almost 14 years ago
Mariejost 26 dsc00460
You are smart enough to know that the conferring of "success" is a fickle thing. If you want it too much--you'll never have it; if you don't want it at all--you'll never have it. For any artist, probably the sanest way to view success is as a means to an end: artists with a certain level of success have a wider audience for their work. That is good, unless or until you become a "celebrity artist", which is not always so good. Then the focus shifts from the art to the artist, with often dire consequences for the art (and sometimes for the artist, too). Success (whether judged on a single work of art or a career) is always conferred in retrospect, anyway. You are smart to focus on making the best art you currently know how while still pushing yourself out of your comfort zone in the hopes of being a better artist tomorrow than you were yesterday. Anything else isn't about art, but something else. You're too busy and too focused to care about any of that "something else". People have their opinions. Some are opinions worth taking to heart, some are not. Opinions have a way of changing with time anyway. For an artist, the best way to judge their works is in retrospect, viewed against not only what came before, but also what came after. But that is the work of critics (the good ones, at least) and art historians, and I bet you thank your lucky stars every morning when you wake up that you are neither a critic nor an art historian!
almost 14 years ago
45862083 0af2fd4d5d
totally looks like her! ;-D
almost 14 years ago
Photo 40915
Really like the top two. Knowing your typical subjects it's not hard to guess what they are (at least the first one). It's like stories are being told - with the bare minimum of required details
almost 14 years ago
45862083 0af2fd4d5d
have you ever considered doing a time lapse video of you painting? or would that be letting the cat out of the bag? :-)
almost 14 years ago
10527800 995836987877 2229692523636585837 n
These close-ups are way cool. Just read an article on the 99% and thought it was relevant. It's called the Art of Momentum: http://the99percent.com/tips/6815/the-art-of-momentum-why-your-ideas-need-speed With all those blank canvases, I guess all the hardworking can be mispercieved, but I think a lot of people also forget that making art is also working. I'm not an artist because I want to be, I'm an artist because I have to be.
over 13 years ago
Ghoststyle
nice artwork and cool trip
over 13 years ago

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Languages Spoken
english
Location (City, Country)
Hong Kong
Gender
male
Member Since
September 27, 2007