And then another 10 times.
And that was just fine.
Okay, forced is perhaps a bit harsh. But Jo Bukowski, professor at the Alanus University in Cologne and one of the teachers with whom I was occasionally allowed to get a few impulses for my development as an artist, can be very clear.
And his task for me was simply to paint one and the same abstract image motif - one and the same composition, with exactly the same colors again and again and again.
WHAT? What an imposition, for me, who loves the variety so much, likes to try everything possible, full of curiosity to look everywhere.
But the resistance was useless.
"Well, if he hasn't had enough yet, then I'll just keep doing it. Then I'll throw it at him now. I don't care. Then I'll just do it."
"Oh, another round, and now with time pressure too? Jo, you're pissing me off! But okay, I'm here to learn something."
That was exactly where he wanted me to be. To let go of too much preconceived notion of what the end result should look like. From too much "love of technique", because clever as I am, I've already picked up a few effective "moves" on YouTube and elsewhere and taught them.
But you have to discard them if you want to achieve depth. Instead, get to the bottom of the matter. And fight your way through a phase of what feels like "ugly garbage" that you produce there, so that in the end you know who you are and where you want to go. To find your artistic position.
Through the repetitive task, at some point what you really wanted to express with painting comes up. And to realize that is a great gift.
To put it into words is not always easy.
When you as an art lover are therefore faced with the question of how to actually separate the wheat from the chaff, how to judge which and which of the numerous artists out there is working sincerely, seriously and sustainably, and will still be found on the art market tomorrow, then I have the following tip for you:
❌ Don't look (only) at the number of followers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and XouTube - it rather shows how effectively the person stages himself.
❌ Don't necessarily ask the "expert person" in your circle of acquaintances if they've heard of the name - because this approach also tends to lead to those who beat the advertising drum the loudest.
✔️ Just try to get in touch with the artist you are interested in and ask him or her in the next conversation about the formative moments of his or her career...
You can be curious about the result!
By the way, if you also want to know how I came to art, and what I was able to learn from another very respected artist, Peter Tomschiczek, then subscribe to my Studio Updates right here.
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