Why is it that children are so artistically creative, innovative, and productive? Their “tabula rasa” approach to life and artistic creation. Because they don’t have any prior knowledge of the history of art, they can create without constraint, self-judgement, or insecurity!

Too much knowledge of the past is suffocating

I believe that history should be used as a positive motivation and stimulus to us today— to motivate us to create new artworks today, and well into the future!

The problem with lots of artists and individuals who know too much about history and art history is that they get discouraged. They think to themselves:

“What is the point of me attempting to create new art works. I will never be as great as X, Y, or Z”.

This is where history can become pessimistic and disempowering — when we feel the weight of the past upon us.

Instead, the past and great individuals from the past should be our positive role models, our motivations, and our inspirations! We should look at them as our mentors and guides who encourage us!

Just because someone else has done it before doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it yourself!

Almost everything has been photographed before. The purpose of pursuing a photo project isn’t to try to document something which is totally unique and hasn’t been done before. It is to take common and simple topics, and for us fo attempt to do it in a great manner!

There are timeless things to photograph and document like family, society, landscape, nature, the streets, etc. We should be like the ancient Greeks — they never got tired of pursuing the same few simple ideas. But what the Ancient Greek artists and poets tried to do was to simply do it better than their peers, or to simply do it for the sake of attempting to create great artwork to impress themselves, and to seek immortality amongst future mortals.

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For us, our poison is too much information. Most of the information out there doesn’t encourage us, it discourages us. In fact, I’ve become more artistically, philosophically, and creatively productive after I stopped using social media, reading the news, and reading blogs and websites. My great motivators are individuals from the past — like Nietzshe, Steve Jobs, Homer, Matisse, etc.

So friend — feel free to delight yourself in being ignorant of the past. If you’re curious of learning from the masters of the past, go for it! Just don’t feel pressured that you must study the masters from the past. Let your own personal research happen organically, based on your own personal curiosity and personal interests. 

There are no “should’s”, or “musts” in art. Only personal desire, curiosity, and interest!

MAKE ON! ERIC