Julia Cameron, in her book THE ARTIST’S WAY, suggests that we writers have a period of reading deprivation. This I have not been able to do with any degree of success. But why do we read so much? Why do we need to know how others feel about everything?
Do we read to justify, by comparison, our own way of looking at things? Are we searching for answers in all the wrong places? Escapism or a thirst for knowledge – in my case a little of both. I can lose myself in a well written book that takes me to another time and place. I search for knowledge in newspapers and magazines. I thirst for more knowledge. In art books and magazines I’m looking for inspiration but try not to compare my work to others. Would I be a better artist had I spent more hours reading of and studying what other artists have done? Don’t we learn from the great painters and writers of the past? Do we lose some of our own creativity by doing so?
Early in my training, I was taught to copy the “old masters”, not as easy as one might think. Could that practice have instilled in me the idea that works by others were more important and better rendered than anything I could do? Does this happen to other artists who are insecure about their personal creative efforts – many copy their entire lives.
It is said that when one stops growing (or learning) they start dying. Perhaps it is time to stop comparing what we do with others; we are all unique. We have our own song to sing, our own story to tell. Who knows, our song might be more melodious or our story better told than the ones we are imitating. I believe it really is okay to march to a different drummer.
I have learned to do my own thing, and my life has been much happier and more rewarding because of it. I like to believe that I have a “self” to express. Lets all look inside for inspiration, not be an imitation of life but be a life to imitate.