"For Whom the Bells Tolls" a title from a famous novel by Erst Hemingway. By I wonder at this statement: "For whom the artist created?". Those words are mine, as they iterate my thoughts about, for whom the painting are painted for. If the artist has been commissioned to paint, sculpt or compose - the answer is evidente. However the amount of unseen art that is created by the creator, is immense and in most cases, is never seen, sometimes even destroyed. However, I surmise that most artists create for one person only -
themselves! And I think that any artist of worth will apply his energies to satisfying himself, as to to his/hers worth as an artist. The strongest critic to any work is the creator himself - in his heart of hearts, he will know that the item is a true reflection of his talents and inspiration, and not the art collector or the curator of some gallery. Although the artist still craves the adoration from a neutral third party. It never is safe, to ask anther artist what he thinks of the work (every artist know this) and most of all, never ask a family member what they think of your work. Their options are always based on the fact that they love you (or we hope so). The best judge of his own work, is the artist himself. If he lies to himself, it won't be for long and he will grow to the realisation that he will have to admit, that it was not that great after all. What happens then? Well, it's back to the proverbial drawing board. That constante need to do one better will always exist. This need to forever do one better, can drive an artist nuts. The artist that comes to mind most readily is Van Gogh. An immensely productive artist, churning out sometimes a picture per day, but never been happy with the results. But I must admit - he had other problems as well. I can not quote verbatim, but Picasso said that he was never satisfied with one of his works, as he saw errors in it and knew that the next one he did, would not have the same errors as this one. I believe that this is all an attempt to please the artist himself, maybe that is why I think and that an artist is a selfish person by nature. The artist does not seem to be that good a person then?
