Reasons for Doing Art...

Five reasons that creating art is vital to human existence:

"Winter Morning" (12x12) by M Francis McCarthy

• It's what we do. About all we have left of most human civilizations is their art and maybe a few bones. Art connects us to our ancestors in the outside world just as our DNA connects us within.
• Art expresses deep symbolic structures that cannot be expressed any other way. A work of art can get across feelings and ideas that would use up enough words to fill a library. Art utilizes a compact symbolic language that's born deep within the superconscious. 
• It's magical. It's too easy to forget the power of art to change people. I choose to make art that creates a peaceful feeling and reminds us of the magic of nature itself. I've created many different types of art in my time and each form has different effects. As an artist I believe in being responsible for the energy and feelings created in response to my work.
• It feels great to make art. The better the art the better you feel. Nuff said there.
• It beats doing nothing. Really this could be the best reason to create art. If you spend you life as a consumer cow grazing your field of food and entertainment. What has been accomplished? What did you add to the human experience? When you find your true work you find your true worth.

Cheers,

A bit about "Winter Morning". I painted this a few months back. It's a survivor of the purge my studio went through during the last six months. It's painted over a siena drawing done on a kauri wood panel. The drawing of the tree was pretty detailed for my current mind set but overall I'm happy with the finished painting. 

"Winter Morning" reflects my new love of orange in my skies. I love putting blue against orange and mixed together they create a neat grey that is awesome for using in skies. "Winter Morning"  also represents a good merging of drawing, photo reference and imagination. Something I've struggled with as an artist. I'm happy to report that imagination will continue dominate that struggle. More on imagination in a later post.