|
Keep Doing What You Do
By Diana J Legun
Rated "G" by the Author.
Last
edited: Thursday, August 23, 2012
Posted: Thursday, August 23, 2012
 Share
 Print
 Save
 Become a Fan
Comparing ourselves to others is deflating and dims the light in our lives.
The artwork here is done with 6 colored BIC ballpoint pens, plus black by an individual who doesn't self-refer as an artist and does legal work as a livelihood. It took 30 hours to draw. The artist just goes by VianaArts on the website deviantart.com. In the description of this piece of work, called Redhead Girl - Ballpoint pen, the artist stated 20% resolution was lost in the scan. I swoon at the purity of that.
When I see this, the first thought I have is "how it is humanly possible?" The second thought is: "Why do I even pick up a pencil or a pen to do anything at all?"
Comparingly, I wince and shy away from wanting to play in the game of art and literature. Who do I think I am? Well, there most likely is someone more skilled or progressed than just about anyone (except this ballpoint pen artist, ahem!) and what would the world look like if anyone who felt less than another 'just stopped'? The music would end, the words would dry up, whole rangefuls of people would simply hide their spirit and sense of participation in the expression of life.
So, yes, this is staggeringly gorgeous and unbelievable, this Redhead Girl; but Taylor Swift shouldn't stop singing because she isn't Sarah Brightman, and none of us should stop writing because we are not Shakespeare. Right?
I'd love to hear what you think about this concept.
|
|
|
Want to review or comment on this article?
Click here to login!
Need a FREE Reader Membership?
Click here for your Membership!
|
| Reviewed by Dark Knight |
3/26/2013 |
|
| wow-that is quite the picture--I found myself staring at it and thinking...it was drawn with what??/ Amazing and it does make for an interesting world when you have people who like to be creative in so many ways |
|
|
|
|
| Reviewed by Morgan Merriweather |
2/6/2013 |
|
| I can not believe that could be done with bic's. That is gorgeous, and yes, I am completely jealous that this person passed the LSAT too. I think I'll just go back to bed and call it a day. But wait, to create means you are living and even if that's designing a super deluxe sand castle only to be washed away in a single wave. (next time the seaweed is on the left shells crushed and sprinkled on top next to the two stones) No really, your alive and your living............bic's ? |
|
|
|
|
| Reviewed by D. Vaineo |
11/4/2012 |
|
We were all born with certain gifts, this is my belief. I can draw, but nothing like what you have shown us. I can write. I think we all
have degrees in the gifts that were given to us and it is up to us to polish our gifts. Everyone of us is good at something. Thanks, Diana.
Deborah |
|
|
|
|
| Reviewed by Ronald Hull |
8/26/2012 |
|
Having dabbled in all the arts, I have learned what I'm good at. Not music or art, but story telling. My life has been rich so I have a lot of stories to tell. I'm an academic, so I've always relied on good teachers to tell me if I'm good. For example, my inorganic chemistry professor told me that I could, "take his smock," after my essay exams put me off his curve. His lonely summers kayaking in the Yukon was my inspiration for Last Man Standing.
Odin is right. Except for those who can't or don't want to use a computer, the Internet has opened a whole new way for artists to express themselves, and thousands of website businesses to exploit them, like poetry.com. Sticking to writers, most, like me, are driven to write. That's fine, but putting your sob story in print is, not necessarily, great writing.
I can't help but compare my writing to others: Hemingway, Mark Twain, Arthur Clarke. Michael Crichton, Stephen King, to name a few. In my life, I've had the good fortune to meet a few, like the humble and down to earth, Alex Haley, the arrogant and fiercely competitive, Norman Mailer, and the studious and introspective, Carl Sagan. It is their writing I must aspire to.
As I view the world of success, there are a lot of "one hit wonders" out there. To coin, Where's the beef?" can make you famous for 15 minutes, a week, or a year, and fondly remembered for even a generation. For every one of those, there are thousands of formally trained who either teach or earn money elsewhere and, while good at their craft, never have a modicum of success.
Successful or not, a body of work will outlast a life. When 20,000 people have read my poem, Alienation, on AD, and it has been used in high school classes and compared to Catcher in the Rye; when my Poem. Mesa Verde, has been purchased "In Perpetuity" by the Educational Testing Service; and when the award winning Discovery Channel photographer, Jody MacDonald is wowed by my poem of her photo of Rajan, Elephant Walk; I have achieved a modicum of success.
Most gratifying for me is the opportunity to help others edit their books and get them published. If you don't write it, they won't come.
Ron |
|
|
|
|
| Reviewed by Annabel Sheila |
8/24/2012 |
|
I firmly believe, especially having gotten to know so many gifted writers here in the Den, there is more unknown talent in this world than I could have imagined possible!!!!! I don't know what made me pick up my quill so many years ago; I only know I'll never put it down.....
Anna |
|
|
|
|
| Reviewed by Odin Roark |
8/23/2012 |
|
| The operative word should be "humble." Yes, everyone should express. As I posited in chapter after chapter of my book "Echosis" (full text available for free reading on www.thenextbigwriter.com incidentally)WE ARE ALL CREATIVE. However, having said that, without the word "humble" as part of every creative being's vernacular, we will continue to be bombarded by wanna-be-artists (of all disciplines) who think that just because the medium of the internet allows any and all expression to play out, doesn't give ANYONE THE RIGHT TO CLAIM SUPERIORITY, or the right to waste my time with clever baiting, let alone a right to claim they are truly providing artistic expression WORTH OUR TIME. To be humble, to allow the student in one to prevail, to allow a "questioning" platform to dominate, rather than one that says "I have the answers" or I am special, is arguably the only productive and progressively rewarding way to go. "I am special!" NO YOU'RE NOT. NO I'M NOT. If anything, you or I are different. Different only. Not superior in any sense. Maybe artists, maybe hacks. After all, a recent US/European consensus revealed that 97.8 of all artists in all disciplines are not worthy enough of patron attention, and thus not even cable of garnering "poverty status living." So, let's get real. Anyone think Van Gogh worried about selling, about changing the world? Hell no. He painted because he HAD TO. How many of us express artistic ideas because we HAVE TO? Few indeed. Back to my beginning. For these people who waste our time with the inane wounded lives seeking affirmation, the operative word for them is "Ego," not "humble." We should all remember: if our work is influential enough to make any kind of constructive difference in another human, that human WILL FIND US. Well, you solicited a comment. Hope I haven't bored anyone, but even if I have, I humbly ask for some tolerance. After all, I am, and will always be only a student. |
|
|
|
|
| Reviewed by Jerry Bolton |
8/23/2012 |
|
"Taylor Swift shouldn't stop singing because she isn't Sara Brightman."
No, but she should stop crashing weddings because she thinks she is somebody they can't say no to.
I agree with everything you have said, Diana. We all have a degree of best, not best in anything thing we do. That is an amazing portrait. |
|
|
|
|
|
Bookmarks