Break them Like an Artist!

Sometimes when I sit down in my studio, I do not have a plan. It can feel a bit daunting, and yet once I get used to the freedom of creating without knowing where it is going, THAT is when I can experiment. This background was one of those times. I wanted to test and see how different inks and watercolors reacted on hot press paper with spritzed water. I put down architectural tape (easily pulled up without tearing the paper) and started adding vertical color lines from various pens and inks. Once it was all dry I tore off the tape to see the blank white horizontal lines. I then found these words from Pablo Picasso:

Learn the rules like a pro, 
so you can break them 
like an artist. 

-Pablo Picasso 1973

I have been doing calligraphy for thirty-seven years, and I am still learning and trying new things. I like how Picasso admonishes us to learn the rules…that is indeed VERY important. The rules help us build the foundation upon which we can stand firm with confidence. It is in knowing the rules that we help ourselves avoid simple mistakes and earn our creative confidence. Picasso then encourages us to break the rules in our own way. I believe that is where people learn their style, preferences and ignite the best they have to offer. I love watching people move beyond the basic guidelines the rules provide to find their own creative voice. It has taken me years to reach that point, and much courage to avoid being pressured to do what everyone else is doing.

Many of us never waiver from the safety and surety of the rules. Rules provide a safe harbor where we know what will happen. For others of us, the rules eventually constrict and inhibit what we want to create every day. We eventually branch off and break the rules like an artist. It has been a wonderful adventure for me to find my own voice and shout it loudly as often as I can!

So what rules do you stand on? And how are you breaking those rules to become your own true, creative self? Is it time for you to branch off? Maybe just with your big toe, dipping it in the waters of experimentation to see how truly creative you really are? You will never know what you have inside unless you break the rules like an artist!