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            Many considerations go into the making of a painting or any work of art. Choice of materials, point of view, inclusion or deletion of specific elements, emotional response of the artist, intended emotional response of the viewer, possible message or idea the artist wishes to communicate, spontaneity of the creative act or the deliberate planning and execution of the work, and the overall vision of the particular artist. Some of these choices can be central to the art work and others are supports to the larger idea. Training, experience, and understanding of the artist will guide whatever choices may be made in the creative process.

            It is always interesting to look at the work of an artist over the life of his or her career and see the changes that have occurred as evidenced in the work. Most any book that focuses on an artist will show the development of both skill and commitment to the work that covers the artist’s life. The early work, usually considered immature (not to be read as necessarily bad or unenlightened), will often show promise, and in some cases evidence predictions of what is to come. Other artists may make dramatic breaks with early work as the result of some intervening person or event that changes that artist’s thinking and gives him or her new insight into what art is at a very personal level.

            The amazing thing about art as it is practiced today is that there is such variety of expression and interpretation. Even the definition of what art is cannot be precisely pinned down. In the past, from the earliest civilizations well into the nineteenth century, art tended to have a broadly accepted theoretical basis that was part of the prevailing culture. Now we have cultural splinter groups and counter-culture groups or individuals that create a kind of anti-aesthetic to whatever may be the prevailing norm. This leads to lots of confusion and certainly a lot of disagreement among artists and within the larger culture that either embraces them or rejects them. Add to this the increasing commercialization of art and aesthetic ideas, and the quest for artistic purity, if such a thing actually exists, takes on almost mythic proportions. Does the artist take his skill and create for the marketplace? Or, does the artist ignore the market and focus solely on his or her inner vision? Or, does the artist use that vision to create art that is so new and unique that it almost automatically creates its own market niche and its own demand? These kinds of questions are useful for artists to ask themselves from time to time.