
I first discovered Joseph Hawkin's piece in a contest on the website Fine Art America. I enter contests there just to gain extra exposure, and I often go on to the contests that I participate in to vote for those paintings I like. I stumbled on his painting, Joe's Blue City, and was excited to find another artist similar to me. Many artists prefer to be completely different, and I understand that. For me, it's not important to be different intentionally. I know I'm different, and I know my style is not common. As a result, I often try to find artists whose art I feel are similar to mine so that we can connect, share ideas, and possibly / hopefully gain exposure together as a result of our connections. Who knows, maybe we'll be the founders of a new school someday. Hawkins does have a similar style to mine, and maybe we'll collaborate going forward.
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But such is the life of art. I have used other artists to influence my work, and I believe it is impossible to never mimic. By studying one develops one's own style. It's impossible for me to completely copy well another person's art. I just can't do it, and that's because my emotions get in the way. This, of course, is a good thing because my art directly reflects my emotional response to my environment. My art is emotional, and that makes it mine. But as a result of studying other artists, I have come to learn that my art uses strong and contrasting colors. It's simply how I communicate.
I am still quite happy with this development. Is this self-aggrandizing? Surely it is, but one can be happy with the subtle points of career growth right? After all, if one can't celebrate one's successes, however small, then what is the point of trying to succeed at all?
I can't include his image here as a result of Fine Art America's copyright protection built into the site, but you can view his image here. My image is the one at the top of this post, and you can go to my FAA link here.