Here’s a bit of a breakdown for the last 3 articles concerning the potential limiting factors of the presumption that 00I: The best artists are those who can draw/paint/make something accurately. 

Believing in this could be a hang-up if:

• judgement and expectation tackle you before you even begin
• you will not consider any creative endeavour without first finding someone who can show you the right steps/techniques/tricks

• you think your entire lack of confidence comes from a lack of skill

• you’ve honed mad copy work skills but find it stressful trying out new unknown territory

• you have coveted skills but are bored of being asked to draw someone’s portrait, pet or landscape and no longer find joy in the skill

• making accurate work creates significant tension in your body and an unhealthy level of perfectionism takes over and leads to intense frustration (especially when all doesn’t go according to your plan)

• your only reference for ideas is shopping the internet for what other artists/teachers have done and replicating or slightly revising their work (not to say there’s anything wrong with using the www, though, or sharing and building off the ideas of others)

I have no idea who made this but it fits well here.

Remember, we’re just trying to unload the perceptions that may be causing resistance that is holding us back from our personal expressive abilities. This isn’t a criticism of accurate depiction. Being creative is not determining how to be for or against any one approach. We all have a unique creative profile and it’s usually a pretty slow process figuring it out. It could take a bit longer if we’ve bought in to a one-size-fits-all model. And as the author of The Everyday Work of Art, Eric Booth, says:

“Artists are not merely slow manufacturers or well-trained performers.”

So how does imitation sit with you in an essence way? Does it take you to an open field? Does it mess with your perception of what is? Does it offer an expansive space to maneuver beyond existing concepts and ideas? Is it any fun?

The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction;
when it could be turned into momentum.

-FRANCES E. WILLARD