Wherever you end up then you will have a friend, even if it only comes down to yourself (not usually such a bad thing). "Pick up thy pencil Sam ", will take you Up up and away. Shapes and sizes don't matter as much as friendship. It tends to get obliterated with the human sort, but in the sketchbook and scrawls it will stay alive for ever. There has always been a need to achieve more than is presently available. When you realise that what has been successful is a mere stepping stone towards another goal. There does not seem to be a finality to creativity.

Critics easily say "Why didn't you do it this way?"....not an easy one to answer as had you "done it that way", it wouldn't be what it is now. Creativity should not be influenced by external pressure, but be allowed to grow through the understanding of the creator, not the critic. You must be allowed to translate emotions as they occur to you, not to do it like Hockney, Picasso etc. Although this is possible, it will not be a true representation of yourself, but a show of how it may have been represented by your adopted stylist. This is not the way forward, but merely an exercise in finding out how others attack problems, a good exercise, but no more than that.

The base line is drawing with what is around you, scratches in the earth, marks in the sand, dribbles down condensation on windows. These images need to be displayed in the World in order to count as Art. They need to be framed to 'show off the full potential of the object', and also to make it worth buying, today's be all and end all for everything, filthy lucre. If you can leave all of that behind you, then you are on a path to enjoyment and fulfilment.

Images are all around, but everybody sees them differently. They can be shown to groups, and an understanding becomes a signal for a translation. If six people were set before a nude and asked to paint what they saw, six translations would come out, and all would be equally valid. The fact that one or two would be more accepted by the group as 'good', says nothing in itself. The fact that six more pieces of original art are now in existence is value beyond cost. The more one does, the more the 'primitive' values are sought. "I wish I could paint like a child", is often quoted by 'respected' artists, and is valuable to understand that a child's sight and translation has a naiveté that is uncorrupted by forms that already exist.

The failings of modern society are shown with its inability to grasp for something as intangible as money and power, and to allow the valuable aspects of life go on unrewarded. Art and creativity are the backbone and foundation of the wish to carry on and to proceed to a goal of beauty through surroundings and eventually life itself.

'Art for Art's sake', is the phrase that will finally allow us all to become complete beings.

Les Rowe 1996