Monday Motivator: Be Swept Along

"Monet's genius lies in the fact that he allowed himself to be swept along by the force of his own artistic development and continually expanded the innovative elements in his painting until, ultimately, the object in his work disappeared completely."

Artist KO Götz, quoted in Monet and Modernism, page 202

It's a creative trap to stick to doing what we know we can do well. There may be financial reasons for it ("paint what sells"), there may be fear reasons ("I'll ruin a good painting"). But if you cruise along doing what you can comfortably do and nothing else, then you're not stimulating yourself with a fresh challenge. You're not charging your creativity sufficiently, and eventually the battery will run flat.

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