The Ambition of the Artist

If you want to be successful in a particular field of endeavor, I think perseverance is one of the key qualities. It’s very important that you find something that you care about, that you have a deep passion for, because you’re going to have to devote a lot of your life to it.
George Lucas

Opportunities are life’s little gems, and when you take advantage of them they move you along the path to your destiny. It is of vital importance that you recognize an opportunity for what it can do for you. If it works with your plan and your goals, then you should give it serious consideration. If it takes you away from your goals, then you need to take a long hard look at both your goals and the impending opportunity.

Ambition is the eagerness to attain success, the object of a person’s aspirations.

You cannot live in a small world and try to paint a bigger one unless you have the ability to see. To see is to imagine, and imagination is key to the creative process. As children we have it in abundance. Unfortunately, in preparation for life in the “real world,” our schooling often removes it.

By the time we are adults, our imaginations are often a thing of the past, something we remember with fond recollection as we watch our children grow out of their own. Many of the artists I know, including myself, are seeking to get in touch with our childhood imaginations, our ability to see differently than others and to create our own worlds. Perhaps it’s only a vague hope, but as we restructure our educational system I yearn for the day that we realize that imagination should be right alongside reading, writing and arithmetic.

Tags: art, artist, CARDS, creativity, Imagination