What's New

originality requires rethinking

Sun Blowin Bye - Dan Beck 2003 - digital painting

As an artist and musician and the person that I am - I always want to do things differently - do it my way - lay down my own tracks, as it were, and be a pioneer.

What I know as a teacher both of others and even myself - repetition is a necessity for being able to improve on the execution of the same subject matter or even new subject matter.

My goal for a new piece of music or artwork is to create something to live inside - but even then, I must keep playing the new work of music - keep painting some of the same old things - keep exploring the same ole medium - keep revisiting the same old works …

I need to see how I view or hear them from where I am today. There are never enough hours to be new and be revisiting - so though I am in a time where I have plenty of new work - though not recorded - plenty of old work - not yet shared - I am revisiting a song I have offered and a digital painting that I have had on my website…

because it is the way I am feeling today - and it is worth it for me to revisit it.

Listen or View

• Can’t Stand Still - original song - Dan Beck / 1danband - 2005 - music is a refuge and can take over - no matter what else is going on
• Original Print Options - for above digital painting - Sun Blowin Bye
• On Repetition - Supercharging Your Affirmations - perhaps even more necessary to repeat when what is learning requires some unlearning as well

original and same - pushing the language

Three Way Figure 2 - original digital painting -Dan Beck 2007

Don’t know if I left anyone in suspence or not - but here is the second of three digital paintings - done together with divergent paths.

When I started the piece I started with the background - and got to a point where it needed some additional color - I filled using different gradients but liked three choices and decided this time not to decide.

Putting off the decision and taking three different paths simultaneously was a fun way of working - an excercise I may or may not repeat. But it doesn’t matter - what is important is the exploration of different ways of working - different ways of keeping things fresh - and in my case different ways of creating original digital paintings and accompanying original art and original prints.

As I keep saying original art has multiple meanings - I see my art as a way to push our understanding.

See Also

• Figures Art Gallery - a good place to explore for similar work to above - each one original
• What Is A Print? - a basic on understanding the originality of prints - traditional methods discussed here only - but still aids in understanding meanings of original
• Meaningful Work: 10 ways to recover a sense of calling - this was not what I meant by different ways of working - but it is a good way of looking at oneself and is quite akin to the creative process. I like to pass on pertinent though sometimes marginally related links I discover which add to the content of my own article

originality, style, and first generation prints

Strawberry Alley - digital art print - Dan Beck 2007

It is kind of typical of me to be somewhat contrary. So to feature a simulated art print from a digital painting which I have already recently featured - makes total sense for a new category called “Original Art“.

I am really not that big on praising my own work. To say I like something I have done is one thing - but a claim of complete originality would be preposterous.

However, I believe my work to generally be my style - I also know I am not the only one who sees this. It is always intended to be mine and always intended to be original.

Because the work I am featuring at Outhouse Studios is created as a digital image - every print created is an original - probably not a one of a kind but the way it was intended and a first generation original print.

See Also

• Original Art - discussion of what it means
  
• Should the Legal Meaning of ‘Originality’ Be Altered? - someone else’s more detailed discussion - Rich Text Format (html/highlighted version linked above). Would we really care so much about proprietary rights if money weren’t a concern?