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[Jean Socteau]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
My wife's main prof at college was an immigrant from mainland China. He came here at 19 to study engineering. When he was in China he had been studying to become a painter. One night at dinner he told me about it.

In traditional Chinese painting one learns to paint one base image- and you must learn and follow all the rules within a tight construct. One might paint bamboo, fog mountains, herons, flowers, etc. But one would only paint one of those throughout one's career.

He was tapped to paint chrysanthemums. Every painting had to be basically the same as the last, but the trick was to include subtle variations. Each painting was beautiful on it's own, and only faded when looked at next to another. Still, by the time he was 19 he decided it would be too limiting a life and left for America.

My point is, that just because the one guy found the artform limiting, doesn't mean that the posters here who basically regurgitate the same joke over and over should feel sheepish. To the contrary, you have precedent from an important field of art. People have been doing the same "painting " for 3000 years for goodness sakes. Carry on!

The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up

-- Jean Socteau