Creativity vs. Good Taste

"Ah, good taste, what a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."

       -Pablo Picasso, painter and sculptor (1881-1973)

 

 

I love this quote from Picasso.  It makes me laugh and it makes me think.  And it challenges me artistically. That he truly believed it is so obvious in his work.

 

I am an artist, but I am not in the same category as Picasso (in oh, so many ways!).  I make pieces that I like to think of as art, but they are made to be worn, not to sit in a museum and be discussed, admired, hated, or ignored.  I want people to like my things.  Maybe not everybody, but enough people to make it worthwhile for me to continue.  And I think these people have good taste.  In fact I’m sure they do.

 

Sometimes the pieces that I like the best just sit, not finding a new home for the longest time.  Usually I like them the best because they were a challenge to create; the techniques were new to me or it was the first time I got a new technique right.  Other times a favorite is just something that makes me laugh.  Occasionally, I create a piece by accident;  something goes wrong, but in the process something even better gets made.  This happens most often during the soldering and patina stages.  So the pieces sit, waiting for the person who likes them as much as I do.

 Patina Sterling Silver Jellyfish Brooch with Opal