Make It Yours (Even When It’s Theirs)

Commissions, in an ideal world, can be a magic act of collaboration, but they can just as easily slip into the category of “group project gone wrong”.

“Every good painter paints what he is.” – Jackson Pollock

There’s nothing more dangerous than the idea of trying to make “good” art, whatever that means. Especially when creating not just for a hypothetical audience, but a very specific and real person. A person who loves what you do and has chosen to commission you to do something for them.

That kind of admiration makes it easy to loose ourselves. The compliment comes with an impossible melding of the minds. Not only do we need to create, they need to love what we create.

But my job isn’t to disappear inside their expectations. It’s to bring myself to the work.

Instead of asking, “Is this good?”, or even worse, “Will they like it?, try asking… “Is this me?”

It’s easy enough to second guess ourselves without going the extra mile and trying to second guess someone else. Why did they come to you? The thing that makes your paintings exciting for them isn’t how universally appealing they are. No one can make this work but you. What if the part you’re trying to smooth out, in anticipation of their preference or taste, the part that feels too strange, too abrupt or even, too soft, is actually the best part?

Commissions have challenged me, paid my bills, and pushed my skills in directions I never could have expected. One thing that I’ve learned is that I don’t know, and it doesn’t help to try to guess. If I try to paint as someone else and succeed, I may end up with another commission posing as someone I’m not. I like to focus on what happens in combustible space where their hopes and imaginations intersect with what lights me up.

Do your best work. Make the thing only you could make. And let the rest take care of itself.

 

What’s one thing in your work that only you would do?

What have you second guessed that ended up being the best part?