Does it Really Matter?

I have a pet peeve. It's a really big pet peeve. It's when people disregard you as an artist if they find out that do things on the computer. To them you are only an artist, if you draw or paint it by hand. Any use of the computer somehow no longer makes you an artist. For some reason you don't have to have any talent to be able to use the computer to create things.

I often wish I could take them straight to the computer, set them down in front of it. Open up a blank canvas in Adobe and say go for it. Create it. If it requires no skills or talents to be able to be creative on the computer, then you should have no problem sitting down and creating exactly what I've done here. I've never had the guts to do this, I just fume inside instead. I'm sure I would probably hear a whole bunch of explanations of what they "really" meant. Honestly though, deep down they don't believe it. They somehow think the computer does it for you and that it makes it look better.

Does it really matter how you choose to create your art? Does it really matter if you prefer pen or paint, over clay or metal. Does it really matter if you use the computer, or if you do it by hand. No it doesn't. Because it's not the medium that's the artist or the creator. It's the person. They are the one with the idea, the image, the artwork and the skills to know how to go about creating it. Can I draw? Sure I can draw. Can I paint? You bet. So why use the computer then. Because to me, it opens up even more possible creative outlets that are virtually impossible to do with only a paper and pen. It lets me do things, and work in the way that is truly my artistic style. Plus I like to work fast. It makes it possible for me to be an artist and a mother at the same time right now. If I couldn't use the computer, I probably wouldn't be doing much art at all.

So lately I've been working on a collection that is so me. It's the fine artist in me. I am not approaching it in anyway related to scrapbooking. In fact some of the papers are not scrapbooking type papers. They can be hard to use, but they can be used in amazing, incredible ways when you don't think of them in scrapbooking terms. I have had so much fun playing with them, and just being artistic and creative. My husband first said to me when he saw them, "Wow those are really cool. I really like them." Then he later asked, "aren't they going to be hard to scrapbook on since they are so busy? There is so much going on in them." I thought about it, and started to panic. Thinking oh no what if you can't scrap with them and then I decided I didn't care. I was going to scrap with them the way I scrap and we'll see how they come out. When I showed him the finished layouts he said. "Wow! They look so good. Way to go, you sold them."
And really. I don't care if any of them sell. They may be difficult for some to scrap with, but I didn't create this collection for them. I created it for me. For myself as an artist. To express the way I create and do things, and to spite all those people that say you can't do it on the computer.