Well Intended Advice to Undermine Authenticity

Authenticity.  I am obsessively focused on this.  I belong to this church of authenticity because it gives me hope.  Hope that if I make my art, it will be true and compelling, whatever it is.  If I make art for others, well…

“…if your studio practices are not inextricably tied to your own identity, the results won’t be pretty.  A trap almost always springs as soon as an artist is untrue to herself, looking away from her own work and relying too heavily on an outside audience. ” – Bayles and Orland

I have been asked, more than once, “When are you going to stop putting those “corporate things”, “logos”, “cereal boxes” “everyday things”, etc. in your paintings?”  The people who say that mean well.  They are actually trying to be helpful.  For them, there is something wrong or uncomfortable about seeing those things in my paintings.  But those “everyday things” and corporate insignias are fundamentally part of my life.  What they don’t understand is that I wouldn’t put them in if I didn’t think they belong and I’d never take them out if they did.  These things are part of my truth.  My authenticity.