aksimonart

Outlier

©A.K.SIMON - Outlier - 6"x 6" oil on linen - SOLD

Todays Quote:The Story of Success: "Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good."     Malcom Gladwell

I decided after doing the 30 day painting challenge in January that having a daily quote is very inspirational for me and hopefully for those who read them. I just love tapping into the profound (and sometimes not so profound) thoughts of others. If you've ever read my artist's statement (it's on the website www.aksimonart.com) you know that relationships are everything to me. After all, isn't that why we are all here? If you go to the website, please read the excerpt from Robert Henri's book, The Art Spirit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Henri). Now that is profound! 

So, back around to the title of this piece. As I peruse the internet for inspirational works and art books, "ad nauseum", I came across one of Malcolm Gladwell's books, Outliers. My curiosity was peaked (of course after looking it up I was bummed because I didn't know what it was which means I'm not one). Through the wonders of Kindle I was reading it in a flash. Wow, there are some really amazing people - oh yeah, an outlier is someone who achieves a level of greatness beyond most of his/her contemporaries. Some of them I had heard of and some I had not. Reading the book is a real eye-opener as far as realizing that maybe intellect has far less to do with achievement than originally thought. I am so glad I read the book to see it from this perspective. There are so many times I have wondered, "why him" and not me. Of course many times it is because "he" is a "he" and I am a "she" but that's another can of worms!

So my take (which I admit can sometimes be warped) is that I am an outlier (well maybe not as defined in the book or by our society) because I choose to be. I work harder and longer than anyone else and have a desire beyond compare. I'm sure that applies to a vast amount of the artists in this world.