EDIT: Why I Decided To Go Solo

Edit: Due to e-mails, messages I've received (some agreed, some well, not so nice), I will remind that this is neither directed to every studio out there, nor written out of spite. This is just my opinion based on personal (past) experience. I understand that not all organization is the same. Artists, enthusiasts and studio runners please don't get rubbed in the wrong way. I sincerely apologize if you did. I know a few professionals who feel the same, but I just chose to be vocal about it and bear full responsibility for amplifying my thoughts.

While it provides income stability, a studio setting does not help - at least for me - mental stability where artistic growth is concerned. There's a price to pay for that monthly pay cheque: a goal one has to strive for in the interest of collective creative direction.

With modest amount of experience I have working in studios, no matter how many times I've heard a studio promoting to celebrate individual identity/diversity (so far), eventually the measure of how good an artist is would always boil down to either who can paint "that certain way" as realistic as possible, or, whoever renders painstakingly detailed imagery until every excruciating specifics on the subject is visible. The list goes on, but these "qualities" summarize as only technical prowess.

Eventually, it would lead to those who carry that technical skillset will have higher value in comparison to other artists. More often than not you'll see artists getting emotional and disciplinary issues start to emerge. Also, Not forgetting celebrity artists who know they're THAT good and feel that they deserve to have special treatments. Boy I'm done with that.

I don't speak for everyone. I understand those skills are important on entry level but in my very humble opinion, details and realism only bring visual stimulation so far (and I am very much sick of it). I chose not to paint in such ways because they are the very superficial qualities in comparison to seeing a hot car or a beautiful woman. (I'm not helping myself here by grouping cars and women in the same sentence)

It's also the reason why I deliberately avoided digital art magazines today. Because seriously, how many times must I see this repetitive, perpetual portrayal of chicks with big guns, chicks with mecha, chicks with dragons, chicks with chicks.... now that's actually a nice image... WAIT THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT! Moving on...

I posed this question to myself at a crossroad: Dream or ricebowl? I chose the former, and here I am now on my own, working hard to make my choice a hybrid - Dreambowl.
Edit: But who knows if in 2 years I'm living in a cardboard box I'll just have to go for interviews.

In the words of George Frederic Watts,

"I paint ideas, not things. I paint primarily because I have something to say, and since the gift of eloquent language has been since denied me, I use painting; my intention is not so much to paint pictures which shall please the eye, as to suggest great thoughts which shall speak to the imagination and to the heart and arouse all that is best and noblest in humanity."

For me, it has always been form and content. This will lead to another long discussion - it's my favourite topic in visual representation. Maybe next time but for now, I'll end this entry without being off-topic.