Having taught thousands of students, of all ages, an interesting observation has been made. Each student had his or her own ways of doing things, so that I could tell one persons' work from the other without looking for a name.

A personal style, set of symbols, methods of working and thinking, develops over years of dedication. It can't be hurried ; but a sure way to slow the process is not to work.

An artist who consciously creates an arbitrary set of symbols will find them meaningless.

A great artist cannot be categorized according to style, as he has a style unique unto himself.




"Originality is the unsought and unnoticed product of a gifted artist's successful attempt to be honest and truthful, to penetrate the origins, the roots, of what he sees. The deliberate search for a personal style inevitably interferes with the validity of the work, because it introduces an element of arbitrariness into a process that can be governed only by necessity. Picasso once said: `always strive for perfection, for instance, try to draw a perfect circle: and since you can't draw a perfect circle, the involuntary flaw will reveal your personality. But if you want to reveal your personality by drawing an imperfect circle - your circle - you will bungle the whole thing." (40)
Rudolph Arnheim




40. Rudolph Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception, A Psychology of the Creative Eye, New Version, (Berkeley and L.A., Cal., U. of California Press, 1974), p.138