Since the beginning of human creation, art has been evolving in a more or less linear fashion; from  Greek realism to expressionism, Roman reiterations of old Greek statues, the coming of the dark ages leading into the flourishing times of the renaissance.

This is especially obvious in the era of isms; starting with the old impressionists, evolved by Henri Matisse and the other fauvists and the expanded freedom of colour and form that eventually lead to cubism, futurism and abstraction.

Due to a great lack of functional means of communication, artists all over the world took much longer to evolve their styles and to find new inspirations for their work. Picasso had no other means to come in contact with a totally foreign culture than by the means of visiting a museum exhibit. And it took him a long time to get his imagination juices flowing enough to be able to produce his masterpiece The Young Ladies of Avignon that eventually lead to a revolution in art.

But now, with the power of instant messaging, instant coffee and soon instant transportation (I have my fingers crossed regarding the invention of teleportation during my lifetime), our playing field has been broadened from a straight line into a worldwide area of everything goes.

If one wishes to decorate his or her home with some fine art — well from bio art to classical realism — today one can find almost anything online. And with such an abundance of art, it does bring up the question of how to stand out from the crowd?

The issue of uniqueness could once be resolved through personal style; Renoir was different from Matisse, Gauguin nothing like Cézanne. The number of artists an average collector or gallery visitor knew, was more in the hundreds and differentiation amongst them wasn’t as hard back then as it is today.

Now you can open Saatchi Online and find millions of artists, many of them producing quite similar works, so style doesn’t really help as much as it once did. In order to adequately siphon through the masses of artists, curators now tend to look at the whole oeuvre — the whole body of work any particular artist has produced over the years.

Today, it isn’t as much about one work, or even one exhibition — what matters in the long run is the totality of our production and most importantly the regularity of our production. Rather than focusing on the importance of each piece we make, I find it more crucial to step back and observe it in the context of everything we have ever done. 

I might ask, if it brings anything to the story of who I am, what I am about? Does it complement or juxtapose the works that came before? Does it maybe break a certain “tradition” of motifs I had previously been using in my work? Am I becoming more serious, more cynical or more playful in the way I tell my stories?

Rather than trying to figure out that one perfect piece, that one work of magnificence that will catapult you into the upper echelons, maybe take some time and figure out what all of your work is about. What is it that you are, what do you stand for? And start pushing that story to your collectors, gallerists or followers. 

Because each of us has a unique story to tell, a unique background of why we do what we do. Why not focus on that, rather than being just another still life painter or just another one using resin to make his or her work. In today’s oversaturated world, it shouldn’t be the materials or the singular creations we make, that define us and our personal creative brand, but the amalgamation of everything we stand for, everything we are. If you ask me, that’s what art is all about.