Avoid the Water Cooler

 Even though I've devoted my life to being a successful visual artist, I've never actually been a part of the artist tribe and I've also adopted the philosophy of Mike Rowe's mantra "be wary of all earnestness".  

Most of my public drawing career has been performed solo because the vast majority of events for which I've been hired required only one artist but recently with my new affiliation with other entertainment agencies, I've been accompanied by additional cartoonists as well.

This week I had the pleasure of performing at Memorial Herman Hospital and along with me there were three other artists which brought to the forefront the priority I have of  non-conformity. The other artists were talented, friendly and related well to me and the customers but we then we began to diverge. There seems to be similar traits, habits and practices among caricaturists from which I want to be unassociated which results in predictability, mediocrity and forgettable work. The successful visual artists I follow and the careers I wish to emulate do nothing the same way as everyone else.

It's a rather simple formula, really: to be average, I should do what 95% of what everyone else is doing. To be extraordinary, I need to do extraordinary things and depart from the familiar. 

I'm happy to be someone who isn't part of the crowd even among my peers. I've always been that way and in my naivete of years past, when I tried to blend in and be "one of the boys", it usually ended up to my own detriment.