Philip Guston

"I come into the studio very fearfully.  I creep in to see what happened the night before.  And the feeling is one of, 'My God, did I do that?'"

— Philip Guston

Canadian Artist

1913 - 1980

Does your creative work surprise you?  Have you set a poem or story aside and came back a month or two later and were surprised by what you read?  Have you painted a picture and were pleasantly surprised the next day by what you had created?  Often times we are not aware of what we are creating while we are in the process of the creation.  It is only later that we discover the beauty of what we created.  And that is the joy of creation -- discovering something new.

Robert Henri

"The real artist's work is a surprise to himself."

— Robert Henri

American Artist

1865 - 1929

Are you surprised by some of the things that you write or paint?  Or do you feel like you are in a rut?  As artists and writers we need be willing and open to change.  We need to surprise ourselves by what flows from our pens.  Sometimes it is too easy to paint the same thing over and over.  Or to write the same prose again and again.  Picasso was an artist who reinvented his art again and again.  He never clung to one style or technique.  Some novelists are the same way.  No two novels are the same.  Where as, genre writers tend to create the same person, the same story over and over.  Once they have achieved success they stop growing and changing.  Ask yourself this question from time to time: Am I surprised by what I create?