Today I had a light bulb moment, a moment that changes how I view things. I've felt like a artistic fraud for a long long time believing that it was just part of being creative. I've felt like a fraud for not being overly technical with my camera, or feeling like I'm using photoshop too much to edit, a fraud for becoming a composite artist because shouldn't everything be done in camera.
Over the weekend I made this very simple image. I'd given myself time off just to experiment in photoshop as I prepare for my first fine art series. The photograph I took was deliberately terrible, would make any technically correct photographer shudder in their boots, it is processed in photoshop to create the painterly soft effect (something I'd told myself means fake). So when I made this image how come I didn't feel like a fraud when it represents everything I told myself made a fake image?
At that point I realised, it doesn't matter how we create our art as long as it is honest and genuine to us. Perhaps in the end feeling like a fraud means we are not connecting to something deeper in ourselves, but place the fraud emotion on external factors because we're not recognising the cry from within. Because this image connects and feels genuine to me it doesn't matter how processed it is or if the initial image was technically correct.
So if you feel like a creative fraud maybe it is your inner voice crying out to be heard and your thoughts are telling you to dig deeper.