American Idol Lessons

I have become hooked on the television show American Idol. It is the seventh season and this is the first I have watched it since the first season. I get a little obsessive about reality shows sometimes and limit myself. Anyway, I see a lot of comparisons to the mistakes that they are making and to the mistakes that I make as an emerging artists. Although I am over twenty years older than some of the singers, I still feel like I am a late blooming and emerging artists with great potential.
So some of the lessons. One of the contestant that got voted off, Katy Malloy, seemed to have so much talent but couldn't let herself go and sing with passion. Maybe she didn't know who she was yet and therefore could not express. Holds true for visual arts too, don't you think? Also the judge, Randy, told Amanda Overmyer, "to stick to her bag, Man'' not try a lot of different styles. I was recently told on different occasions that "my bag" was abstract expressionism. I never really connected with the art of the abstract expressionists but I looked them up again and was surprised how I related to their experience. The reference said that their work looked very haphazard but that actually much thought was put into it. That is how I felt about my painting "'Freedom Horse" which was successful. The judges on the show also tell the singers to be true to themselves but not boring. I think that is like visual art also, you can't just repeat yourself and do what you have done before. You have to work from passion and love. That is love for your subject, media or craft. On the show, David Cook, is doing well, but I feel he may get into trouble if he starts just trying to perform to excite the audience and doesn't work from a love of the music. Chikezie is also another singer on the show and last night he sounded like he was trying to present about three different music genres into one song. If you have the ability to sing country, rock and blues, you don't usually stick it all together in one song or album. In the visual world that would be bad design. I guess we all know that to have a solo exhibition, we need a consistent body of work. Right? Well I will keep watching a try to stick to "my bag". But I am distracted this week by my coops. Paint Out with time limitations and a pressure to perform.