Creative Artist or unoriginal technician?

There is a lot of pressure on artists. How do you separate your creativity from everyone elses?

If you succumb to trends, and intentionally reflect in your work currently successful artists, are you in a school of art, are you a copyist, are you a sell-out? Or, if you  cash-in, are you just clever?

Retro-racing Picasso series (two views) in N'Namdi collection. These sell very well.

What I know for sure is your art has to be meaningful to people who have the ability to exhibit it/collect it. Should an artist make work that conforms to the work already being shown, or does the artist's heart and mind always need to dictate what they produce? We can be influenced by other artists - this is a long and wonderful tradition...but where is the line drawn between being influenced and outright appropriating aka copying?

 Is there room for all kinds of art? Yes. (OK, that was easy).

But, there clearly is not room in all kinds of institutions. I have exhibited in some museums, but would love for curators to find more ways to include my work. I am still a painter. What about my sculptures...they are paintings on 3D supports. 

I am an artist who works in found materials. I will transform a piece of trash that will not obviously show the origins of the mediums. This is a very contemporary practice that I have used starting in grad school.

 This one sold, too!

This Obama is based on a form that was sent to artists across the country! The results were all distinctly different. So, even "Visions of Our 44th President" has been shown in Detroit at  the Wright Museum and in Miami during Miami Basel.

Wright Museum, "Visions of Our 44th President"

 
DuSable Museum of African American History honoring AfriCobra. The black and white drawing is a piece by me selected because I was influenced by the group.

 

 Cubism sneaks into my work again and again.

 If the art does not relate to an existing form, then how do you know it is art??