Introvert/Extrovert

"Foggy Morning"
5 x 5
oil on hardboard 

I wanted to play with trying to create the look of fog with this little study.  I say little because I was down to just a couple of 5 x 5 panels in my stock.  I spent the majority of yesterday afternoon cutting new ones.  There is a farm near-by that I am just itching to try and paint.  Not usually a plein-air  painter, but maybe that will change.

Here is how it might look framed.

Katherine Tyrrell has an interesting poll/article that discusses whether artists are introverts or extroverts.  Guess what?  75% of artists taking her poll are introverts!

And guess what?  75% of the general public are extroverts!

Interesting stuff.  She also directed to an article that talks about the myths about introverts.

Here are a couple:


Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.


This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.



Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.


Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.


Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.


On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.



Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.


A world without Introverts would be a world with few scientists, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, doctors, mathematicians, writers, and philosophers. That being said, there are still plenty of techniques an Extrovert can learn in order to interact with Introverts. (Yes, I reversed these two terms on purpose to show you how biased our society is.) Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ. 

So there you have it!  We are a minority but we are not weird, we are just wired  differently than the majority.

Being an introvert ( and yes, I am proudly one of them) does present certain challenges.  Like how to "sell" your art.  

Not an easy thing for us.