I have this horrible suspicion that everything I feel really inspired to create has already been done, already exists out there, and I just don’t know about it yet. Every project I will ever execute that turns out really fucking great has already been formed by someone else. It’s like La Biblioteca de Babel really exists, but it also contains visual artworks, and it is archived on the Internet, and I keep running into these works and despairing. There! My personal justification for living, as painted by… [so and so in San Francisco who just had a show opening and posted photos online]… Nooooo, not again!
If I just took the old adage, “There’s nothing new under the sun” to heart, this wouldn’t be so painful. I would just do my art, when I have the time, because it’s something I have to do and need to express, and if there’s someone else out there who’s kind of doing the same thing, we can be like, “wow, love your work” and it’s no big deal. Because really, the more “connected” I am, the more likely it is that I will find works that resonate with me. It’s just a probability thing. Before the [angels trumpeting] Advent of the Internet, I never would have known about these artists at all, most likely.
But every time I run across a body of work that is very similar to something that already exists in my head, I just want to poke my eyes out with paintbrushes!
Urngh. I think this is a problem for another day. Today’s problem is studying Standard Precautions for the prevention of the transmission of bloodborne diseases, as outlined in OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.1030.
For people who hate words:
Nuclear power plant, 2009
8 Comments
Heh, I’ve had “nothing new under the sun” rattling around in my head the past several days, too.
Y’know, I have a suspicion that Taoists aren’t bothered by this problem. Fuckers.
I prefer to think the Internet is stealing my ideas and I’m not sure how they do that since I haven’t made anything or written it down. Some sort of psychic ray, obviously… ;)
You are right, that without the Internet we wouldn’t even be aware of it. That’s the most important thing to keep in mind. Everything’s the same, so alls we can do is WHATEVER THE HELL WE WANT, TO WHOMEVER WE WANT, AT ALL TIMES.
“I prefer to think the Internet is stealing my ideas and I’m not sure how they do that since I haven’t made anything or written it down.”
That’s going to keep me laughing for at least… 3 weeks. I think you’d make a good therapist. ADVICE COLUMN TIME!
this is the exact thought that keeps me from writing. and i have this sneaking suspicion that i might be a great writer if i did it more. blargh! i love what you write and i love your art, and if some other person did something similar, i wouldn’t like it as much because i like you better. so there!
^_^
Remind me to give you my Bizarro World pep talk sometime.
Jope- Ack!
Faith- I have this suspicion that if I actually painted more, my art would go in directions that no one in the world could anticipate, including myself. I think that might be one of the great secrets of art. Maybe we should make a pact to ignore our feelings of inadequacy and redundancy. (Matching tattoos!) But anyway… from my perspective, the thought of you being redundant is just ridiculous. I know nobody else like you!
In my head a see a bell curve filled with little people-dots, and you are an outlier somewhere way out on the side, and your dot is just jittering and humming in place with vast artistic potential!
Yeah well I feel the same way about you, dearie! Let’s get those crow skulls and seal the pact!
Wanna start an art journal exchange with me? We can write and or do art in it and pass it back and forth and maybe also give each other props and suggestions at the same time.
HUH HOW ABOUT THAT?
Also, what about my visiting proposition?
:)
You have caught me in the act of responding slowly to e-mail!!
[camera rapidly zooms in on laptop screen]
voiceover: “E-mail?!?!”
(Give me a couple hours :)
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