For Like Sure

I'm not interested in being definitive. I'm not interested in attaining anything remotely close to perfection. But I am interested in peeling back all the layers to get to the core of my work. I believe I knew what the core was back in 2006. However, many evolutions since then, I can't put my finger on it. I just follow this instinct. I know what I need and then I make it. I am always surprised as to what comes out. I constantly thwart any concrete references to anything understandable and distilled.

I wonder if that core instinct is instinct itself? How I and many others navigate our daily lives is far removed from any kind of natural existence. It is built upon many givens that can be taken away if one block is pulled out of place. My life right now is not about immersion or slowly becoming aware. It's about hustling- in more than one meaning. At every moment in the back of my mind I think about taking life at a pace I dictate. That sparkling possibility looms in front of me starting in September and I wonder if I will be able to accept this. I had a conversation with a 1st year when I visited U of C about just that. It is so easy to stack duties in front of you that add up to instant gratification but thwart ultimate goals. What will I do with myself when the opportunity to focus is in front of me? Will I be prepared to accept that? How does one go about reversing their habits of survival of go, go, go and being acclimating to their own true inner pace?

Houndstooth

Okay, so I've been avoiding blogging. Apparently there are expectations I have of my "live" writing abilities. These expectations can really be debilitating. And so, I'll move swiftly on. I am currently moving into my new studio digs. I am finding how much I enjoy a blank space to work in. My knee-jerk reaction was to move-in as much of my stuff in as possible. Now I realize I would rather have a blank contemplative space to work. More junk surrounding me, the more jumbled thoughts I have- more organization, more clarity. And I don't like chatchky or bric-a-brac... I really admire it in your home, I just don't want it around me. Who knew, even as an artist, I had a stereotype in my mind. Not all artists are funky-dory.

I don't believe that "everything has been done before." I just don't. I do believe that the forces that be (mass media and such) don't illuminate things that are new and different, that cross boundaries and re-examine history. This structure of influence and exposure makes it necessary to turn over rocks on the Internet and follow breadcrumbs of influences in order to find the really heady stuff. It's there. Though it might be thinly veiled and require some effort to access. "Original thought" is also a myth. No one has a thought that isn't built upon one or one-hundred thoughts of others before them. Those thoughts just come in different packages- be it a loaf of bread, a man-hole cover, a poster, a wrapper, a building structure, music, religion, theory, etc. And I am proud to absorb everything around me in order to make "new" work. Just give it props! Do people genuinely believe they came up with something completely on their own?

http://http://www.turtlezen.com/originalthoughts.html

http://www.originalthoughtmag.com/mag/

http://www.philogos.org/original.html