Over It
Added 2020-05-13 17:57:19 +0000 UTCPhoto by James Shedd
I'm over it.
Part of me wants to go back and rephrase that to make it more palatable, but nah. It's sharp and sure, I'm over it.
Over the ways that I have been making art, and a lot of the ways I see art being churned out as perfunctory content on social media.
Don't get me wrong—I'm proud of the work I have done, and amazed by the folks with whom I have had the honor of working.
It just feels stale + stagnant and I'm ready to move on from it.
Ready for new ways,
and I feel them, surely growing in the darkness,
and all I feel that I can genuinely do right now is sit back in a state of reception
and wait to see what bursts forth.
But I can feel the energy roiling in the underground,
a force of nature moving up, up, up...
I have some sense of the terrain I am moving into,
see it like a fuzzy picture coming into focus before me.
Wide. Open. And mine to birth into the world.
Instagram especially sometimes feels like a hall of mirrors,
where inspiration begets mimicry begets mundanity.
Everything starts to look the same.
It feels like fast-fashion; mechanical and disposable.
Visually, yeah, it looks like art.
But it doesn't feel like art.
It doesn't have fucking SOUL, or DEPTH.
And that doesn't cut it for me anymore.
I want more.
Comments
The age-old problem for artists is finding the balance between making art that is self-sustaining (makes money) and art that is soul-sustaining. A few find that niche where their art is both, but most lean toward the former (for obvious reasons) and try to find ways to work in the latter. Like a wedding photographer who has to check off all the boxes of shots that the client expects, but manages to work in a shot here and there that feeds their creative soul. You sound like you are looking for your balance. I hope that you find it.
Jack
2020-05-17 22:29:05 +0000 UTCGood for you, Alison. It’s always invigorating to hear when artists are ready to go out and create art that is fulfilling to them. Just because you can create the same thing as everyone else doesn’t mean you have to. Life is about experimenting and doing things you haven’t seen before. If you aren’t enjoying what you’re creating it’s time to move on and try new things. It’s never any fun when you feel like you’ve reached a point where your work is stagnant. Than it just becomes work and as an artist what you’re doing shouldn’t feel like work. You should enjoy yourself and feel alive. You’re such an amazing artist and a beautiful soul. I look forward to seeing these new and exciting changes come to fruition for you. ❤️🤗
Kyle Davis
2020-05-13 18:20:23 +0000 UTC
