i believe all of civilization is based on one untrue principle. which is that at the core of cultural, religious, or philosophic teachings there is always the idea that the human individual is wrong, is flawed, tainted; an original sinner, a hidden devil, a dangerous egoist and worse. he has a good and bad side, and in order to progress, he has to be wiped of his bad side, and civilization has to build institutions that "educate" and punish him to help him get rid of the evil that he contains.
i think this is all wrong. every human is already perfect. the bad and good side are just an error of perspective, two sides of the same coin. nobody needs to be changed. all flaws, all errors, all cracks, gaps, disease, illness, desire and belligerence are part of the personality and only if the whole of the personality is embraced, you can get ahead. the flaws and errors are what give a person personality and makes him different from a robot, and each personality is wonderful.
the problem is when this is not understood, and people are fighting their own personality. *then* a "flaw" or crookedness can turn dangerous. but it's not the "flaw", but the force that is put on it, that creates this problem.
if you accept everything that is "wrong" about you and do not fight yourself anymore, what you think was crooked will become shining examples of your personality, your errors will become virtues.
accept yourself, accept how and what you are and all your little mistakes, and then you will really get ahead
On Creating Art
art and yourself
creating art is always about being on terms with yourself. if you're on good terms with yourself producing art will not be a problem (with some exceptions). if you're on bad terms, you cannot produce anything. "creative block" is an illusion. do one thing: if you're experiencing creative block, don't delete the attempts and try-outs that you abandon in that period, as one is tempted to do. if you take a look back on them after your block is gone, you will see that they were just as genius as your other stuff. you just did not see that in that phase because you hated your art because you were in bad terms with yourself in that phase.
what connects artists from every period, nation, faith, culture is that artists always were more in touch with their inner self and core than most people. they listened to their thoughts, feelings and ideas, and they put faith in them and trusted them.
it has always confused me how a lot of people you meet have great ideas for art, music, stories... but when you tell them "write it down, create something out of it" they say "ah i'm just a common guy, not an artist... people would not be interested in that." they don't trust themselves and their creativity.
or take punk in the 70s. it's unlikely that kids were less angry in more mellow periods of music. but those punks said, i'm angry, and i'm right about it and the world needs to know, and then the rebellion happened.
oh, what about self-destructive rockstars and the likes? they were torn between extreme self-love and contempt. if they were able to present their creative output to millions of people, they could not be in total self-contempt.
but there is also another thing to it. in order to take on the stress of, well, being famous, you need to be very centered on your self, but also very likely to get thrown out of your center when the strain is too big. that's why we find with famous artists periods of extreme egotism and excesses, and of decay and self-hate.
you are the source of your creativity. so better be in good terms with yourself.
your personal art
i said the problem of creative block comes down to lack of love for your creativity and inner self. but that's not totally true. there are two exceptions.
the general misunderstanding is that an artist can do all kind of art within his range (painting, writing, music...). sometimes reduced to a closer circle of a period, or a style.
and the better he or she is, the better he or she is adopting other styles in a certain range.
but that's not true. famous artists got famous because they had their individual style that was unlike everything of their period and age.
true, there are groups and artists known for appropriating art of different styles. but even in that case they give their very personal touch to these "other people's genres".
take techno. "a techno track should have a melody... drums... percussion..." you think, and the upcoming techno artist wants to be good and all that. but maybe you are just good at melodies. or just at rhythms. just at creating interesting fx. why not do a track that has just melody then, or where the rest is of lesser focus? or, even more specific, you are only good at certain melodies, in a certain style - then just do them.
if you are bad at a specific element - find a way around it, don't use it, or take the focus off it in your work of art.
if you think your art is not going anywhere - there must be something you are good at. even if it's just 7 minute drumloops or 10 second snippets. than make tracks based on snippets or intermingling monotonic drums.
a good artist will not be good at everything
all the time. a good artist just knows what he is good at.
ideals
a third issue is the following. art is about ideas and should be based on ideas. this knowledge has faded over time, and there is way too much focus on the technical and more direct aspects of creating art. vsts, what EQ to use, compressor, etc, in music for example.
there are ideas directly related to art, like to combine various genres, or a new take on a style. but more important are ideas that seemingly come outside of the realm of art. expressing the vision of anarchy. basing a track on the biography of a person. creating an interesting soundtrack to a fascinating book.
the more abstract, the more ideal, the better. finding a way to put a social movement, a political theory, a cultural uprising to art, to painting, to music.
if you have a good idea, you'll see that you almost automatically will find the right methods and ways to create a piece of art to it.
i expressed three very different methods to beat creative block and to create art, and i feel all three need to combined for the best results. find a way to fuse and seamlessly mend them together.
creating art is always about being on terms with yourself. if you're on good terms with yourself producing art will not be a problem (with some exceptions). if you're on bad terms, you cannot produce anything. "creative block" is an illusion. do one thing: if you're experiencing creative block, don't delete the attempts and try-outs that you abandon in that period, as one is tempted to do. if you take a look back on them after your block is gone, you will see that they were just as genius as your other stuff. you just did not see that in that phase because you hated your art because you were in bad terms with yourself in that phase.
what connects artists from every period, nation, faith, culture is that artists always were more in touch with their inner self and core than most people. they listened to their thoughts, feelings and ideas, and they put faith in them and trusted them.
it has always confused me how a lot of people you meet have great ideas for art, music, stories... but when you tell them "write it down, create something out of it" they say "ah i'm just a common guy, not an artist... people would not be interested in that." they don't trust themselves and their creativity.
or take punk in the 70s. it's unlikely that kids were less angry in more mellow periods of music. but those punks said, i'm angry, and i'm right about it and the world needs to know, and then the rebellion happened.
oh, what about self-destructive rockstars and the likes? they were torn between extreme self-love and contempt. if they were able to present their creative output to millions of people, they could not be in total self-contempt.
but there is also another thing to it. in order to take on the stress of, well, being famous, you need to be very centered on your self, but also very likely to get thrown out of your center when the strain is too big. that's why we find with famous artists periods of extreme egotism and excesses, and of decay and self-hate.
you are the source of your creativity. so better be in good terms with yourself.
your personal art
i said the problem of creative block comes down to lack of love for your creativity and inner self. but that's not totally true. there are two exceptions.
the general misunderstanding is that an artist can do all kind of art within his range (painting, writing, music...). sometimes reduced to a closer circle of a period, or a style.
and the better he or she is, the better he or she is adopting other styles in a certain range.
but that's not true. famous artists got famous because they had their individual style that was unlike everything of their period and age.
true, there are groups and artists known for appropriating art of different styles. but even in that case they give their very personal touch to these "other people's genres".
take techno. "a techno track should have a melody... drums... percussion..." you think, and the upcoming techno artist wants to be good and all that. but maybe you are just good at melodies. or just at rhythms. just at creating interesting fx. why not do a track that has just melody then, or where the rest is of lesser focus? or, even more specific, you are only good at certain melodies, in a certain style - then just do them.
if you are bad at a specific element - find a way around it, don't use it, or take the focus off it in your work of art.
if you think your art is not going anywhere - there must be something you are good at. even if it's just 7 minute drumloops or 10 second snippets. than make tracks based on snippets or intermingling monotonic drums.
a good artist will not be good at everything
all the time. a good artist just knows what he is good at.
ideals
a third issue is the following. art is about ideas and should be based on ideas. this knowledge has faded over time, and there is way too much focus on the technical and more direct aspects of creating art. vsts, what EQ to use, compressor, etc, in music for example.
there are ideas directly related to art, like to combine various genres, or a new take on a style. but more important are ideas that seemingly come outside of the realm of art. expressing the vision of anarchy. basing a track on the biography of a person. creating an interesting soundtrack to a fascinating book.
the more abstract, the more ideal, the better. finding a way to put a social movement, a political theory, a cultural uprising to art, to painting, to music.
if you have a good idea, you'll see that you almost automatically will find the right methods and ways to create a piece of art to it.
i expressed three very different methods to beat creative block and to create art, and i feel all three need to combined for the best results. find a way to fuse and seamlessly mend them together.
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