Porch Swing

The slow sounds of the liquid drip….drop…splash…against the leaves. Against the concrete.

Commerce is a delicate hum in the distance, carrying its voice through the fog and the moisture.

The feathered ones chime in periodically as they awaken. I imagine them broadcasting the morning traffic report to each other and sharing news of the ocean from seagulls.

Busting through the silence is a shirtless running man. His sneakers sound sandy and gritty as they scuff against pavement. He doesn’t see me. Silent observing from the veil of the porch swing shadow.

Only ten minutes has passed, but the fog is already lifting and the sky is splitting open to reveal the light underbelly of the new day.

Inspiration versus Imitation

I feel like a broken episode of Black Mirror on technological repeat, but with my age and existence I’m stuck in this constant realization of the way things were versus the way things are.

This topic of thought arose from my own personal battle between inspiration and imitation. With social media, there’s little to be left to the imagination in the personal arena. While Instagram is a flurry of artistry, I think that artists are giving way too much away.

As an artist, your art and your craft is your own technique and that’s what makes the soul of what you are creating. Almost like a trademark. I truly believe that they are personal and are not to be shared. Sharing the finished product is something different. But the process by which it’s created is the personality that I Infuse into it and that is the intimate ritual.

There is an overtone of hippocracy if you are videotaping a process & posting it online and then becoming angry because somebody created something similar to yours.

There must be secrets in order to avoid imitation. Then the only thing left is inspiration.

There lies the difference.

Example: I see a real skull that has crystals fastened to it with clay. Its purple with quartz. Now, if I attempt to replicate it…that’s imitation.

If I use the idea of clay with bone and crystals to create a sculpture, then THAT is inspiration.

No matter how you view it, creating something no one has ever seen is quite the task for an artist. I’m confident originality still exists, we just need to look beyond what we know to find the freedom to see it.

Can you hear the Sirens?

 

She’s smooth and moist…so shiny in the light. Every part of her body glistening with freedom, scented with the sea and kissed by the sun.

Mystery surrounds her. So beautiful but so strange! Not of this time, existing in her own. Unbound by ideals of others, she follows her own heart and her own path.

 

And that path leads to the ocean’s door.