What He Said

I just finished spending my evening with my niece watching some award show on TV. Considering there were only a handful of people whose names I knew, and the only band who performed whose music I recognized (or liked for that matter) was No Doubt, I felt like a dinosaur at my ripe old age of twenty-something.

I remember the days I used to have to beg my parents to let me stay up & watch the MTV Music awards, you know, back when MTV actually played music. If you're under the age of 20 you're probably scratching your head at the moment and asking yourself  "You mean MTV didn't always just continuously play episodes of Jersey Shore?" No, my young Padawans. In a decade called "The 90's" MTV played music, they did.

But, now more than ever it seems to me like popular music is nothing but generic, auto-tuned, computerized crap. Don't get me wrong, while I admittedly prefer rock, I have quite an eclectic taste and enjoy all types of music. I do also like some new(ish) artists out there like Lady Gaga, Florence + the Machine & Adele. But,  no matter how old it is I like the music I do because I can feel something when I hear it.  Whether it be the tone of the singers voice or the way the instruments are played, it evokes something within me. It doesn't always need to sound perfectly harmonious, voices aren't necessarily auto-tuned, and I prefer it that way. Which brings me to a speech given at another awards show I saw fairly recently. At last year's Grammy Awards when the Foo Fighters won Dave Grohl said in his acceptance speech:

"The human element of music is what's important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do... It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head]."

Amen brother!

Anyone who can afford to can go out and buy fancy equipment. But owning the best guitar money can buy can't make you the next Hendrix, Clapton, Page or Townsend. The best drum set in the world won't automatically turn you into Keith Moon or John Bonham (or Dave Grohl.) Expensive recording equipment doesn't give you the voice of Adele. Fancy word processors don't make you Lennon or McCartney when it comes to song writing. Sorry to burst your bubble filled with delusions of grandeur if you think they do.

This doesn't just go for music though. It goes for anything in life. True talent comes from learning, practicing and perfecting your craft. If in your heart and in your head you know you're a singer/drummer/painter/dancer/whatever it is you want to be in life, than be it! But be the best you can be at it!

After all, the people who are the best at what they do will tell you they didn't have the best of everything, they just made the best of what they had.

Something to Think About...

Far too often I hear friends who are fellow artists tell me how people try to haggle with them over the price of their artwork. I can not stress how annoyed this makes me! (Them too!!) When you are buying a piece of art, most of the time, you are buying a hand made, one of a kind piece. Sure, prints, replicas, posters, etc. can be made, but you are the only person in the world who will ever own the original copy. Furthermore, you are not just buying the piece, you are buying the supplies needed and time spent to create it. It wasn't made on a machine, or printed off a computer. Someone sat down & spent hours, days, months, maybe even years working on it. Do you not think their time is worth something? If you are a fellow artist and you've experienced this then you probably know what I am talking about. If you are not, then I ask you this, would you walk into Wal-Mart or Target, go up to the cashier and try to bargain with them over the price of something? Would you go to the drive through at McDonald's and say "I want a cheeseburger, fries and a Coke, but I feel I should only have to pay $2 for it!" Probably not. So then why do people think it's OK to do this to artists (or anyone who offers their services for that matter)?

Inspiration

     French artist Louise Bourgeois once said "It isn't so much where my inspiration comes from but rather than it manages to survive."  Well, lately, I haven't felt too inspired to create any art. In fact, looking through my work, up until recently when my friend Dan asked me to paint a portrait of Johnny Cash (to say Dan is obsessed with Johnny Cash would be an understatement) the last painting I actually finished was of a peony flower dated 2010.

     Granted, most of my time back then was spent focusing on school. I made the decision to go back and get my teaching certification. So, if I wasn't in class or at work (hey, school doesn't pay for itself) I was doing homework or writing lesson plans for my student teaching internships. That didn't leave much time in my busy schedule to make any art. When I did feel inspired, by the time I could make the time, the need to create just wasn't there any more.

     Now that school is finished, most of my energy is focused on finding a teaching job. But, I have all this paint, all these canvases, tons of yarn, India inks, a brand new memory card for my camera that's never been used, empty sketchbooks, and ZERO inspiration to use any of it.
     So, my question to you is this: what inspires you? What keeps you going when you feel like your creative spark has burned out?