Heres a link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs3xXlXSOKk
I am in love with the third definition that dictionary.com provides for the word Originality, allow me to share:
Originality[uh-rij-uh-nal-i-tee] nounf
3. Freshness or novelty, as of an idea, method or performance.
What has this world come to? A sattire for those of us cryptic beings that look at ideas churned over and over and they still get purchased and praised.
I see unoriginality everywhere, and when I say everywhere I mean EVERYWHERE!! I will never forget, a few months back I was down in Corvallis Oregon on a break in beteween classes. I went down to Dutch Brothers Coffee ( Im so sorry for cheating on you Starbucks <3) and on my way back to class I saw that the store nextdoor had "art" up on its walls for sale.
I put the word art in quotations above for the following reason:
Art [ahrt] noun
1. the quality, production, expression or realm according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.
once again taken from dictonary.com
so to continue my story above I walked into the store because I love art and looking at other peoples point of view with regards to the worlds, and beyond for that matter, beauty. Im walking around looking at the pieces when all of a sudden I had a laugh out loud moment....literally. To make matters more interesting there was an employee and a customer about 15-20 feet away in the shoe area talking about Toms (a brand of shoes for those who may not know). Both of them looked at me and the employee said "Whats so funny?" I had to explain myself, but I was happy to.
The reason I was laughing was because up on the wall was a white canvas with a bunch of Crayola crayons hot glued to the top pointing downward in rainbow formation and had been melted with their waxes intertwining and bleeding down the canvas. Well just the day before I was at Michaels, which is an art store here in Oregon, looking for something when I was leaving I saw the exact same project at the front of the store except it was on a black canvas. And this piece of "art" was for sale in this little hole in the wall store for like $80. Seriously? my kid could make that thing. Im not even sure in this situation if the creator of said "art" should even get an A for effort.
This is just one example but there are many out there. Now I dont know about you but in my opinion some of the best art cannot be duplicated, its not something that you can look at and say to yourself "I know exactly how to make this very same piece myself"
There is only one exception I have to copycat art and that is tattooing, however that in itself is an art. Its not an easy thing to do a one shot painting on a human canvas and nail it. To make it look oh so very close to the original.
Observe this example:
I was once told by a dude that was covered in old school, flash art type tattoos that he liked my tattoos but that tattoos so original as mine are had to build upon. Obviously he had no clue. Needless to say i get asked about my tattoos all the time and I give full credit to Greg Simkins and Brian Abbott (my tattoo guy).
Back to the main thought of this blog. Originality. Its rare nowdays. Look around and how many people or things stand out to you? Go watch a few movies with similar themes and tell me they arent exactly the same movie with a different title and cast.
Everyday women go in to get cosmetic surgery, "Make my boobs, nose, lips, etc, look like hers" Fuck, give me a break.
I guess in the end everyone needs toothpaste right? If you are as cryptic as me you'll get it.
I leave you with this, another example of Greg Simkins work which is also partially tattooed on me.
Heres what I learned today: M C Escher created over 2448 pieces of art in his 73 years of life.
