Thursday, March 03, 2011

the problem with artists


art is built from the inside out,
it's creativity-in-itself,
not a hat,
scarf,
or cool pair of shoes,
that's expression, not art
not glorious reflections,
on memories ad nauseum,
or pages of effervescent ramblings,
back road nostalgia,
old cars or black and white photos,
city scapes in moonglow,
or folksy tunes about the rustling fields of youth strummed through G, A-minor to C,
it's not a jailhouse tattoo or dyed hair,
it's not comedy or tragedy,
or a uniformed dance or poetic pause,

these are forms...

it's creativity-in-itself,
a "trans-valuation,"
art exists beyond opposites,
and you have to be empty to get to it,
art transcends itself,
but the artist is lost in form,
trying to show the world...
trying to show the world just how special they are goddamn it,
I'm above this! I can't possibly lower myself to do that!
but art is built from the inside out,
it's creativity-in-itself,
it happens everywhere,
all the time,
but the artist forgets everyone's an artist,
and the artist's freedom is earned just like every one else,
and we transcend ourselves,
and we're all special goddamn it,
and we should be empty,
because you have to be empty to get to it,
and it's creativity-in-itself,
not just something by "artists."

3 comments:

Brother Ollie said...

G, A-minor to C...that is were I'm at.

Fisheye Lens said...

A true Romantic manifesto, but also a Platonic plea for the manifestation of the Forms. A superb attempt to summarize the esemplastic powers, and a salvo in the symbiotic struggle between the Content and the Form.

Really nice piece, Dox.

Timoteo said...

Form? What form? We don't need no stinking form!!!