I have been in this fight of a headache for a few days now. Being entirely serious, this pain began in the early hours of yesterday morning and has still not managed to subside. Writing this right now hurts, but lies in one of those momentary instances where if I don't write as the thoughts come, I will lose something. This is part of my passion and realization which has come to be over a number of ups and downs, considering the only thing that kept me from writing was often the frequency in which I poisoned myself - leading to a self inflicted illness. Alcohol can be an asshole.
My "friend" Bryarly Bishop said something which immediately struck a chord with me, dealing with the way we interpret the being of others and it correlates to my own writing and other creative ventures directly. She said:
"Artists are not their art."
At first I looked at this statement and thought she was wrong, because there are people I have met who seem to always personify their form of creativity, but then I thought a bit harder. Maybe, in a way, she is correct.
I started thinking about myself and the way I spread my message out to the world via text more often than being there in person. There is nothing I have ever written on a blog that I wouldn't say verbally, but the execution is a little different. I have more of a direct handle upon what I say and the direction in which my thoughts flow if I read them as they cross through my mind and hit the screen or paper. That is not saying I spend hours upon hours doing editing on the things I write, because I usually just do a quick grammar check before publishing and leave my content alone. My words do express more clearly if written out, however. Speaking to me in person, I tend to be a bit more goofy, much less reserved, and a good bit funnier. None of this is saying I am a different person between Drew who writes things out and Drew who you see in front of you (I am entirely opposed to that) but the execution and reaction tends to be fairly different simply because of the vehicle.
A well-known automotive journalist once had a life long dream from the time he was a boy of wanting to drive a Lamborghini Countach. He had posters on his bedroom wall and knew all of the specifications as well as statistics of that car. Later on in his career, he was given the chance to drive one of these very things he had lusted after for decades with a camera crew present. After initial joy, he was soon greeted with a miserable experience of driving a hot, difficult to control, smelly, and rough riding fault of expectation. When it was all said and done, he thought the car was rubbish and while entirely disappointed, walked away after saying:
"Never meet your heroes."
I have this problem with romanticizing certain things or ideas in life. This is not a hindrance or fallacy of mine, but sticks with the same idea of James May driving his coveted Lamborghini. I would often rather have a view of someone in my head for what I see them to be through their works and can back that up because I only admire and pay attention to seemingly positive people. Working in the industry I did before my current career, I met more famous people than most of my friends ever will, and was mostly disappointed by everyone other than one who became a great friend of mine, and the other being Arthur Blank.
This is where I agree with Bryarly to a point, because often admiration is more about the art itself than the person behind the art. Some of the most beautiful compositions I have ever heard were written by classical composers who were less than stellar as people, but brilliant when creating music that touches you to the deepest bits of your soul. Part of me thinks I would have been better off listening without researching their lives to the extent I did.
We as artists and creatives tend to want to personify everything we write, paint, compose, draw, or build, but often we cannot actually be that person when the expectation comes full circle. What I mean is that we are inspired and motivated by our gifts, but tend to use them as a constraint on our realities when we notice our true selves coming forward, repressing our real identities for fantasy.
This comes down to the legacy I always talk about. I would rather be remembered for something I created or made an impact with as a result of my gifts and blessings instead of being remembered as an actual person. A legacy lives on as not an individual or group of action, but as a part of the permanent results leaving an impact on other people. To be truly considered as a creative, that is what we should want - for our works to live on well beyond our personalities.
Make sense?
Grace and Peace,
-Drew
-Add me. Stalk me. Tweet me. I really don't mind.-
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