2012

My apologies if this is all over the map. It's just some of my hopes and fears for the future.

2011 was gone in the blink of an eye.  I hope 2012 doesn't go that fast especially if it's the last year of our existence.  I don't really think that's the case.  I do hope things drastically change for the better.

  As we usher in another year I find myself in the usual predicament...am I going in the right direction with my art?  Do I want to change my style, even what medium I use?  Usually when I try this it's a major waste of time and I go back to what I was doing before.

  Isn't that what we do as artist?  Isn't that how we grow?  It sure doesn't feel like it most of the time.  It seems like 1% of experimentation is fruitful.  Is it worth it to try new things when the success rate is so low.  I guess it is...for some of us anyway, but how will we know if we don't try.

  We have to take that shot.  Where would we be if Picasso or Pollock hadn't?  My art doesn't look anything like theirs but they are some of my biggest inspiration.

  When I was younger it seemed like no matter what my mood was it only enhanced my work.  Anger made my work more powerful and dark.  Boredom made me more creative.  That's not the case anymore.  Now I can only seem to paint when I'm somewhat happy or content.  Part of my problem is the internet.  We didn't have it when I was younger.  When there was nothing else to do I either drew, read comic books, or watched TV and I didn't watch much because we only had 3 channels.  Star Trek reruns and Saturday morning cartoons were all I watched so not a lot of TV.  Now it's too easy when I get home from work to open up the laptop with the intention of being on 30 minutes or so then working on my art.  30 minutes turns in hours then I'm too tired to do anything else.  I guess my New Years resolution should have been more self control.

What if the Net or maybe even the Grid went down in 2012?  It would suck but it would release a lot of us from it's grip to pursue what we was meant for if there wasn't roving packs of maniacs trying to kill us.  I'm an information freak and the internet is just too convenient for me.  I used to go to the dictionary, encyclopedia, book store, or library, now I can do it even better without having to get out of bed.  Kind of cool but kind of sad.  

You've probably heard that everything has been done.  Surely not, but there really hasn't been anything that unique done with art in 50 or so years in my opinion.  Could that be a sign, an omen? Maybe the big change would be a new Renaissance of art, a new beginning among other things. I don't know, wishful thinking I guess.

Let's look to the future with hope instead of dread. Instead of looking at it negativity let's look at it with positivity.