I wanna be an artist

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Cuz I love art, of any type. I've always wanted to write songs.... But I'm just not creative. And I know I'll never be as brilliant or original as my heroes.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way..

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

Be true to your muse, Nowell, and don't dare betray that talent that God gave you. Don't you dare.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

well, you do hate yourself. Maybe you can use that.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

I'm gonna pretend I didn't see the sarcasm in that and continue being serious.

See, I don't think I have any talent. I don't think I'm "gifted" or "special". And I hate being told that I am.

And hating oneself isn't original enough.. Is it? I don't know..

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

HALLELUJAH

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

Don't bother. Be a computer programmer instead.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

xxpost:
I think I was being sarcastic too, and mocking the kind of comments you're describing, if that's any consolation.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

no, be a permanent grad student. do temp work. live in limbo.

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

But I like art!

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

Nowell, it is cliched as it is true--we are all artists. It is as part of being human as calling someone "pretentious" for considering herself more artistic than others. But nevermind that. The dreams you dream at night and the thoughts racing through your head all day are more beautiful than anything anyone could ever paint, write, compose, or whatever. James Joyce's Ulysses, considered by many the finest novel of the dearly departed 20th century, is one long testament to how much more epic a day in real life is compared to the greatest work of literature in our culture--The Odyssey. That is all inspirational digression by way of saying, Nowell, if you want to be esteemed as an artist, keep it real, respect art, develop taste, and most of all hone skills.

― Henry Darger, Monday, 3 January 2005 19:48 (twenty years ago)

I just want to make sure - are you being serious?

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

Cuz if you are and not just trying to fuck with me...Thank you. For real.
I'm such a cheeseball..

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

Nowell, your guile and persistence are types of art in their own way.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

But I'm not original. My ideas are not original. I LACK originality.
Fucking A, I have to go to class...

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

You've certainly got me fooled.

I've always wanted to write songs.... But I'm just not creative.
You're going to let that stop you?!? I've got two words for you: Marc Bolan. I got the box(ed) set for Xmas and suffered through one whole CD and part of another listening to Tyrannosaurus Rex before I got to the good (minus "yrannosaurus") stuff.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

I am being as serious as I can be, which isn't very, but I am certainly not being mean spirited. It takes a lot of work to be considered an artist, because so many people would like to be. Keep at it and be humble and eventually the protective layer between your inner light and the artificial social selves you create will become unveiled. You will then be creating art as naturally as you dream at night and daydream throughout your waking hours.

By the way, good primers about dealing with the haters are William Blake's poems (see especially "The Marriage between Heaven and Hell") and Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. Good luck and enjoy!

― Henry Darger, Monday, 3 January 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

Henry Darger Off The Money.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

"Freddy, as a younger man, I was a sculptor, a painter, and a musician. There was just one problem: I wasn't very good. As a matter of fact, I was dreadful. I finally came to the frustrating conclusion that I had taste and style, but not talent. I knew my limitations. We all have our limitations, Freddy."

― marianna lcl (marianna lcl), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:56 (twenty years ago)

Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

xpost:
What is that from, The Horse's Mouth?

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

Trahimur omnes laudis studio

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)

Nothing great is made without a mixture of dementia?

― Cicero?, Monday, 3 January 2005 20:00 (twenty years ago)

"controversial"

― Ian John50n (orion), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

What is that from, The Horse's Mouth?

I don't think so, but that's a great movie.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

http://www.pilmeyer.com/czukay/hobud2.gif

― LSD, called the aristocrat (ex machina), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels!

― marianna lcl (marianna lcl), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

I'm an artist (painting!) now.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:10 (twenty years ago)

Nowell, check this out if you have time. Pay particular attention to the "Proverbs of Hell."

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/blake_ma.html

― Henry Darger, Monday, 3 January 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

POST ONE JPEG (XP)

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I'm not in the Dean Gulberry class. Not yet.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:12 (twenty years ago)

GET ONE IRONY

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

RFI: Are Nowell and Henry Darger two Sally-Field-In-The-Title-Role-Of-Sybil-like aspects of the same person?

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:22 (twenty years ago)

Do something useful. IRONY MY SHIRTS!!!

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

But I'm not original. My ideas are not original. I LACK originality.

Well, there you go. So don't be an artist. Oh, I know... you want to be an artist.

See, the whole question here hinges on the presumption that somebody somewhere cares whether you become an artist or not, and nothing could be further fron the truth.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

if you're an artist, you're an artist. if you want to be an artist, then be a hipster.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:32 (twenty years ago)

I wanna be a poetaster.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

xpost OTM. Part of being an artist is knowing that it's not cool, won't make you rich, probably won't get you anywhere except despised by your family and running with a very sketchy crowd, but doing it anyway because you kinda don't have any options. Artists do what they do to stay sane, not for mass approval.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

I like art. Fascinating stuff.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

Art is ok.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

Nobody but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

Art is like a meal you can't get enough of.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

I once read a quote from one of the Butthole Surfers, possibly Gibby Haynes, that has stuck in my head for the past 10 years at least, because it is so true: "Art is just the last three letters of fart."

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

xxxpost
I sure do love the way he sings that "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)

If you're taking advice from Gibby Haynes, then you obviously have bigger problems in your life than art.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)

pears is dead right.

― music mole, Monday, 3 January 2005 20:45 (twenty years ago)

art

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

fart, get it!

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

art is interesting for many reasons

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:47 (twenty years ago)

Here is a novel you can read about the good old Bohemian scene.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

go faux gay, nowell. its easier and you learn useful stuff.

― :| (....), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

like fisting!

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

B-But fisting is an art!

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

With which to create beautiful music!

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

"ART IS FOR ASSHOLES!"

― , shouteth my last roommate, her bosom's aheave with roffle. (nickalicious), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

Give up on wanting to be, just do.

― Maria D. (Maria D.), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

Especially the art of fisting!

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:07 (twenty years ago)

But I'm not original. My ideas are not original. I LACK originality.
Fucking A, I have to go to class...

Nowell, look carefully at those statements and the way the work together.

Hint: It's the part that implies that you're not done learning yet that makes the whole thing amusing.

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:12 (twenty years ago)

Nowell, the first step in becoming an artist is to come to terms with the 42 year old man who is inside of you.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:13 (twenty years ago)

Joseph Pujol pwns this thread.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

X post
Ha! Good one.

So you're either an artist or you're not?

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:29 (twenty years ago)

Remember what coal-miner wannabe Eric Idle told his novelist father Michael Palin in the great Monty Python Yorkshire Homecoming sketch.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:36 (twenty years ago)

No. What was it?

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:37 (twenty years ago)

Cut to sitting room straight out of D. H. Lawrence. Mum, wiping her hand on her apron is ushering in a young man in a suit. They are a Northern couple.

Mum
Oh dad... look who's come to see us... it's our Ken.

Dad
(without looking up) Aye, and about bloody time if you ask me.

Ken
Aren't you pleased to see me, father?

Mum
(squeezing his arm reassuringly) Of course he's pleased to see you, Ken, he...

Dad
All right, woman, all right I've got a tongue in my head - I'll do 'talkin'. (looks at Ken distastefully) Aye ... I like yer fancy suit. Is that what they're wearing up in Yorkshire now?

Ken
It's just an ordinary suit, father... it's all I've got apart from the overalls.

Dad turns away with an expression of scornful disgust.

Mum
How are you liking it down the mine, Ken?

Ken
Oh it's not too bad, mum... we're using some new tungsten carbide drills for the preliminary coal-face scouring operations.

Mum
Oh that sounds nice, dear...

Dad
Tungsten carbide drills! What the bloody hell's tungsten carbide drills?

Ken
It's something they use in coal-mining, father.

Dad
(mimicking) 'It's something they use in coal-mining, father'. You're all bloody fancy talk since you left London.

Ken
Oh not that again.

Mum
He's had a hard day dear... his new play opens at the National Theatre tomorrow.

Ken
Oh that's good.

Dad
Good! good? What do you know about it? What do you know about getting up at five o'clock in t'morning to fly to Paris... back at the Old Vic for drinks at twelve, sweating the day through press interviews, television interviews and getting back here at ten to wrestle with the problem of a homosexual nymphomaniac drug-addict involved in the ritual murder of a well known Scottish footballer. That's a full working day, lad, and don't you forget it!

Mum
Oh, don't shout at the boy, father.

Dad
Aye, 'ampstead wasn't good enough for you, was it? ... you had to go poncing off to Barnsley, you and yer coal-mining friends. (spits)

Ken
Coal-mining is a wonderful thing father, but it's something you'll never understand. Just look at you!

Mum
Oh Ken! Be careful! You know what he's like after a few novels.

Dad
Oh come on lad! Come on, out wi' it! What's wrong wi' me?... yet tit!

Ken
I'll tell you what's wrong with you. Your head's addled with novels and poems, you come home every evening reeling of Chateau La Tour...

Mum
Oh don't, don't.

Ken
And look what you've done to mother! She's worn out with meeting film stars, attending premieres and giving gala luncheons...

Dad
There's nowt wrong wi' gala luncheons, lad! I've had more gala luncheons than you've had hot dinners!

Mum
Oh please!

Dad
Aaaaaaagh! (clutches hands and sinks to knees)

Mum
Oh no!

Ken
What is it?

Mum
Oh, it's his writer's cramp!

Ken
You never told me about this...

Mum
No, we didn't like to, Kenny.

Dad
I'm all right! I'm all right, woman. Just get him out of here.

Mum
Oh Ken! You'd better go ...

Ken
All right. I'm going.

Dad
After all we've done for him...

Ken
(at the door) One day you'll realize there's more to life than culture... There's dirt, and smoke, and good honest sweat!

Dad
Get out! Get out! Get OUT! You ... LABOURER!

Ken goes. Shocked silence. Dad goes to table and takes the cover off the typewriter.

Dad
Hey, you know, mother, I think there's a play there .... get t'agent on t'phone.

Mum
Aye I think you're right, Frank, it could express, it could express a vital theme of our age...

Dad
Aye.

In the room beneath a man is standing on a chair banging on the ceiling with a broom.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 3 January 2005 21:40 (twenty years ago)

So...What?

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

"Nobody but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."
He also thought Tristram Shandy was bollocks, so there you go.

― Henry Darger, Monday, 3 January 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

So what should I do? Just ?be myself? or something?

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:45 (twenty years ago)

You should take advice from the last song on the last Buzzcocks's album.

xpost:
"John D MacDonald is by any standard a better writer than Saul Bellow."

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:47 (twenty years ago)

So what should I do? Just ?be myself? or something?

If that involves starting more threads, then no, I don't recommend that either.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:48 (twenty years ago)

GRRR...

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:49 (twenty years ago)

I wanna be an artiste.
I wanna be a quick-sketch artist.
I wanna be America's oldest living practicing poet.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

Express yourself, Nowell, that's all. There's no such thing as a self; stable individual identity is a mirage. You learn this as you mature. Part of the humor aimed at you here is from older people amused by how earnestly, despite their japing, you remain in character.

― Henry Darger, Monday, 3 January 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

I think Kenan's trying to be the irritating grain of sand that causes you to create a pearl, Nowell. Careful, Kenan, you'll get a whole pearl necklace!

― I Am Curious (George) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

My advice is, unless you have something to say, don't be an artist. In other words, don't be an artist for the sake of being an artist. The romantic imagined vision of the artist's life and trade is in the vast majority of cases the diametric opposite of the reality of it.

― 57 7th (calstars), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

xpost
Dude - is that a sex thing?

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

But if I'm not an artist, what should I do? I love art more than anything.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

Be an art collector?

― I Am Curious (George) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

xpost:
Try it's Sunday Times compadre, Leisure.

"The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction"
All That is Solid Melts Into Air
Money Changes Everything
Mime=Money

"Old Faron Young wrote this song, but he wouldn't give me none. He wanted it all."

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

Be one of those horrible people who talk about art without really understanding it - I think they call them "critics."

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

Be an art historian?

― 57 7th (calstars), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:54 (twenty years ago)

I don't really like that kind of art (painting and all that shit)...I mean, like, music, poetry...That's what I like.

And there's no way in hell would I ever be a critic!

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

xxpost:
or sometimes "fans." or sometimes even "other artists."

xxxpost:
it's=its

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

Music and poetry aren't art.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

Oh shit, here we go.

― I Am Curious (George) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

Work for a record label or a publishing house.

― 57 7th (calstars), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

Just move out on your own and then art will barely exist any more.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:58 (twenty years ago)

nowell, if you want to be an artist, i suggest sculpting a replica of the ten commandments out of your own feces and erecting it front of your local courthouse.

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Monday, 3 January 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

But if I'm not an artist, what should I do?
Why not become a scientist? Or better yet, a mathematician?

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

"But if I'm not an artist, what should I do? I love art more than anything."

Steal art, of course!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

You want to be an artist, Just Do It (TM). That's all there is to say. Are you gonna do it or talk about it? (Unless somehow this thread is your artistic statement...let's just assume otherwise.) There is no way to do it, you just find whatever works for you.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 3 January 2005 22:00 (twenty years ago)

Become an astronaut.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:03 (twenty years ago)

"Do or do not. There is no 'try'."
-- Master Yoda

― I Am Curious (George) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:03 (twenty years ago)

Alex OTM

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:03 (twenty years ago)

Steal art, of course!
Or Steel Art, too! Which is harder to steal.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:08 (twenty years ago)

More seriously (I am still mystified as to why so many adults feel the need to be so unpleasant to a schoolgirl), all you can do is do what you feel like doing, whether it's writing, painting, music or whatever. It might be you don't have much talent at any of it, but you have no way of knowing without trying. And don't expect to find out quickly - you are still very young.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:14 (twenty years ago)

I oughta get out more.
And the answer I'm looking for is...Well, I don't know. I just think I need to experience more.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

Martin, I am occasionally sarcastic with Nowell (though I hope not mean) and I think it's 'cause we're trying to put her through an accelerated program of hard knocks education.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:41 (twenty years ago)

I was being serious about the stealing answer, actually.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:43 (twenty years ago)

Xpost
I don't need hard-knocks education. I don't need NO education.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:44 (twenty years ago)

Cool, I see what you did there.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:45 (twenty years ago)

xpost:
They gave me calamine lotion, but that didn't soothe my emotion.

xxpost:
Aren't there actually some well-worn maxims, some shop-worn aphorisms, some tried-and-true bromides about that?

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:46 (twenty years ago)

Fuck school.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:51 (twenty years ago)

What's the matter, buddy?

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:54 (twenty years ago)

I wanna be a kitty cat.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

I don't know what I'm gonna do today.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

Non sequiter ginger fruit hatband.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

I am totally zoning out.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:57 (twenty years ago)

Peaking, eh?

xpost

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:57 (twenty years ago)

OMG what the hell did I put in my ass last night?

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

I wanna be sedated. For real.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

if you're an artist, you're an artist. if you want to be an artist, then be a hipster.

the most profound thing on this thread.

― mark p (Mark P), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:01 (twenty years ago)

So I'm not an artist? You either have "it" or you don't?
That's BULLSHIT!

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/thaidict/thailex1/picture/yawn.jpg

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:04 (twenty years ago)

Your life is empty, isn't it?

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

Nowell, that's mean! What if it is?

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:06 (twenty years ago)

Heh... I like Nowell more every day.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:07 (twenty years ago)

Why? I haven't been here for at least a week.

Xpost: Well, most people - including me, I guess - lead empty lives. Maybe they just don't know it. I don't know what I'm looking for.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:08 (twenty years ago)

At least you get to live in Hawaii while you figure it out.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

Have you tried climbing highest mountain? Or running through the fields?

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:11 (twenty years ago)

(I don't know what I'm looking for, either, Nowell. It's the Big Question, innit?)

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:12 (twenty years ago)

I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:13 (twenty years ago)

A Nintendo DS, I mean.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:13 (twenty years ago)

(Although most days, I am comforted by telling myself that what I really want is more small consumable electronics.)

xpost haha

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:14 (twenty years ago)

I saw some kids at a Chili's playing with one and it looked like good fun.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:16 (twenty years ago)

I wanna be an air force ranger.

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:22 (twenty years ago)

I hate Life's Big Questions.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:22 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone considered lighthouse keeperdom?

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

Nope.
I need to get INSPIRED!

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

Get fat instead.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

Oh, that's no fun. What could I do to inspire myself?

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:24 (twenty years ago)

Read books. Listen to jazz. Stay away from the television.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

The books part, I can do, and I already do anyway. No jazz.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:28 (twenty years ago)

Ok. That was the least important one on that list, anyway.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:28 (twenty years ago)

Nowell sweetie, if you really wanna be an artist you're going to have to learn how to masturbate.

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

Use the internet more. Ask lots of dopey questions.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

xp (gah)

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

But I don't know how reading "inspires" me...Well, I guess I do, but I just can't explain it.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

Read Shock Of The New. That's a good one.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

XXXXpost: Then teach me how to masturbate!

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:30 (twenty years ago)

Get Juxtapoz magazine and start painting hot rods.

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:30 (twenty years ago)

I think masturbation could help relieve me of some of my crankiness.

― Nowell (Nowell), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:30 (twenty years ago)

Female Masturbation

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:38 (twenty years ago)

Haven't we been here before?

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:40 (twenty years ago)

yes

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:41 (twenty years ago)

I don't think she's serious about this bean flickin' business.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:43 (twenty years ago)

She should be.

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:43 (twenty years ago)

Read books. Listen to jazz. Stay away from the television.

Unless the television is showing a classic movie marathon or you've rented some particularly inspiring film. Seriously.

Also: If you want to write, write even when you're not inspired. If you want to paint, paint even when you're not inspired. Etc. You'll find that much of the time if you just start [writing, painting, etc.], you will inspire yourself. And if you don't inspire yourself, well then at least you've practiced your art for the day. I don't mean for that to sound harsh or pissy, cause I firmly believe that it's true. I write far more songs when I play the guitar or record or work on music in some way frequently. If I make a resolution to do something tedious like play scales or sight read chart to keep my chops up for 20 minutes a day, 4 times out of 5 I will end up playing for longer and being what you'd call inspired. Whenever I first start a regimen like that, it's more like 1 time out of 10, but with time it increases.

If you have trouble just forcing yourself to do something for a short amount of time every day, there are other ways to help yourself do it. Classes or lessons can be great if you need a deadline or a grade to motivate yourself to work on stuff. In the case of playing an instrument or singing or whatever, I've found that starting a band and actually committing to gigs is an almost infallible way to motivate yourself to actually practice so you don't look (or sound) like a moron on stage.

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:43 (twenty years ago)

And for chrissake don't waste time posting on a fucken message board unless you are at work and can't actually do something more creative with your time.

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:44 (twenty years ago)

now now let's not get drastic.

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:46 (twenty years ago)

Really what I was trying to say is:

"Okay I'm done with my little you-actually-have-to-work-at-your-'craft' speechifying. Now I'm gonna just go back to being a sarcastic prick."

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:50 (twenty years ago)

I think we all should just go have a wank instead.

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:52 (twenty years ago)

Oh wait... before I got back to being sarcastic I want to add this:

And I know I'll never be as brilliant or original as my heroes.

The funny thing about that is that most of your heroes probably feel the same way about their heroes. The rest of them probably aren't concerned at all with whether or not they are comparable to other people in the same field.

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:53 (twenty years ago)

Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps.

And Remember what hot dog impresario John Witherspoon told his starry-eyed staff in Hollywood Shuffle.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:54 (twenty years ago)

I think we all should just go have a wank instead.

See my earlier comment: unless you are at work and can't actually do something more creative with your time

Otherwise I think you and I are on the same page.

― martin m. (mushrush), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:54 (twenty years ago)

the centerfold?

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

Nowell - my advice is to try to accept the fact that for now, you don't know if you can be a (capital A) "Artist" or not. If you feel like it, write stupid songs or poems just for yourself that no one else will ever hear. Sometime, you might decide that they're not so stupid and you want other people to hear them, or maybe not.

A lot of people like playing a sport or playing an instrument, but they never become a pro athlete or get a record deal. But they can still have a lot of fun doing what they like to do, as a hobby, for their whole lives.

― wetmink (wetmink), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 00:39 (twenty years ago)

Fcuk Art, Let's Surf!

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 02:48 (twenty years ago)

as someone with a BFA that im not doing anything with [aside from filling my flickr account with cameraphone shots], i can safely say: dont be an artist.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 03:23 (twenty years ago)

(unless you can get a free ride and/or are not some creepy old cop cruising the internet for pedos)

― Carl Winslow is WHAT!?!? (deangulberry), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 03:25 (twenty years ago)

Art: classic or dud?

― Star Cauliflower (Star Cauliflower), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 04:34 (twenty years ago)

E. Buzz Miller's Art Classics

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 04:45 (twenty years ago)

Somehow I think I remember a Bernard Malamud story where a woman can't decide whether to marry her artist boyfriend or her lawyer boyfriend and her writer father tells her to marry the artist but her long-suffering mother tells her to marry the lawyer.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 05:02 (twenty years ago)

The only way to make good art is to make bad art first. Lots of it. So get cracking.

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 05:05 (twenty years ago)

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sleep/schla08.gif http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sleep/schla08.gif http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sleep/schla08.gif
http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sleep/schla03.gif http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sleep/schla01.gif http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sleep/schla03.gif http://www.websmileys.com/sm/sleep/schla01.gif

― contribute, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 06:39 (twenty years ago)

That's right. Go to sleep and when you wake up in the morning you'll find your brain will have solved the (logical, mathematical, artistic) problem for you while you were out.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 06:42 (twenty years ago)

"See, the whole question here hinges on the presumption that somebody somewhere cares whether you become an artist or not, and nothing could be further fron [sic] the truth."

Read Hunger by Knut Hamsun and rethink the knee-jerk discouragement you provide a teenage girl.

― Henry Darger, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 07:20 (twenty years ago)

Well, I don't know what he actually meant by that statement, but I think that the pressure put on teenagers in late high school & early college by saying, "OK, now is the time when you decide What You Are Going To Do With Your Life®", and the feeling that everyone is watching your decision, is pretty dud. So it can be reassuring that maybe not as much rides on what you do right now as you think. But I may just be incorrectly applying my own experiences to the situation.

― wetmink (wetmink), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 08:45 (twenty years ago)

I'm an artist, I do it for the teenaged trim. AND THERE'S TON TO BE HAD.

― Tippy Canoe, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 08:53 (twenty years ago)

I've figured it out, I think.
I want to be an artist, but I don't feel like getting it around to it quite yet. And the artists I admire were....well, maybe they were just born with it. Some of them are dead...And don't we all wish were genius enough to die before we were 35 years old?

It was their job to be geniuses. And it's the current genius artists jobs to be geniuses. So I don't have to be a genius. I will still be an artist, but...that's later.
And you are NOT special. And I am not special either.

Okay, back to wanking...

― Nowell (Nowell), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:34 (twenty years ago)

That's maybe your best post yet.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:38 (twenty years ago)

Thank you!
Wait...do you mean the whole thing or just the last sentence?

― Nowell (Nowell), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:39 (twenty years ago)

you're wrong. i am definitely a genius.

― Frankenstein On Ice (blueski), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

Oh, really? How so?

― Nowell (Nowell), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

He ate a whole fondue in one sitting.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

There's more to life than being a genius.

― Nowell (Nowell), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:48 (twenty years ago)

x^3post
Of course you are. You can reanimate dead matter, while skating around Madison Square Garden.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

Na, he can't.

― Nowell (Nowell), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

You mean it was all show? In that case I'm sticking with Jeffersons On Ice- I love Sherman Helmsley.

And Remember what hot dog impresario John Witherspoon told his starry-eyed staff in Hollywood Shuffle.
Let me remind you:
You can create right here! I created the Winky-Dinky Dog!

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

I created the night.

― Nowell (Nowell), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

I couldn't wait to demonstrate
All the superdef rhymes that I create

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:56 (twenty years ago)

I want to be an artist, but I don't feel like getting it around to it quite yet.

I don't think it's true that you either have "it" or you don't have "it," but I do know that you're not an artist if you don't feel like making art at all. Douglas was very much OTM when he said that in order to make good art, you have to make a lot of bad art first. Start writing or painting or making music NOW. It might not be very good, but if you keep at it, you'll figure out what exactly you're good at doing and how to improve.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

jaymc OTM. Methinks the drive's the thing. I mean you say you want to make art, but how can that be, if you don't want to now? Music, writing, art, it is all something most people do because somehow, even in a small way, they're driven to do so. Wether good at it or not.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:07 (twenty years ago)

And you dont have to be starving in a hovel or living off it or anything - a lot of famous writers spent their whole lives with normal accountants or teachers jobs to get by.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:08 (twenty years ago)

Yup yup yup.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:10 (twenty years ago)

Search: Charles Willeford's The Burnt Orange Heresy

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:13 (twenty years ago)

Why don't you take the Genesis P-Orridge approach (which overlaps a lot with the Napoleon Hill approach, possibly even including the sex magick, though that's not what I'm talking about): find out what artists you admire have done, how they have lived, how they possibly got where they are, and then maybe borrow some of their approaches to being or becoming an artist.

Also, find a copy of A.R. Orage's essay "Doing What One Really Likes" or something like that. I think it's a pretty sane, if very dry, approach to the subject of doing as one really likes or even lieks.

On the other hand, maybe it's more important for you to be doing something other than analytically thinking about all of this.

(Caveat: I am not an artist, nor do I consider myself a successful, person on my own terms.)

x-post: More reading lists. . .

― RS, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

Do try to keep up, Nowell.

― Carl Winslow and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:28 (twenty years ago)

Search: Charles Willeford's The Burnt Orange Heresy

Ken, is this the guy that wrote Miami Blues?

― .adam (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

Yup. That's the same guy.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

Okay, back to wanking...

You rang?

― Steely Zan (AaronHz), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

Lurkers only!

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:12 (twenty years ago)

Start writing or painting or making music NOW. It might not be very good, but if you keep at it, you'll figure out what exactly you're good at doing and how to improve.

This is a better way to say what I was trying to further upthread. Do it, and you'll get better at it. But talking about it, thinking about it, pretending to do it, etc... none of those count as doing it.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

That last sentiment will apply to you in other ways, sooner.

― Carl Winslow and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 01:20 (twenty years ago)

Here's a story...

When I was a kid I wrote a story about how when I grew up I wanted to marry a famous artist. Probably to soak up the glory I assumed he would garner, because he was a famous artist.

Then I grew up and although I'm not sure I qualify as an artist, I am in my fourth year in art school. I'm not famous, but I cut out the middle man.

That said, you don't have to make art to love art Nowell.

― papa november (papa november), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 05:07 (twenty years ago)

..But I'm just not creative. And I know I'll never be as brilliant or original as my heroes.

I believe we are all creative at some level and aspiring to be as good as any other artist is not necessary, like in any activity.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 10:11 (twenty years ago)

I think that I, considering what I want to be, am in the wrong place at the wrong time. (I'm not referring to ILX.)

― Nowell (Nowell), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

Lemme guess: you want to be a concubine with a finger-paint set.

― I Am Curious (George) (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:45 (twenty years ago)

That said, you don't have to make art to love art Nowell.
This sentence keeps leaping out at me with the word "love" switched with the first "art" and the two "arts" collapsing into one, then going back to its original form in an oscillatory fashion.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:47 (twenty years ago)

I read it as "you don't have to make art to love Nowell."

― I Am Curious (George) (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:48 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that's a third state it jumps to!

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

Right. Art. I will be an artist.

― Nowell (Nowell), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

You go, girl! Forge that conscience of your race in the smithy of your soul!

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:53 (twenty years ago)

Yeah.

― Nowell (Nowell), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:56 (twenty years ago)

Well, I think ILX's work here is done. Someone lock this thread.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

Don't do that! Not yet.

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

I want to have more sex with artists. Crazy ones, preferably.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:03 (twenty years ago)

I'm not putting that goal down whatsoever, but I have to ask - Why?

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

This ridiculous "artists-have-better-sex" meme stuffed down our throats by the likes of Something Wild and The Big Lebowski.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

I have no comment...Shit..

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

They don't have Blockbuster in Hawaii?

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:07 (twenty years ago)

No, I've just never...I think you can figure it out.

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

I went to film school because I used to want to be the next Ingmar Bergman. Then I wanted to be the next Jean-Luc Goddard. Then I wanted to be the next Stan Brakhage.

Then I got a day job making crappy videos for a defense company.

Don't become an artist unless you have connections and a trust fund. You'll end up either poor and miserable or rich & miserable.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:12 (twenty years ago)

I'd rather be rich and miserable than, uh....Poor and miserable.

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:13 (twenty years ago)

Artists like it in the butt, I hear. I can't remember what movie that's from.

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

Love Story

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

But at least the poor & miserable get to keep their soul & dignity.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

I used to like it in the butt until I sold out. No, wait a minute, I never liked that...

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

I did date an artist right after college. It wasn't so much that she was great in bed as that she made me feel totally inadequate.

Her: "That's it?"
Me: *whither*

― Pears can just fuck right off. (kenan), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

Do the poor and miserable REALLY keep their soul and dignity? Yeah, they do, I guess. I've been poor and miserable before...

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:18 (twenty years ago)

Kenan, as always, thanks for sharing!

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:20 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but poor and miserable is romantic & cool in your early 20's. When you hit your late 20's-early 30's & you're still single, driving a '87 Hyundai, living in a one-bedroom apartment eating ramen noodles and waiting for your "big break" while your friends are all getting married, buying houses, etc.--not so cool anymore. And no matter what kind of person you are, you can't help but feel some kind of sense of failure, especially if you knew you were just as smart & had just as much potential as everyone else.

Thus, the catch-22 begins....

The "artist bug" is a terrible thing. You can't shake it once it grabs you, and it does nothing but drag you down when you live in a society that undervalues the artist.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:25 (twenty years ago)

Or you could just...get a day job.

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

I'm still young. I don't think I thought being poor and miserable was
romantic and cool.
I'm not even twenty yet. I have a long, interesting life ahead of me. I hope.

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:33 (twenty years ago)

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

What?

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

Do try to keep up, Nowell.

― Carl Winslow and Jeanne-Claude (deangulberry), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:38 (twenty years ago)

With what? I am keeping up.

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:39 (twenty years ago)

"Or you could just...get a day job."

uh, yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:40 (twenty years ago)

Then I agree with you!

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:42 (twenty years ago)

good! your are now my dear friend!

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:44 (twenty years ago)

Hugs and kisses all around.

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:46 (twenty years ago)

ewwwww

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:46 (twenty years ago)

Ok - just handshakes, then.

― Nowell (Nowell), Thursday, 6 January 2005 21:49 (twenty years ago)

I smell an Excelsior.

― Captain GRRRios' Giggletits (Barima), Thursday, 6 January 2005 22:58 (twenty years ago)

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