Fitting In

An ode to art and self

All the pieces don’t necessarily have to work together. In fact it’s better if they don’t. That’s when something new occurs, a door opens; making way for things to assemble together differently.

Yes, development of the eye - or I - is important. So is disruption. Of the norm and of the accepted. And sometimes disruption comes in the form of a calm, quiet, simmering essence.

While everyone looks one way, look the other - question the accepting or the I’ve “got it”.

Acceptance is defined by a subjective number of people allowing a thing to be. Oh how the artist can succumb to the wanting of this. Often at the expense of the work. It is a delicious enticement with dire consequences.

It sits on the tongue, tantalizing its rewards of being a part of something more.

But aren’t we already enough?

The artist must not succumb. Be wary of fitting in for it waters down the very identifiers you’ve been striving for.

In art, the subversive often appears to be the way; the outlandish in a disguise of exclusivity. But turn away from the silliness of other’s expectations. It’s a short line that you can hang yourself from.

Question your own acceptance and pay attention when it engenders complacency. For it will and it will be too late when you finally realize it.

Turn away from it all.

Put together all the things you want in your work. Let them fall like a child’s building blocks into a new rhythm - a new way. Let that be the discovery.

Are you paying attention? Or are you distracted by the fit-ting and the in-ness?