(notes) Art is what you make of it

I took a walk today. Nothing special, just a walk out with my camera -- in hopes of maybe getting some interesting shots. I wouldn't say that I got anything super interesting - and I think theres something special to that. The questions I pondered on that walk inspired me to give a go at writing this.

perfectionism kills art.

I wouldn't say I excell at music - but I simply create it because i love certain genres to a point of which I end up sprouting an idea. Same with writing, I'm not the best writer by any means, and yet I do it because I think it's an interesting medium to place your ideas.

A friend had told me that a small excerpt I created was very "generic" or "cookie cutter". I don't disagree with the statement as I've been surrounded by entrepranours for the ladder half of my life. But it made me have a little jolt towards the idea of my art not being "on par" with a certain invisible standard.

But the truth is, I took that a bit to heart. I became obsessed with creating something completely original - something to "pioneer" the music scene. A song so great that I would disprove my friend!

What ended up happening?

I sat at my workstation, reluctant to get ANY ideas out, in fear that they weren't good enough.

Though I've been a strong advocate for the notion of done>perfect (the idea of just doing sht instead of worrying about how good it is) - there was still something really interesting about being so against my own creativity, that it became my greatest blocker.

So I pondered this.

What does art even look like? What defines "good art"?

And to both of those I say:

It doesn't fcking matter.

Try sht. Or don't.

Truely, the greatest works of art came from people who just threw a bunch of things at a wall until eventually something stuck.

I thought in the moment at my music workstation "what if I just played some piano - free of judgement", which I ended up doing, for many many hours. After playing, I noticed I made a really cool melody, which quickly spiraled into a chord progression, into a bass line, into a sick beat, and finally into a finished song.

Though the song wasn't my best work, I think my best work has honestly come from just trying stuff.

Sometimes though, you just have to create with what you know. You can expand your breadth of technique but at some point, you have to lock down on what you know to create things.

Even this "cookie cutter" style of art : It's still art. Because truely, even if you've made something that is similar or generic to something else -- who cares?

make art for you.

A common counter-argument to this original notion of "cookie cutter" media NOT being art, is the fact that a platform is so oversaturated with content that creating something similar just adds to the problem. Many people say that art is ONLY something original.

I don't like that way of thinking.

If you're just doing art for you -- there's no need to refrain on creating a specific "style" or "trend" simply because people are telling you not to.

What makes art good is both the imperfection and the agency someone had when creating a given piece. You've probobly never seen good art made from someone who was strictly forced to out of their own will -- it's because it requires a sense of personal autonomy to create.

To really finish this off, I want to end this with a few statements about what I believe sums up art as a whole.

Art is what feels right to you.
There's no "formula" for art, and following formulas is another artform onto itself

If you liked this post, I'll make another one soon on the idea of human's and the defining factors of what makes something "concious". Be sure to sign up for my substack (micahschmidt.substack.com) if you want to get these straight in your inbox.

Other than that, go create something