Permission To Suck

If being an expert at anything means you abandoned your need for approval then it has real value. Unfortunately, revered talent has much more to lose than those rewarded for trying.

It’s important that we know our best work is yet to be produced. Our best is what is in us now, not what we – or others – admire about the past. Jazz Composer, Maria Schneider, has a story to illustrate this point.

“Don’t try to be original, try to be good.” – Paul Rand. On first read I thought, “hell, I can be good, just don’t ask me to be original”. Original is like asking me to be something I’m not; original is someone else.

The committee is usually wrong; yet the crowd is commonly right and incredibly dull. If you’re part of the crowd you’ll be sourced and forgotten. Ji Lee and his bubble project is a good example of how it’s done right.

It’s not hard to find the uniqueness of Mapplethorpe’s work whether it’s a flower, a penis or a portrait. R.M. civilized the shock of sex, violence and race – localized our fears, lust and hopes with ambiguous well crafted works. He succeeded in such a powerful way that it’s spawned countless derivatives.

Evidently neither technology nor egalitarianism does anything to stir the soul, yet, Rauschenberg erases beauty and inspires – or provokes – the heart of an artistic movement. Watch a short video interview with Rauschenberg about his erasure of a de Kooning masterpiece.

Lately, creative professionals are suffering the heartbreak of a fading uniqueness and coping with the pressure to add value in other ways. Clay Shirky gave his first TED talk in 2005. His institution v. collaboration presentation must have appeared abstract to more folks then than now, nevertheless, Clay’s talk hasn’t faded in value for those of us trying to recover our bearings in a once familiar profession.

Listening to Ralph Gibson speak, and reviewing his work, something hit me. Yes, his work is simultaneously complex and simple. Its complexity is hidden by simplicity. His chosen frame is the disguise. But moreover, his work over five decades is astonishingly similar and that, to me, is especially remarkable when bearing in mind that I consider changing my approach daily.

Predictions? No. Trends? Uhhh, not really, but mainly because I refuse to be called trendy. What the PTS Watchlistapalooza represents are ideas that make sense for the next five or more years.

All of these points are especially important for the creative professional since we are the tip of the spear.