I have been silent once again for a while. So firstly, belated wishes to a Happy 2021. Lets make it as Happy as we can get, considering we are still very much in the midst of this pandemic. Speaking to anyone, you get the feeling, that everyone is dealing with the vast changes (and changes it has brought in all our lives), for some in a very permanent form.
We are left to our own devices to think and make of this phase in our lives either collectively or at a personal level, what we can best make of it. I am left arting, educating and pondering mostly, the last of which I find myself doing a lot more. So here I am pondering about the Mimetic Nature of Art.
Let me share where my Mind map took me today. Lest you think this is yet another piece discussing Plato vs Aristotle view points on the Mimetic nature of art. So I share a lot of my daily drawings or experiments on social media. However they do not remain in the space for long. They do disappear in various albums and I do catalogue them thematically or based on the medium that was used. This habit came about as a practice a few years ago as a result of some emulating incidents.
Recently I did see some venting happening for yet some emulating incidents, to be precise, as usual one artists work has been plagiarized, much to their dismay rather boldly repetitive . Brought memories back where at a point of my art career (a short 20 years of it) I would get very perturbed and publicly vent about the insolence of such behavior. One particular incident I was so oblivious that it was another fellow artist who pointed to me to a website where my images for a sold out show was being used on cushion covers. I was all up in arms and made a big fuss and apart from a few likes and many more comments it all died out with the website just disappearing. That gave birth to the idea of me making cushion covers, hence usable art, out of my own artwork. They literally sold like hotcakes. Paintings one has to mull and think about resources before one can buy. However almost every friend put their hand up to purchase these covers. I have none left other than the set I kept for my personal use. Moral of the story ..... it was a profitable lesson. I guess what I am trying to say with this train of thought is that its not a bad thing at all in retrospect. New artists often learn from more senior ones and what better way to learn than mimic. Also the artist that is being emulated needs to see this as the best form of compliment. Way better than those banal, "beautiful", "awesome", and other repetitive comments that he/ she sees on social media. We live in an immediate response world and what better way to get an immediate response than that of being emulated in style, subject matter or context. My views have changed I do admit. I am not the person I was six years ago, I have grown, and I urge my fellow artists to maybe have it in their heart to forgive the emulative artist as this is their learning curve. At some point, all of us has idolized an artist and probably looked at their work repeatedly and even referenced to a great extent to learn. And yes the end objective being to learn. I guess the real creative process begins when you are inspired from and you make the artwork your "own" with your own style, handling and treatment. That is where real creativity lies. Hee hee hee lastly I want to end by saying, I have matured, at least in my thought process and I feel like a more evolved being.
