Art is an echo–of beauty–of message–of line and rhyme and color and tone. What do you hear? What are you saying to your soul so it can whisper back in paint on canvas, in word on page, in lyric on melody? Are you listening? Are you really listening, processing, thinking, and repeating? Or are you just parroting?
Artists don’t parrot. They reflect. They whisper. They sing. They soar. They say. They don’t just parrot.
Xeroxed art is no art at all. The art of echoes change and shift the tone, based on the material with which it’s being reflected. One, are we reflectable material? And two, do we alter the tone accordingly? Do we process it and manipulate it and make it our own?
Einstein advises that we hide our sources… If we are strong enough the echo will be a sound all its own. Are we strong enough? Are we loud enough? Is our art its own entity? Or are we xeroxing our way through creativity? That is not creativity at all.
Find your voice. Find something to say, and say it. Say it with your own words and with your own colors and your own tones. And don’t worry that a bit of someone else’s voice is in the mix, but focus on your voice as it adds layers and depth in a beautiful harmony of expression and art. Partnering. We are creating and singing together in one voice. Join the chorus.
Echo.
Create.
Say something worth repeating. Worth echoing.
I love your last line. I spend a lot of time echoing others and not enough time in reflection to be the author of the words worth echoing. but on a different level, I am reminded of the power of words – especially the negative ones – and that I have a responsibility to speak life into others…that my words are even worth repeating. too often my words are harsh, crass, poorly thought out and then often hurtful. instead of blending in with the harmony, I am often very off-tune, and singing louder than everyone else! I totally rabbit-trailed here…I may pursue this further in my own space while I reflect on it.
It’s a beautiful rabbit-trail to be on! Let me know if you write more about this in your corner. I’m interested in reading!
Thank you for this. Sometimes in my photography or films, I feel like I’m just copying someone else, but now I know that I am just echoing them!
You’re welcome.
hmm. this sounds like a subject for our next coffee session.
I like.
I read this post the other day and didn’t have time to comment, but I wanted to let you know that this is one of the best kicks in the creative pants I’ve read in a long time. I needed it!
Wow Dean. Thanks…? Or: I’m sorry…? Or: Good luck…?
Kicks in creative pants are almost always good things. Definitely good in this case.
I know you’re probably talking about the heart of what we’re doing moreso than execution, but it made me think of some my bad songwriting habits; trying to intentionally shoe-horn a song into a stylistic place it doesn’t naturally go, that kind of thing.
It’s both, actually! It’s the message, and the medium. We’ve gotta say it well, and that means crafting it well. But you know this, Dean.