This is an essay I wrote several years ago and published internally on the Visual Literacy Program website (
visualliteracyprogram.com), but never published externally on my blog. I hope that it is of some service.
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HACK is a four letter word
In artistic circles, there is no worse curse to cast upon someone than this four letter offense. It at once labels the accused a pledgerist, a thief, an idiot and probably worst of all, ordinary. Isn't it ironic then, that for all of the vehement resentment that this act insights, that it originates from a place of love?
We are drawn to images that people create, because we, ourselves, are visual people. We are taken with the aesthetic styling of another artist, and it manifests itself in our work. This is done out of homage, not out of the seedy subcategory to which it has been relegated. Can you imagine where we would be with technology, science, transportation, etc. if people had to be wholly original? Often, we are unaware that we are even doing it.
Intellectual property of all fashions has become so easy to share, steal, swipe, exchange, etc. that it seems to be as natural as breathing these days. I get the impression that the internet seems to be folding back on itself for the first time since it's inception. As the brick and mortar, print based companies- newspapers, magazines, book companies, etc. are beginning to fold, they are seeking salvation in the form of online publications. The problem is, that you can't charge tomorrow for what you've given away today, especially when that content is widely available from an infinite number of other sources already. As access to this information has become easier and easier to find, digest, and assimilate, our need to work for our influences has followed suit. It naturally occurs then, that the artists who are currently living, working, promoting, and producing, are easier to find than artists who were working just a decade ago. The stickiness of the world wide web works to compound
our interest, and popular artists, in turn, affect more and more people than ever before.
Affecting artists often turns into infecting artistic styles, and before long, we are facing a "Plague of Pledgerism".
You may already be infected, and not even know it. Now that you know the problem, and how this can happen (it happened to me very early in my career), I'm here to offer some sort of inoculation to the growing pandemic.
Why is this a problem, you may ask? Unless appropriation is indeed the movement that will define us, I sincerely believe that we, as artists, are charged with the overwhelming responsibility
to record the time in which we live. We have the technology to record the way that things look, sound, etc. But nothing, and I mean nothing, can convey the emotions that are human, universal and timeless- that is, the way that we
feel, like images (both moving, and static). If you subscribe to this notion, then you must understand that emotion does not live in the realm of "How" a painting was created. Technique is like icing on the cake. It dresses things up nicely, but it has no real nutritional value. "Why" things are created is a much more engaging, and intellectual appreciation of all things visual. It shows that we have evolved from the first caveman painting, into beings that are sensitive enough to relay, and comprehend powerful emotions that carry us out of the realm of the instinct driven animal. Understanding that this is our manifesto, it only seems to reason that, as the world changes, your work should change to reflect it.
So, if you find yourself
hacking up regurgitated artist's bits, don't fret. There is hope. I've compiled a list of things that you should do to ensure that this doesn't become a life long affliction.
1. Show the rash to a trusted, educated practitioner (friend, colleague, mentor, professor): Ask them to do away with the niceties, and open up the opportunity to have a brutal, honest dialogue. If they see something in the work that reminds them of someone else' work- don't be offended, and what ever you do, don't be argumentative. Ask them to explain. Isn't it better to find this out early on in your career, versus down the road when you've produced a huge body of work, and find yourself the inside joke of the art world? This happens more than you would know.
2. Starve a fever: You will need to remove yourself from our generation of artists. Find out who their influences are. Follow the trail of their interests, until you find something that is your own. If you find that a number of artists you admire share a common inspiration, and you just don't see it- read about that inspiration. There is so much more to appreciate in why an artist did what they did, when they did it, what their theories are/intent, the context in which the work was produced, than wether or not they can simply draw (by your assessment).
3. Feed a cold: Look more, not less. Remember, you are what you eat. The more that you expand your pool of inspiration, the more you dilute a single source. The goal is to ingest as much information as possible- History, movies, music, culture, books, sculpture, photography, painting, crafts, etc., run it through the filter of your life experiences, and manifest it as something unique. You are the only factor that is unique in this equation. Everyone else has access to the same information, but no one has access to you- until you share it with them through your work. You are serving as the bridge between their time and those that will follow ours. This makes it possible for the next generation to feel what we feel.
4. Do something about it. Be both proactive, and reactionary. You don't want to live so much in theory that you do not produce. Work on technique up to the point where technique no longer matters. If you become proficient in the fundamentals of how you make images work, then you will ultimately be able to focus on the message. Focus on the "how" only as long as is necessary to be able to freely communicate "why".
5. Take several different medications: Try to boil down what it is that you respond to in the work of those that inspire you to one or two ideas: line, tone, content, shape, color, composition, etc. Try to converge two, possibly three disparate components from different sources- i.e Line vs. tone, Shape vs. Line, Design vs. Rendering, etc. I promise that this will not come to fruition in the first piece. This pursuit will take you through many failed attempts, but ultimately, you will find a way to bring them together. This will be the thread that links your body of work. Once you achieve this, move on to your next challenge.
The reality is that we are all influenced by someone, somewhere. Just be careful not to get too close to the flame.
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