Derivatives

I’ve been searching for a long time for what Andy Warhol said about originality. He’s always right. He painted Campbell’s soup cans, the ultimate in stealing. Shouldn’t Campbell’s get some of the profits from those paintings? But what is stealing, anyways? Nothing is ever new, because it already exists somewhere. Why should we be penalized for copying something that we like? I mean, isn’t art just taking from different sources and creating something? Even if we shut ourselves off from the world there is always something you’ll be thinking about or inspired by while you’re creating something. I never really understood that — why people are so obsessed with owning an idea. Or how angry people get when somebody does the exact same thing that they just did. People begin to “identify” with something they’ve created, or a path they’ve followed to success, but can’t others follow the exact same path? I think that’s why it’s so important to study those who have already been successful — if we just copy their paths, won’t we somehow reach success?

I’ve also found one common string among all the people I have come to idolize: none of them had partners. For example, Oprah, Tom Ford, Michael Jackson, Andy Warhol, Lady GaGa, David Bowie, or J.K. Rowling. I understand why it becomes unfeasible for a lasting relationship in these types of industries and with success that they’ve experienced, but is having somebody to share everything with really important? I’d like to go back in time and ask these people. I know many of them were very lonely. I’ve taken all these photos myself of videos or other photos. You might not even be able to recognize where they came from, which is to say, is this my artwork or is it merely copyright infringement? Either way, I love them.

“Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well have not lived at all, in which case, you’ve failed by default” / J.K. Rowling