Long gone (or, rather, a generation gone) is the artists’ quest for the universal message. Self-expression, self-distinction (in the West, anyway) and personal cultural typification is the name of the game. What I mean by the italicized bit is that we seek to record the things we’ve seen and promote them, utilizing our inimical skills to place a uniquely “me” flourish upon them.
Enough with the trying to sound like I’m all intellectual. These words are simply to justify the fact that I’ve drawn some characters from ABC’s LOST, several years after the show sputtered out.
I mean, if I drew a bunch of characters from Gilligan’s Island, would I have to jump through hoops to justify it? No. Unless I was wrangling for the big hit – the exciting meme, the 15 blog links of fame. But for that, I’d need to mix my images, combine Gilligan’s cast with the Republican hopefuls (a lovely, extant photoshop meme, floating around), or some other clever novelty. The crowd I run in is beyond the appreciation of simple forms – at least in politic company.
But I haven’t done that. I’m still indulging myself in the pleasures of drawing, for the sake of drawing — for the sake of my own limbics.
Topical?
Well, somewhere out there are several thousand kiddies working their way through Lost right now. They haven’t seen from the top of the lighthouse, they haven’t felt the blade of Jacob, they haven’t w i s h e d for the promise of good television to be kept just this once.
I wish.
