Since the start of Spraying Moby, the compulsion to create has been one forced into existence by necessity. The words coming out of my mouth need to come out as bad as the first brushes of paint needed to exist on Moby.
Forced to Create.
Sometimes this kind of creation happens in the Rick Rueben sense, in the way that you feel simply so inspired by source that you have to act. There is another, slightly compelling way, that also forces creation. It is that of pure boredom. The sense that there is nothing else to do, but to create. All options are exhausted, no work, no chores to do, nothing to tidy, nothing to prepare... What do you do then? Personally my choice then and now has been to create something sloppy.
It's clear that the art work I create is as sloppy as my rambling, nonsensical blog posts as well. The beautiful thing about it though is that it's currently happening and the results of that happening already live in the present moment with us. From the messages in my inbox, warning me about something wrong happening on my van as I am driving down the highway, to the warm welcome to a neighborhood as the community begins to notice the mobile art piece in their scenery.
Toy or not. You're welcome.
I think the fear of being called a toy outweighs what the inevitable weight of being called so will really feel like. I frequently stress that the thing I have created is not something desired by the community I am trying to serve. In reality, the creation is more self serving than anything else.
I wasn't thinking about total adjustable market or being problem aware. I wasn't thinking about demographics or consumer behavior, or even how to generate sustainable dollars in and out. It was more frantic than that. It happened because it needed to right then and there. The exact same as this blog post happening here and now. What needed to be created needed to come out for some reason or another.
Concepts Come and Gone.
There have been something around 20 versions of Moby's new wardrobe. The idea is that no concept stays forever on the canvas. This idea is not new to street artists. To most writers, Moby would be known as a "Free wall." A place where anything goes, and it is not disrespectful to cover someone else's work. Free walls are approached differently than the average wall. Free walls force the artist to begin with the end in mind, knowing that their creation will be covered.
Why would anyone want to create art knowing that it will not last forever?
Nothing Lasts Forever.
In this plane of existence, we know things come and go. Things get built, things erode away. Our bodies do the exact same. We are built for 25 years only to begin being torn down for the remaining 50 years if we are lucky. Most don't just give up now in recognition of that truth.
I know it is a stretch, but in the same sense that we don't throw our own life away, we don't easily just throw away the things that we create. Free walls force us to think differently about the result of our art though. In our lives we can pretty easily ignore our inevitable fate, death, with many distractions that the world has built up for us. There are oh so many things to care about, from your skincare to the football game on tv, to working tomorrow and so on... There are no distractions from the inevitable on a free wall however.
Built to Crumble.
Built to Last is a book by Jim Collins I never finished reading, but surely intend to. It urges a concept that is deeply uncomfortable, but really cool. The concept that we can build something that outlives us. In the past, I have become obsessed with this idea, building some business that lives beyond me into centuries from now, being a dominant force of the future. To be honest though, that pursuit... It simply takes away from the meaning of now.
I have always been a big picture thinker, thinking of the grand scheme of things first most of the time. To be challenged against that is deeply uncomfortable, but beyond necessary for the premise of growth to be allowed to take place. To build something that lasts centuries into the future, it needs to be done nearly perfectly right?
Tell me the odds to create a perfect company, that can nail every step of growth because of wisdom. I'm sure that it is possible, but we don't have enough time to filter through all of the information that is.. To find the truth of wisdom we are currently looking for. It seems mad to get obsessed with an epic journey seeking perpetuating business tactics rather than just doing it, and being okay with the truth that is...
Here and Now.
A motif. A repeatable phrase. An affirmation. We and our art exist only here and now, and the journey of creating art mimics that of the lives that we live. The beauty is in the journey that we experience, and less in the passing moments of art, of time, that once existed.
The beautiful thing is that our time is the creative act itself. Maybe the journey making the piece is the peace we seek from initiation of the first paint on the canvas.
