everyone's an artist, their life their masterpiece (part i)

i told an acquaintence the above and she thought i was a dogmatic bastard. denial much?

so i've been working on feeling less sorry for myself and getting myself out and around inspirational people, which led me to this old "underground"/hipster-NYC mailing list which sends out a weekly email of cool/bizarre events in NYC (usually relating to experimental [performance] art). It's entertaining and cheap/free, which is gold to me.
...i've been on the list since junior year of college, but I didn't feel cool/ballsy enough to partake in such "this is your life" events; now I'm finally up there. *waves flag of enthusiasm*

in feeling less sorry for myself, I try also to be less bitter about life. it seems that bitterness is usually caused by inaction, so i try to catch myself in bitter moments and think what i could do to move onwards and upwards. From this I've thought about being an "artist," because I'm so critical of all the movies/books/music/painting/etc that I see lots of people buying/watching/listening to/etc. I acknowledge that there are smarter and better-skilled people out there, and I'm always looking to them for inspiration, but a lot of the "successful" writers/painters/musicians, etc. are not these people. Most of the smarter, more-talented people seem to choose a more-secure/wealthier profession, expressing themselves as a hobby. The less-smart (but equally-skilled) ones tend to be bitter. So I feel I should make the compromise and become an "artist" who does not take himself seriously. I'll write to change people's minds, while generally raising morale. And I'll write better than others; that's my goal. I aim not to be excellent/amazing/etc, but to just be better than what's out in the open. And if other people start doing the same, then we've raised the bar on media and I'll gladly step aside to work on other areas of the human experience (like health & sustainability).

This decision was made with ethics in mind. Part of me wants to be zen-ethical: be in every moment how I think the world should be, regardless of how many people fall below my standard. But that can be painfully frustrating, and humans should embrace pleasure. Which leads me to the idea of being resource-ethical: accepting that people with the most resources can make the biggest changes, so why not aim to get lots of resources (money) and change the world how you/one sees fit?
I've generally accepted the latter, because I feel it's important for people to strive to impact the world with their "unique" expression, in an Adam Smith sort of way. e.g. everyone striving to be as cool as possible will make the world a cooler place.

So until something better comes along, it's being an "artist" (scripts, columns, articles, reviews, essays, stories, et cetera).

OR, I throw away the notion that "success" is important and just live every day as happily as possible with no grand aspirations. But I'm kind of into the 'grand aspirations' thing; thank you Western Civ.


to be continued... (post would be too long)

Love,
gM