Sunday, April 24, 2011

Being a genius vs. having a genius

I thought it was really interesting what Elizabeth Gilbert had to say about your genius/having a genius. In particular, I liked when she talked about the major error of people no longer having a genius, but becoming/being labeled AS a genius. I agree with Gilbert when she said labeling someone a genius only boosts their ego and provides them with a lot of pressure. Labeling someone a genius essentially means that they are the person of all divine creativity and no one else can ever truly match up to their work. Other artists will always feel that no matter how hard they work, they final project will never be as good as this 'genius'; this feeling of failure will eventually begin to kill of young artists.

In Gilbert's speech she talked about a 'pit of dispare' where she felt all her writing and her entire book was awful and was going to be a huge failure. I had a similar feeling halfway through the term. I was creating these mixed media collages, but kept feeling that they were never good enough and had no meaning to them. I was unsure of myself and was unsure of how I wanted my final piece to look. For at least 2 days, I was unable to come up with any ideas that I was really happy with. Finally I told me self (my genius) that I just need to stop over thinking and just create artwork. I googled artists for inspiration and ideas and from there I was able to continue with my piece and take it in a new direction. I told my genius that I just needed to push though and was just going through a slight mental block.





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