Your Own Personal Thesis

I finished watching the first season of Bravo's show about artists. I wasn't happy with how it ended, but I found the show, as a whole,  to be quite thought provoking.  Expect quite a few blogs over it in the next few weeks.

One of the things the artists on the show were criticized for was continuing to use themselves as the subject of their art.  One girl did a lot of nudes. One guy painted his face over and over.  Many of them used their own image, even, at one point, a man who didn't wish to, but in the end allowed himself to be photographed both for his own work and that of another artist.

Like I said, there was a fair amount of criticism over this, both from the judges and fellow artists. Some of them were accused of vanity or narcissism. I find this to be both short-sighted and cliche.

You know, when I started this blog, I intended for it to be about something.  You know, something practical, helpful, and all that blah. There are even moments when it comes back to that. The truth is though, this blog is about me. It's my thoughts and feelings at the moment. It's my documentation of my life and issues. It's my exploration of subject matter.  No matter what I happen to be exploring, the continuing theme is always myself.

I think a lot of artists are doing this same thing. They use themselves as their subject matter because they are the focus of their artistic narrative. HOWEVER, I don't think this is, as often as we want to believe it is, some self-indulgent, work through the issues kind of vanity project.

Our world is becoming more and more isolating.  Many of us live alone and often don't even talk outloud to other people for hours or even days on end. Some of us rarely go outside.  Many of us go weeks or years or even life times without human touch. We grow more and more distant, and in doing so, ourselves and our bodies become our finite contact with the world.

Now for those of you sitting in your homes with family members and roommates and friends and all other kinds of humans, this may seem like an exaggeration.  But for a lot of people, all of this human contact just isn't there. Many people live very isolated lives. Sure they may interact with other humans on a daily basis, but a lot of that interaction has no emotional context.

Plus, either by nature or just some aspects of culture, there is at least a mild level of sociopath in a lot of folks these days. For many, their minds and their bodies become the only true contact with reality.  With this in mind, when they try to create something to express a truth, their own form becomes the closest true representation of that.  It is, at least, something they can touch.

And I guess a lot of people would see this as sad.  I'm not sure I really do.  To be honest, I think this is a comforting idea.  Isolation leads to less chances of being hurt.  Of course, that could be my own inner sociopath talking.

Whatever the case, I think it's wrong to just start lumping all artist-referencing as self-indulgent and vain.  Many times there are deeper issues involved.  Or hell, maybe they just couldn't get anyone else to pose for them.