Letters to the Editor
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Volunteer
The best way to get outside of yourself is to help another being. Bring a meal to a lonely old person. Clean house or buy groceries for someone who is sick. Pick up trash at the park. Walk the dogs at the animal shelter. Listen without judgment.
Whatever you do, stop focusing on others' shortcomings and instead ask how you can bring more beauty and compassion into the world. That is a truly authentic way to live. The world needs more compassionate people. We have plenty of self-righteous navel-gazers already.
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Its All Relative
I work in the Graphic Design Center of a huge corporation. Because our department is comprised of "artists" we get away with looking less "corporate" than others in the biz.
I think I'm hip, I've certainly been described as being a "creative and eccentric" at work. But I'm also 36. And as younger artists join our Graphics Center I look around and realize that mine is no longer the "hip" generation. I'm okay with that. I'm the dufy 30-something chick who is sooooo yesterday (I used to see 30-somethings like that when I was 20-something).
26-year-old LW, just know that in the eyes of the generation graduating high-school this year, you year are already the old-hanger-on to her hipness-unto-death chick where your hipness isn't even hip anymore.
But don't worry, if you hang on to your particular brand of individuality, you might make a really CRAZY grandma...
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Look Outward, Grow Inward
It's always difficult to resist the temptation to respond to such letters with a message of "get over yourself", "grow up" or some similar, distinctly unhelpful "advice". I was glad to see that Cary rightly resisted this temptation, as the knee-jerk, conservative and reactionary response that it is--akin to the frat-boy practice of spanking the pledges with the house paddle all the harder, for having had to say themselves "Thank you sir, may I have another?" just a short time ago.
It's all too easy to be cynical in this world, whether the adoption of a jaded viewpoint is intended to increase one's perceived "hipness" quotient or simply to prop up flagging self-esteem. As an artist, LW should stop being so concerned with being "original" and "creative" and instead focus on looking outward, being productive, giving to the artists' community and demonstrating her own originality and creativity--indeed, "living" it, if you will. Artists will ALWAYS need those who, by focusing on other issues, might be perceived as "normal." Those who--regardless of how LW or others might try--won't "get" her. Ever.
And that's perfectly fine and LW should be happy and thankful that it is so, since these folks (or, perhaps, those who "pretend they 'get' LW, but don't REALLY 'get' her") will spend the money and demonstrate the interest that will sustain her livelihood, regardless of the degree of success, financial and otherwise.
The art world unfortunately values too many of the same outward signs of "coolness" in the near term to be compared favorably to the so-called "normal" world in any meaningful sense.
Long term, however, such pretensions are pretty empty and do not offer much in terms of a legacy for any artist. Therefore, LW should concentrate on her work and vision, focus on those with whom she gets along and enjoys and cultivate those friendships well--whether "normal" or "creative." Variety is both useful and instructive. In the end, which is more satisfying? Being perceived as "hip and cool"--or being an artist appreciated for interesting and compelling work? By understanding the "other", LW would serve herself and her art well. She might find that it is more difficult (often MUCH more difficult) to resist the easy response of cynicism and a jaded outlook. More importantly, it is far more rewarding. LW, your art will thank you.
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Perhaps ...
Perhaps being an artist you've assumed a mode of thinking where you seek perfection, and that, in a way, is more pleasurable as an abstract ideal. Once you have to apply that to reality, to compromise, to put it a certain way, it's not just that that you are settling, but your relationship to it takes place in a different part of your mind with completely different rules and the function that it was serving for you is no longer.
If everyone understood you, it would probably also mean that you're stupid. However, at some point, we all have to apply our ideas to what society has structured or else they'll come to nothing, unless you want to wait until you're dead for some other solitary dude to recognize yoy brilliance.
Read the bios of artists, they all went through this. Well, most. I also had grandiose notions when I was younger (I'll check my watch, tell you how many minutes ago that was), and little by little I had to give them up becuase I either had to sacrifice or frankly starve. There's allot that's negative, but also allot that's positive. Ultimately you'll do best if you don't take your own notions (the self-defeating ones) too seriously. It ultimately comes down to what You do, and sometimes it's believing that something is in your way instead of it actually being in your way that is keeping you from reaching your maximum potential.
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The Universal Artist
The Existential Artist is inferior to the Universal Artist, at least, according to the Universal Artist. Unfortunately, there is a hierarchy of Artists of increasing aesthetic complexity, somewhat like the Borel hierarchy or the arithmetical and hyperarithmetical hierarchies of recursion theory.
Typographical limitations preclude the inclusion of the diagram, so I will describe two infinite increasing chains that occur within it.
One of them begins with Artists; then Existential Artists; then Universal Existential Artists; then Existental Universal Existential Artists; and so on.
The other one also begins with Artists, but the alternation of quantifiers is reversed: there are Artists; Universal Artists; Existential Universal Artists; Universal Existential Universal Artists; and so on.
The letter writer inhabits one of the lowest levels of this hierarchy, just above Artist.
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Everyone is weird in their own way
I completely see my 20-something else reflected in you, even with some affection. But hopefully at some point, and I mean this kindly, you'll grow out of it. What I've realized is that some of the most banal seeming people are the most original if you take a few minutes to listen and ask questions, and that some of the most "original," based on appearance and small-talk, are the most banal.
It was such a relief to realize this, and my "like-minded" circle has expanded to the point where I'm now complimented on my wide array of friends.