Comments on: Rinpa Eshidan Collective and the Art of Letting Go

By: kolin

kolin — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:10:09 +0000

Rinpa eshidan call it “art in process”
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/the-amazing-japanese-art-crew-rinpa-eshidan/

By: Tequila

Tequila — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:46:32 +0000

I’ve had it in my odd little head for some time now to do comics. Well more like a NEED to do comics. In pouring through my own comic book collection it’s hard not to be humbled by the vast amount of stuff that’s not really remembered. It’s fantastic work but it’s not the stuff you’ll see be made into Hollywood movies, praised as classics, or even found outside of pretty niche compilations or rare reprints. They are good, weird, or just plain fun work.

We’re so fame/recognition crazy these days it’s easy to see why so many are scared of not being remembered. It’s as though you wasted your time or failed without it.

Sometimes that desire has fun and useful if utterly daft consequences like say Twitter and social networking as a whole. Other times it just bleeds the fun out of even doing things you love for fear of failure or worse being totally ignored. I’ve seen more people give up because they didn’t think they could “make it like (insert famous person)” than much else these.

It’s sad and no doubt related to the epic level of you’re only good at something if you’re famous for it syndrome going around. Look how many shows on TV alone back that sentiment up let alone the “inspirational” stories we’re all fed about the nobody becoming a famous somebody.

Who knew doing things for the fun of doing them would be a lesson we’d have to re-learn? We knew it well enough as kids.

@Mer…read your blog post. Oddly the desire of “I loved it first!” is what makes me read less and less blogs. Maybe it’s age but I don’t care if person X knew about artist Y before person Z. I thought the whole point of blogs were to share and celebrate information and similar tastes not get into pissing contests about who posted what when. If anything one should be happy someone else liked something as much as you did enough to write about it. After all would ANY of us trust a sole source about any subject?

By: Trishelle

Trishelle — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:36:08 +0000

Beautiful stuff. Don’t know what else to say about it.
Anyway, to sort of go along with what you’re saying, there isn’t any point in doing something unless you enjoy it. Maybe I’m just naive, thinking someone can and should be able to do something they enjoy for a living, but I don’t think people can create good art unless they enjoy it.
I’m still new at this whole Art thing, and perhaps someday I’ll lose the ability to have complete bliss from simply rubbing colored chalk onto a piece of paper, or running a brush with ink on the tip against a surface to see what kind of mark it makes. But if that happens, I hope I’ll have the guts to try something else and find something that makes me happy. I don’t believe art will ever lose it’s magic for me, though. I hope it doesn’t. I’ve seen enough people who forget why they love something and simply go through the actions to know I never want to be one of them.
Eventually, kind words from others end. Eventually, if you’re doing your job right, the world will expect something amazing. It doesn’t matter, though, because no one can take away the magic of being able to put your mind and your thoughts on something that isn’t you. Even if it isn’t something pretty, the act of creating artwork is a sort of performance. Usually only the person creating the artwork sees the performance, but that’s okay. They’re usually the one who needs to see it.
I’m really starting to wander all over the place with my thoughts here, so I’ll wrap it up. There’s way too many avenues of thought to go down. But before I post this, I just wanted to say your other blog post that was linked reminded me of something my favorite teacher always tells us. With all the millions of people that have lived on earth, and the millions that are currently alive, with all the thoughts every one of them has ever had, is it possible for us to have a truly original thought? He says no. I disagree to some extent, but I don’t think it matters. Like the random urge some people seem to have to yell, “FIRST” when they are first to comment something, it all fades away. The most memorable comment is the best one, the most enjoyable artwork to look at and do is usually the best of it. Prehistoric art really is kind of ugly sometimes. Being the “first” doesn’t make it better.
I hope some of that somewhere made sense.

By: whelky

whelky — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:42:43 +0000

great post. i’ve been mullin’ these ideas over a lot recently m’self. there’s definitely a possessive impulse that loves to attach itself to culture, whether self-generated as artwork or catalogued as information and “knowledge”(as a weird sort o’ cultural currency), and that impulse is, at the same time, opposed to the spirit of creativity.. and certainly sure as shit opposed to the spirit of enjoying life. the obvious quote that springs to mind is william blake’s “He who binds to himself a joy doth the winged life destroy. But he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in Eternity’s sunrise.”. whenever i notice myself getting too pretentious about making art and lusting for finished products and better output, i have to mentally slap myself upside th’ head and realize that the sense of deep play is the reason i want to do any of this to begin with.

By: tertiary

tertiary — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:37:13 +0000

I really love these guys.
Their work is an embrace of the beauty of ephemera.
The art of letting go indeed.