No, seriously. Give me my brain back.

No, seriously. Give me my brain back.

I've taken to contenting myself with the thought that i'm not making or trying to make art. (The words 'Art' and 'Artist' imploded when you simply had to attach them to something to make it so, Art, as a thing is self appointing and so the word has no worth) I don't want to be an artist, i just want to be a maker of beautiful things, as i'm sure you just want to be a maker of beautiful music.

If you look at nasa's images of the cosmos, those explosions of dust and stars and the colour and the light, it could waste your muscles as you sigh 'well nothing humans could ever create will be this beautiful' the trick is not to think the next bit 'so what's the point?'

The thing that modern 'artists' need to realize is that the 'point' of it all is and only ever was to please themselves. The moment you work towards something, the moment you self analyze or compare, what you have made is dead.

When its not working for me, i open a window.

Also: You might not take advice from a random stranger and you might not even read this, but if you're having trouble coming up with music, you should definitely take a break. Forcing yourself to be creative won't accomplish anything. When I have artist's block I go for a walk. Try that. Or don't. Whatever you want.

Stick with that creativity. It's good to live the way you want.

Art is our attempt to share the inherently unshareable human experience; our gift/curse of consciousness, of emotion. We want so desperately to share, to quantify, to in some way translate these emotions outside our own mind. We crudely create “art” in words, sound, light, etc, and (when successful) this can resonate with others emotions and perhaps communicate some silhouette of our own mind. Through this phenomenon, little marks on a page or vibrations in the air (utterly insignificant to the rest of the world, as you say) can bring people to tears.

In my opinion, art should be measured based on this personal response or resonance. Popular art merely being that which makes a connection to more people, while the merit of the art itself is an entirely separate entity.

Art is not the same thing from one person to the next regardless of the societal claims of unanimity of opinion that appear as a result of collectively absorbing reviews. For that reason, I love listening to things that I have not read a review of. Not necessarily obscure stuff but just something I've not already have my mind made up by through opinion or comment.

Case in point related to you, Alex Day's album had a delightful sonic wall that was far more richly textured than I had anticipated having only heard him strumming a guitar on the Tubes. As I had no prior expectance of such it stuck me quite cleanly and pleasantly, like an accurate participant in a pillow fight. Had I have read/heard/watched a review, that initial recognition would have been less special :- As I have not read of your album yet, I await the cd's swift delivery and will steer clear of opinion and such in the interim.

My meandered point is: The value of any artistic thing to the consumer is usually more to do with outside influences than it is to do with the art itself. Anything which can stand outside of that and still be meritorious is a triumph. Though anything which doesn't can still get some mileage with the right backing