'Original' is a dead concept

'The day you stop changing is the day you die', they say. I say that applies better to your art in these days.

After browsing a few posts at the you thought we wouldn't notice blog, I realize how difficult, not to say impossible, it is to determine differences between what is 'copied' or 'stolen from' and what is 'inspired', 'based on' something else, when it comes to art and creativity matter.

The idea that one has to protect the perfect, untouchable and unchangeable work is so stupid last century. The very work you call "your own" is NOT original. Somewhere something has inspired you and someone has done something similar. If you want to be the absolute owner of all you do, just don't do it, keep it in your head or in a safe box, locked. Make sure you don't show it to anybody.

Being an artist is not about just creating completely new things from scratch. It is about being able to manage and combine the pieces around you, giving it new meanings and possibilities of use. That is what Lichtenstein and Warhol did with their so called "ready-mades".

The Campbell's tomato soup can was there as a simple can, but Warhol was able to reuse it as a painting. He did play with the pieces and see arrangements that others didn't.

Monalisa's face appears in t-shirts stencilized, and that is no copy, that is a tribute, sameway as it is when a band plays The Beatles' songs.

Whenever you do something you are throwing new material to the world. Where your work ends, the other's begins, it is a cycle. We don't own the thing, we barely determine a small part of it. But the real thing is a huge imagery cyclone, alive and changing every second. We are just agents, get used.

Once it is out there, you can't control: you gave it life and freedom, so be glad if your work is good enough to hit the streets and keep coming back in remakes. If it doesn't, then it is dead.

All you have to do, to play fair, is admit that you are part of the process. It did not came entirely from your brain and it will not stay as it was when you called 'done'.
Someone will still be able to reassemble it. If you're ok with that, you're in the game. Have fun.