Mostly Asleep

Aloha

So far it has been a crazy week. Loads of work, plenty of me being untimely and sleeping badly. So more or less the usual. Friday evening promises to be eventful and fun however, so salvation comes.

I've been really busy with lithography this week and have successfully printed the icon of a big idea I plan on developing when I have the time. In the summer I want to make a zine as sort of the handbook/bible for this notion, but for now, just symbols.



The idea came to me just as I was falling asleep one night, as most of my ideas seem to. I've been watching lots of dystopian films (Children Of Men, Wall-E, Watchmen) and reading about social and artist trends and revolutions of the 20th century and a number of recent traumatic events have all lead me to lose faith in the future. I guess these things have made me aware of a lack of faith in my generation. I don't think kids my age, a bit older and mostly younger, are at all like the preceding generations. The internet, video games, literature, movies/TV, art, popular and not-so-mainstream music, the news, ugh, so much (I'm really tired and am having a hard time articulating my ideas) have all lead to what I think is a significant distancing of us from reality, older generations and any semblance of real life.

Ugh, I know that when I reread this in the morning it's going to be embarrassingly terrible, but who reads this anyway?

My point is: my generation is marred by psuedo-nihilism, cliche cynicism, immaturity, fragile emotional states, extreme desensitization, moral neglect and corruption, self-centeredness, laziness, stupidity and a host of other physical and social ills. I don't want to sound like an angry priest, bigoted old man or hypocritical/niave/idealistic art jerk, but there are a lot of problems created by my generation and many we will inherit which I think will be detrimental to an extant that I don't care to fathom right now. The current economy, environmental salvage and sustainability, some kind of moral standards overarching all social, religious and cultural establishments are all a inspirations of this idea. I think that to boil down the solution it comes to compassion and thought: heart and mind. Thus the phrase that came to me in that semi-conscious state so many weeks ago: OPEN HEARTS OPEN MINDS.

It's something of a play on words and has no punctuation, and I think embodies the spirit of the ideas I want to propegate. I'm sure I sound really wishy washy, socialist and pretentious right now, but well, maybe I am.

I'll elaborate on this when I am less exhausted and don't need to be in class in 6 hours.

Oh, also I've been working on this up until this week for my digital printmaking class. It's a mix of ink, spray paint and digital printing on wood. Or psuedo wood anyway, that compressed stuff.





Cheers