What it Means to Be Unique
Everyone is unique in some way, and yet we all also share many common qualities and features. The whole race is made up of almost exactly the same DNA, and yet our individual brain chemistries, mixed with the subtle nuances of a life lived and understood, creates a race of pure individuals who are so unique, that society itself was invented to make it possible for us all to get along.
This is a constant struggle within each of us. The need to be unique, balanced against the need to be the same. The desire for individuality is balanced against the requirements that we all get along, that we all connect on shared values, ideas, and goals. This is a balance that can be maddeningly thin. Especially when individuality can be so highly valued, or so vehemently despised.
The idea of the artist is someone who sees beyond the constraints of reality, and tries to look even beyond the vision of their own eyes. Locked in our heads, surrounded by society, it’s often nearly impossible to see beyond the nature of the pack. But the artist is a professional whose job it is to not only see beyond the pack, but to show them new ways of seeing. To reveal concepts never before thought of or understood, and to light up the darkness of an unexplored mental realm.
All creativity comes from personality. There are quirks in the mind that allow us to think differently than one another, to arrange things into patterns that are invisible to others. This is part of the mind and so it is part of the personality. This leads many artists to adopt strange habits. Some do it to evoke creativity; others do it as a result of creativity. However this can also be an issue of the tail wagging the dog.
Those quirks that make us individuals are the sparks of creativity; however it is the organization of those ideas that actually turns into the fires of imagination. You have to be able to make sense of the random bits, to give order to the chaos. If your vision goes too far a field it will be difficult, if not impossible for anyone to understand it. Therefore you walk a balancing act which requires you always to temper that unique spirit with a dose of understanding.
