Allergy To Originality

Recently I was having a discussion with a fellow artist related to originality.

When I was a child, if I created a good drawing I would run up to my dad and try to show it off. His first question was always,”Did you trace that”. The second question was, “Where did you come up with the image”.

If, for instance, I drew an image of Spider-Man. An original image, not traced. He would tell me that it wasn’t my drawing because that character was someone else’s. If I drew a drawing while looking at a real photo he called it copying… Copying, tracing, borrowing from other people’s work all meant I didn’t get the praise I was so desperate to have.

The result is I have a hard time creating art without feeling like I am doing something wrong. Trying to find a project that feels completely original is an impossibility and therefore it is better to embrace the fact that we can not create anything that is 100% original.

Side Note: My dad was a loving and supportive father, he just didn’t understand art.

When I found “Allergy To Originality” online, it brought back memories of the discussion, my father, and my struggles to feel original.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, feel free to leave your reactions in the comments below. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Allergy To Originality: A New York Times Op-Doc from Drew Christie on Vimeo

Categories: Cool Online Art Humor Tags: Allergy To Originality Originality

December 11, 2013 by Jason Love

Jason Love

Dec 12

Comments are working again. I guess I need to do some work on this site…

Stacy Hamilton

When I see your work I do see originality, I see your original artwork and ideas expressed the way that only you could express them. If you have a handful of artists sit down and throw out ideas of something that they should draw how much do you want to bet each one of those drawings would be different in most ways but still all based off of the same idea, it is through our expression that makes each drawing an original work of art to the artist. As for drawing a character created by someone else even then there will always be discrepancies between the two but I feel that it is more of a way of finding yourself as an artist, obviously you have to start somewhere, we aren’t always born with a paintbrush in our hand making perfect works of art, we aren’t born with the talent, we are born with the ability to hone that talent but we have to work at it, I started out with stick people on my mom’s sheets when I was 3 lol. People that truly believe that there is no originality left in this world may not feel that they have anything original to offer the world, they feel that they are doing the same old thing many people before them have done and I feel sad for those people. Everyday I breathe I feel as if I am giving something new to the world whether it is through art, my music or even just by the weird things I say and do everyday, like trying to start the wrong car yesterday(it was suppose to be my friends car and was not)….that funny yet dumb thing also made me see how alike people truly are, both cars had pretty much the same patchwork quilt in it…..I know off topic but at the same time not so much. So many people are more alike in a lot of ways and they have no idea whether it be in the style they portray their art, the way they sing and by the things they apparently keep in their similar cars. You won’t find another car like mine with the same stuff in it…trust me with that lol. It’s amazing to me to see how much art has changed over the years. But anyways I think you are a great artist with an awesome original idea. Those are hard to come by these days. I could go on for days about the topic of originality but I won’t this time.

Jason Love

Dec 15

What you said reminds me of what Woody Allen once said. That early on when coming up with a joke he would try to think as his favorite comedian. When writing a line he would keep thinking, is this how he would do it. In the end he would create something “original” but through a filter of what the other comedian has done in the past.

vinniethevampire

Dec 16

If you define originality as an idea that has never seen the light of day then that’s a pretty tall order! I think a person may be inspired and still have an original idea. Take my comic for instance, about a year into my public release of VTV a fan asked me if I was aware of another vampire named Vinnie that appeared in a cartoon called “Gravedale High” from the 80’s. I searched for it on YouTube and, lo and behold, there he was, leather jacket and all! This mortified me at first until I reassured myself that my character was nothing like that Vinnie. I was also greatly influenced by Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes series. You may find some similarities between my Sunny character and Calvin, but I still believe Sunny is a character that stands on her own. It’s easy to tell if someone just rides the coattails of another artist or if they genuinely breathe life into their work.

Jason Love

Dec 16

I didn’t even think about the point of two people making similar characters without realizing it. I know this has happened to me with small projects and I found it unbelievably heart breaking.