K said I should watch the Tom Delonge documentary, The Pursuit of Tone, so tonight after dinner I sat in my living room and watched it. Blink 182, and more than that, the presence of Tom in the band, and his side projects, have been pretty much the last stroke of musical influence, and reverence, that I have accepted into my heart. Chronologically, there was nothing that really moved me after that - and I'm fine with that. I like keeping my influences specific and in that perspective I am doing a good job in being a minimalist. That is not to say that I don't have many other musical influences, because I do. But the way Blink and Tom stay relevant in my life, differentiate them from others in a way. There is something very attractive, and very romantic, in his campy lyrics that whenever I listen to them I begin to think, or to reminisce, or to fall in love - about, on, and with my life. Just like with everything, I don't dig too deep even when I find a sweet spot. So while I write that Blink and Tom are a major influence, I probably know less about them, than, let's say the average blink fan. So by watching this documentary I tapped into many innuendos that I knew existed but never seen manifested by Tom before and it was nice to watch and let it become so acute and explicable. The way he broke down his stepping stones of learning things about his art, his music, reminded me of my experience with my art development in the past year since I started painting. The way that he observed other bands he looked up to in the beginning, in a way that he and them are basically the same - but that they're just doing the same stuff on stage while he's not, is what escorts me in the beginning of my artistic journey. As long as you involve your human touch, your individuality, and deliver your experience genuinely, it wouldn't matter if you can't really play a guitar or can't paint, because in the process you learn how to shape things so they become beautiful and influential. This is something I had already been practicing, but it just made it a little bit clearer that the potential of my art doesn't lie in my initial artist talent, but in the process of delivering my emotions and in the learning process of improving my techniques.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017