there is a point here with art in that the medium of the art itself is so paramount in the creation of what it is, i don’t see why people forget this when they create. they are so consumed with the technology rather than the nature of what they make. 

that is my critique on the consumer: the one who is enthralled. i awaken this part within myself because of the marvel at our human capacity to refine and innovate. why not peek at what’s on the table?

goodness, but the lack of tactile interaction people have with their creativity is getting farther and farther away from itself. it’s too bad.

i became obsessed with tactile art, visual art, for a minute, there. because i wanted to recognize this call to be drawn to the plant world. and that’s when i realized: this bag of tea leaves was an incredible spectacle of art (as is any piece of computer paper). this bag of tea leaves contained nature, contained even the extrapolation of reading these tea leaves, a cultural reminder of attempting to see images in the way the leaves are configured. i don’t know much more about the process. but i have certainly attempted to read into tea remnants. and yet, with this picture, with this concept, i remember wanting to prove a second point:

i went against my grain of perfection and simply placed the tea bag on the counter. i remember doing that in a way that specifically defined how i meticulously review my art, at times to the demise of the perfection of being in the moment. this time, that part of me said fuck you to the one who thinks it’s always helping but sometimes just isn’t. and i was also saying fuck you to the artists that i see who don’t seem to give a fuck about some part of their technique and i take a personal grievance for it. ‘yeah, just whatever, it doesn’t even matter,’ and i put the tea bag on the counter.

so then i created a composition for it, and filtered it. why not? everyone’s doing it. but nothing is original. even though this particular tea bag is original, anyone could put a tea bag on a counter you know? there’s like, mass appeal. it’s simple. it’s tangible. it actually makes this picture extremely original. not only that, but i know where i was. i felt free to do that. i felt welcomed there. it was fine for me to create an art piece of this tea bag. the people i was with didn’t seem to mind it. and that was nice. that felt kind.

this saying, or quote, is referred to by the makers in the days of concertos and symphonies. there was so much music going on, that it began to sound like everything was borrowed. everyone shares the same palette. the difference is what you do with it. scales, instruments, instrumentalists, there’s only so much you can do. isn’t music becoming more like that again? 

samples repurposed, remixed, redefined, resampled, the palette of technical music software is as amplified to the visual world as three dimensional visual art. complex designs and patterns being generated on computers that convey very specific concepts.

i think it often comes back to simplicity. i will quote myself and say ‘it’s all just circles and lines.’ and it’s all just osmosis fractal patterns. you know, when we go too far out of what’s geometrically sound, it complicates things beyond a space of joy. that’s why we stick to the originality. we stick to what’s basic and enjoyable. so we’re all even in that, that space of nothing being original. we’re all sharing the same many-things.
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and even tea, as well. these tea bags are all over the world perhaps. they are accessible. many of these plants grow all over. an entire world of plant life circulating itself in the form of tea. after being derived from sacred herbs that were read by seers. now thrown into paper boxes. 

otherwise, the contradictory aspect of the leaf’s formations were a personal revelation of shadow work around my controlling nature. i had an inclination to want the leaves to be different. i had an urge to change their appearance. something like soaking longer, tilting, bouncing, etc. that’s why placing the bag on the counter in such a way where i didn’t interfere despite my conscious urges to change the subconscious, i consider that shadow work. i somehow surrendered enough into letting my subconscious win, i somehow held back my conscious desire. i somehow let it be what it wanted to be. because i knew the point was that nothing is original. i knew that was the point. and i knew other artists get away with being way sloppier than i would be. i like clean art. i let this be that.