Artists get a lot of crap…they also have to deal with all that crap–there’s shovelfuls of the stuff. They get up in the morning and brew their coffee–or heat their milk–like the rest of us; however, they get into that mindset: the I-am-going-to-produce-the-next-Mona-Lisa mindset. Guess what: some of them do produce the next Mona Lisa; they don’t even have to put a mustache on it to make it great…no…they make it Ultimate Mona Lisa: a badass rendition of the famous DaVinci work–it is so badass I can’t think of a description for it.

Know what else?

They do it everyday.

Try that one on for size, Critic Who Never Finished His Finger Painting In Kindergarten. Too stupendous for you? Too bad. Maybe you should have paid more attention to Salvador Dali and his creepily cool mustache–pictures of him are really weird, by the way; find a book about him and stare at one for thirty minutes. You’ll either have gone insane…or, like a sane person would do, have quit the effort and gone to seek a glass of water.

The artist–excuse me, the modern artist is a creature of life: they are within the boundaries of nature and war and cities and countrysides and even that small gas station off the interstate that smells so much like chloroform it’s more than a little creepy. They love what they do…I think–well, I know a few and they seem to enjoy it…possibly…

Note this, all you non-artists, artists themselves are hard to understand sometimes. Why? They’re on a level above us: this grandiose universe filled with canvasses and a super buff Vincent Van Gogh who carries a paintbrush like an assault rifle. When the battle comes…he is ready with a water cup.

Sound a little frightening? Good. Maybe you’ll change your mind next time you think an art piece is odd. It is odd…that is the way they wanted it to be. And their interpretation is good as gold.

Be nice to artists. They can paint you any way they choose.

Think daily,

A Southpaw