September 2021
*published in Mouth Magazine in 2021.
I had an art teacher once
Who said all artists are assholes
And when I first heard it
I was skeptical
Maybe he was projecting
Maybe he'd been screwed over
Maybe it was just personal
But the longer I spend in art school
The more I realize
We're all self absorbed pricks
Who have decided our voices
Our passion
Is worth burning the world over
Am I the asshole?
I was inspired by an art teacher I had in my first year at SAIC. At that moment in my journey I saw myself as a writer - I was not any kind of artist. I was observing the culture and the social norms of the art world as an imposter. When my teacher said "all artists are assholes" I didn't believe him. But as I continued my assimilation, I realized how true his statement was. I had had too many interactions with selfish people taking advantage of me and as a people pleaser it was exhausted being around people who would just take and take and take without ever giving back. I had gotten fed up and written this with the Reddit forum in mind.
I hold this piece dear because I've had a lot of real conversations come from publishing this poem in Mouth Magazine. The editor was the one who suggested formatting it to look like a Reddit post, which is very successful for the message.
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