Lou Reed Is No Longer With Us

         So the first thing I hear Sunday is "Lou Reed died early this morning…" on my radio alarm. Yes I get up at 3:30 a.m. certain days for work but Sunday morning is a different case, I still manage to sleep through my alarm. That however made me fully awake. 

Photo credit Yarl (Pawel Marynowski)

        I wish I could have met him, when you live in Los Angeles those possibilities are slightly higher. But that's not why I've decide to blog about this. Lou Reed was such a extraordinary example of how an artist should live their life and how being true to yourself benefits your art work.

       Going to more galleries, reading and talking to art dealers I've learned a lot, most importantly how crucial it is to know which artist did something first. Originality is a extremely important characteristic to have in artwork. You're not going to get anywhere making art that looks like someone else's work. I'm sure there are tons of artists out there that want to be ground breaking. They want to make something no ones seen before. It applies to music, fashion, filmmaking and writing. 

      I've gone to art school and seen it in other areas too- artists just conform to the mold of being an 'artist.' I remember starting art school and knowing guys that would shower regularly when they started (looked like they did), but a year into attending they're only showering once a month. Or girls growing out their arm pit hair. I know there's more examples, but my point is a lot of art students start art school and quickly do something to conform to the stereotypes up in there. Conforming to a stereotype is not going to help you if you want to make art work that's fresh, original and groundbreaking. It's like a habit, you have to be true to yourself. Unless your into torturing animals, get help and make horror films <--- You know what else there were at art school, a few ultra creepy looking guys. 

       Lou Reed was true to himself and he produced music that was way before his time because of that. There's no way around it, if you want to make good art you have to put a part of yourself in it, not the stuff you put on your resume or present on a first date; I mean demons, the ugly stuff. If there's any chance you want your art work to be ground breaking and blow people away- practice being true to yourself instead of conforming because your art work is a part of you.