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2006-06-06 - 4:31 p.m.
I am constantly amazed at other peoples' work. I'm speaking here mostly of art-work, but it applies to other work.
Here's a for-instance: I'm reading... well, listening to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars. And, well it's amazing that Robinson creates this epic story about the colonization of Mars in the first place.
Look at it. First, he has to familiarize himself with interplanetary space travel, then colonization of another planet, one that's not particularly hospitable to human life, then terraforming technology, etc. There's all the science and technology, physics, chemistry, biology, etc. And making it plausible. Then there's characterization, and politics, and history.
On top of all that, there's inserting the wisdom imparted from one character to another. Or profound observations made by one character or another.
Jeez, I mean, these are wisdoms and profound observations made by fictional characters. In fictional worlds under fictional circumstances. And they are wise and profound.
Crap. I'd be happy to come up with this stuff in real life. Much less on behalf of my made-up characters.
Here's another: Sound of Settling
Not especially my kind of art. But how does one get that good? "mostly digital painting..." Wha? In terms of technique it just blows me away. Not that I'm such a big fan of technique, and realism in particular, but it's amazing.
I've seen this other artist's work. He does skies, cloudy, skies like sheispretty's but in oil pastels. They're outrageous. Fantastic!
What I'm saying is, even though I don't aspire to create similar things, I'm just amazed that people can do these things in the first place. I wonder at the single-mindedness it must take to sit there for hours and hours and just plug away at something until it's done. I just couldn't do it. I'm not that kind of person.
Just like I couldn't be a coder. Too much detail. Too much long-term concentration. Too much focus. I'd go mad. I'd flip out.
With respect to KSR, it makes me feel like I have a small mind. I don't know much about Robinson, maybe he's some kind of genius or something. Maybe I get lost in fiction and fall for the smoke and mirrors of literature. I dunno.
As for the visual art stuff. I'm the inverse of that kind of depth. Music too. I can respect that people can do that, and even like some of it, but have no desire to create that deeply.
I feel like those kind of artists are almost savants in a way. So driven. So preternaturally gifted. Spooky.
Me, I'll just stick to my crappy two-dimensional cartoonish things, with my stupid shadow-blindness, and my silly compositionally naive straight-on photos. Eh, I can be humble.
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So, how do you like them apples?