vanity, thy name is intellect.

"I paint because I like to paint. I have no theories." --Jean-Paul Lemieux

I resent people who have more philosophy than passion or sense. People who cling to the philosophy of a thing more than the thing itself are nothing more than vain pedants.
A friend of mine, A___, recently wrote about how she felt inferior to other artists at her college because they were able to effectively complete--whereas she was not--an assignment in which each constructed his/her "artist statement": the philosophy of his/her art. I understand the importance of self-awareness, the importance of focus on an ultimate goal, the importance of understanding the basic outline of one's own purpose; but when priority is placed on the articulation of these abstracts rather than the art that manifests from their consummation, a travesty emerges rather than art. I dropped out of college and ran from the study of literature for this reason: too much vanity, too little life. but i kind of regret having made the decision to leave. This world needs more humble people to create things; this world needs more humble people to thumb their nose at intellectual and artistic snobbery. i think that A___'s lack of pretense is a great gift--it is precicely the reason why she will be a great artist. She will make great art; meanwhile, as likely as not, the rest of her graduating class will be left to idly construct useless philosophies about what makes great art.