I have talked a lot about symbols, language and lexicon in my statements and blogs. My totems and repeated iconography were once my very own. no one else was doing what I was doing or using a metaphorical stamp. And then I woke up.
Being emerged in the work of an artist as I have been over the last several months has opened my eyes to other artists both major and lesser known to the reality that what I claimed to be mine alone is the hallmark of naivety. I’m coming to terms with knowing I’ll be answering to viewers more versed in the art world than I that I have absconded with every mark Basquiat, Twombly and Emin has ever made. At the same time I see real growth in my practice, when I can see intent and meaning in my work I have to admit it’s all been said one way or another. My work looks more like Jason Hackenwerth’s than before as I absorb like a sponge every word he brings to our mentorship meanings. All this is true and equally true is I can be okay with claiming my voice in any of it. 
A singer’s going to sing whether or not someone else wrote the song. That voice is unique, that timber, that nuance that interpretation are all valid aspects of the singers voice. I’m thinking about this a lot at the moment. because a song are sounds and gone a painting has a permanence like a book. Authors can’t write the same stories the same way as other authors have but they use the same words.
Luckily for me there’s a term called “archetype”.
Now that I fixed that problem how do I know when I’m in my own way?
