Tuesday, May 11, 2010

1982



"...I do not have dreams of saving the world. However, I am in the world and I am a human being. In 1982, with telephones and radio, computers and airplanes, world news and video tape, satellites and automobiles, human beings are still frighteningly similar to human beings 2,000 years ago. I am scared to death.

I think I was born an artist. I think I have a responsibility to live up to that. I've spent my life up to this point trying to find out just what that responsibility is. I learned from studying other artists' lives and studying the world. Now I live in New York City, which I believe to be the center of the world. My contribution to the world is my ability to draw. I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can. Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic."

-keith haring, excerpt from Journals

I read that on the train today and thought how close to my own situation that hits. Also, one of the books Haring mentions reading in his journals was the one I was reading previously. The Politics of Experience by R.D. Laing. Almost thirty years have passed since he wrote that down and the same themes recur. It's helpful to read about people having similar struggles.

ian