{Originality} What Is It...and What It Is

“Originality doesn’t mean making something that’s completely new;  nothing is completely new.  Originality means bending and shaping what’s come before until it belongs to you.” 

- Robert Hunt

Nothing...nothing at all is completely new.  "There is nothing new under the sun", the Bible says.  The only truly original Artist is The Original Artist - God.  So feel relieved...bathed in grace...free to be originally yourself in every way...the way you dress, the way you express your gifts, the things you love {and don't love} to do...the art you create.  Take what you see in someone else, deconstruct it, find out what you love and don't love about what you see, take what you love, leave out what you don't, and remix the whole darn thing.  Put your heart into it.  

What comes out, will be yours alone.  Who cares that you first saw it somewhere else? 

Obviously, this doesn't mean that we slavishly and sloppily copy others.  That constitutes a true lack of self respect on the part of the person copying...not to mention it could constitute stealing and plagiarism and copyright infringement and all sorts of unpleasant and illegal things.  

But no one...no one at all...pulls a style or a philosophy or a creative idea out of thin air.  Each of us is the sum total of our input.

So let your input be  mighty fine.  Mighty fine, indeed.