Everything is the same

"I do not create. God creates. I assemble, and I steal from everywhere to do it." 

                                                                                              - George Balanchine via Austin Kleon

Struggling to be unique or carve out a niche can feel insurmountable. Maybe it's just me, but I'll have a BRILLIANT, AMAZING idea only to discover someone else has attempted something similar. The self confidence of my inner trailblazer waivers a little each time this happens. It's heartening to know I'm not alone. Hell, Austin Kleon dedicated swaths of his book, Steal Like an Artist, to the idea that nothing is truly original. And, if you're looking for really original source material, Ecclesiastes (1:9 NIV) warned us about this way, way back.

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."

It certainly helps explain the growing sense of deja vu when it comes to the art making it onto my radar screen. I started saving these to a secret Pinterest board just to assure myself I wasn't losing my mind. I'm not. There is definitely a faceless trend happening in at least a corner of the art world. In a funny way, they're kind of the antithesis to the visibility we yearn for when trying to be unique. 

I purposefully chose not to link to the artists for the pieces above because I don't want the artists to think I'm slamming them. Several of the pieces above would look great on my walls. It's just that, when viewed as a group, I find the repetitive concept a bit stale. If you're interested in tracking down the original artists for the pieces above, I've unlocked my Pinterest board, which includes links and artist names.