(This was a manuscript speech (to be read word for word) that I presented for my Public Speaking class.)
I follow my rules and I don't follow the rules of anyone else. This is my life, and I will run it as I see fit. It's the one time in all of time that I will be here and I don't need people telling me what to do. I'll do what I want to do.
Who I am as an artist is the same as who I am. The rules and regulations by which I create any piece of art are the same rules and regulations that I apply to my life. If a rule doesn't apply to all aspects of both my art and my life then it's just a guideline. I do what I do because it is the only thing I can do under these rules and regulations. As such, whatever I do will be inherently "Clintonish." This is my style.
These rules and regulations have been influenced by over 19 years of sensory input. Everything I have done from day zero to the moment I say this next word influences the moment after it. However some things have greater weight than others. I'd be lying if I told you that finding a penny on August 14, 1997 was as important to me as reading "Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance." But you never can tell.
The three biggest influences on my rules and regulations that I am consciously aware of are:
The film, "The Hours" directed by Stephen Daldry,
The book, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers, and
The painting "Luncheon of the Boating Party" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Each of these works of art both diversify and enhance my mesh of connections. I find that the messages they portray are real in every sense of the word, and in every sense of everything.
The Hours is a film released in late 2002 starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Ed Harris. The screenplay is based off a book by Michael Cunningham. The movie explores the lives of three different women in three different time points all connected by the book, "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf. The film follows the three women for a single day in which we see each of them strained as far as they ever have been. It's an incredibly truthful and beautiful portrayal of man questioning himself, his reasons to live, to go on, and the answers that each of us individually must find. It's a lonely adventure living life. "The Hours" shows us the extremes of our isolation.
This realization is deeply saddening and the movie is not one to watch after the death of your favorite hamster. But I've been told that pain is weakness leaving the body. We shouldn't pleasure ourselves all the time, otherwise we'll lose the contrast. Contrast makes the darks darker, but it also makes the brights brighter.
"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers is a brutally honest look at "normal" life, the grey between the lights and darks. Under McCullers perceptive writing, all the traits of her characters, their thoughts, their actions and reasons and logic are brought into view with a sincerity so clean and sharp that you find yourself reading not about the characters, but about yourself. In one part of the book, a thirteen year old girl called "Mick" walks into a restaurant and orders a coke. She's done it before and will do it again, but each time is unique. Why does she go into the bar? Who did she want to see? Did she find what she was looking for? McCullers explores and explains all of this. To a further extent than even McCullers took, all of Micks actions, no matter how simple, are governed by a complex network that is Mick. For her to simply breathe requires coordination between trillions of independent cells. The simpler something seams, the more complex it truly is. I test this rule to everything I do everyday, and I have yet to find a situation where it goes wrong.
The third stop on this tour of things that live in my brain is "Luncheon of the Boating Party" by Renoir. Ever since I can remember this painting always stood out to me when I saw it in books, or online, or remembered it out of the blue. It is a painting of people enjoying time on this earth. If there is any rule that I adhere to the most, it is this one. The casual laid back style of everyone at this painted party is a reminder that things will be ok. Yes, there are ups and downs. Yes, time to time things really go wrong. Yes, life is a bitch. But, at the end of the day, it's important that we enjoy our time on this planet. Remember, the clock is ticking.
I follow my rules, and I don't follow the rules of anyone else. Neither do I expect anybody else to follow my rules. I do expect, at least I hope, that other people follow their own rules. When they do this, they are being true to themselves and they really can't go wrong.ß
Who I am as an artist, well it really doesn't matter. I'm not an artist. I'm not anything except for a human being trying to have a good time.
