rhyme on herzog

I found Herzog's ideas to be very easy to relate to! He was very direct, which I liked--he kept it simple. Though upon viewing the commentary for Stroszek it did become clear (as J&J said) that he has a definite narrative to how he discusses his ideas and work--he said many things almost verbatim from the article, which gave me a really weird deja-vu vibe as we were watching.

Growing up on comics and cartoons, narrative is generally a part of my own art; I never seem to escape from it, even if it's only a personal one not obvious to anyone else. I think part of my attraction to Herzog's way of thinking is that it's clear he concentrates on narrative, even when answering questions. His words are concise, they flow together, they have a point and they come to a logical conclusion! This boggles my mind. I find it so difficult to do when speaking about my own projects.

I'm always fascinated when artists talk about their own influences, and that was most definitely my favorite part of the interview, the part that grabbed my attention the most. This quote in particular:

"Encountering Segers was as if someone had reached out with his hand across time and touched my shoulders." --Herzog on Herzog

I talked about this in my last post as well. That sense of connection between you and someone who doesn't even exist anymore, someone who had no idea you were going to exist--that's powerful. As an artist, there definitely is the sense that you shouldn't copy or imitate others, which--for me!--often leads to completely rejecting those who inspire me out of fear. But at the same time I feel incredibly creative when looking at other things, not even necessarily art related: design, music, family photos, weird things like the Animorphs books and my cat. Point being whatevs, haters gonna hate and I've gradually stopped worrying about this issue so much, and I definitely appreciated the time and care Herzog spent describing from who and what he draws inspiration.