This quote from Rick Rubin jumped out at me from a whole boatload of Rick Rubin quotes in his marvelous book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being. I’ll be unpacking stuff from this book for a very long time:
“Art is about the maker. Its aim: To be an expression of who we are. This makes competition absurd. Every artist’s playing field is specific to them. You are creating the work that best represents you. Another artists is making the work that best represents them. The two cannot be measured against one another …”
It’s a great thought. It puts to shame all the awards shows like the Oscars and the Grammys and the Tonys. How can you say the Best Picture or the Song of the Year is really better than all the other pictures and songs that were created last year? It’s not a competition.
How can I hold that view and also be tickled to death that Godzilla Minus One received three awards from the Seattle Film Critics Society — Best International Film, Best Visual Effects, and Villain of the Year?
What can I say? We humans are contradictory creatures.
By the way, Godzilla Minus One is still playing at about 1,000 theaters across the U.S. of A. I think I may have mentioned that you really should see it on the big screen.
Among other things, Rick Rubin is the guy who produced Johnny Cash’s last six albums, which are simply my favorite Johnny Cash albums. As I said at the start, there’s a boatload of wisdom about creativity in his book. I heartily recommend you take it for a sail.
