And welcome to my blog
All things being equal, this blog will be about the work that I create.
Mostly.
For years now, I've wanted to have a spot to talk certain things through. The plan was to have it be a proper website, with some of my published work to show. And here we are now, I’ve done it. It’s been created. A complete website with a blog to boot. Set up for little other than to have a place to catalogue my writing, my thoughts about writing; about art and all of the other things in-between.
But that is just mostly.
My plan has expanded, I want this blog to feature something else that I enjoy, and that's a specific, behind-the-scenes look at all of my favourite projects, especially art. The work I make, the work that others have created.
Because almost compulsively, I always turn around to dig for the reasons why the art I love was made. From music, to books, to television shows, everything. They have me questioning that undetermined Why?
Why is this what the artist chooses to focus on?
Why does this song have this sort of melancholy, or rhythm or lyricism?
Why bother making this art at all?
Why?
Since I listened to the explainer album of an artist I loved, (Yes, this is a real thing that happened), I've been struck by the minutiae of crafting things - the story behind the story. What informed the different parts of this lovely piece of work, why is it able to ache in parts of ourselves that we so diligently hide away?
And in this particular explainer album, the thing that struck me was the artist’s seeming discomfort with why he was even breaking down his influences “Stories should be just that, stories”.
Yes, but they really are more than just that.
The commentary on the album eventually justifies itself, it talks about why we love stories so much, and especially the kinds of stories that we love. Ones where the weak eventually get justice, hope brings forth a good thing. Friends are re-united. These things that we all root for.
I think, as he said, it is about hoping.
Not to get long-winded about it (there is a future post on this album’s commentary, definitely), but I think the why behind the stories we choose to tell matter. Because that why influences the kinds of stories that we will tell in the end.
So beyond enjoying the finished product that gets to us, we can wonder along with the artist, question the things underneath the surface. Because those questions matter in how we engage with the reality of the world, the realities that these stories examine for us. Or the realities the stories celebrate, hope for, hope against, eulogize. Permit, protest, or love.
And absolutely, I love those kinds of things.
And I will talk about them. And here specifically, I will talk about the why’s behind some of my own art that I've made.
Once in a while, I’ll share some of the work that I have created, too. Fresh from the oven.
For now, you can take a look at the work I’ve already published over here. Although I consider myself to be a bigger lover of fiction, I haven’t had as much fiction published as essays and poems, but it’s still a good start.
And really, this blog will mostly be about that simple thing- the why, or how sometimes, of what I have created. The things I enjoy.
(And if you like this kind of stuff too, fill out the subscription box below, and I’ll let you know when I’ve wrangled mine, or someone else’s work into some cool think-piece here).
Take care till then.
Busayo.