CREATION OF MEN.

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

“At the critical moment, the leader of an army acts like one who has climbed up a height and then kicks away the ladder behind him. He carries his men deep into hostile territory before he shows his hand. He burns his boats and breaks his cooking-pots; like a shepherd driving a flock of sheep, he drives his men this way and that, and nothing knows whither he is going. To muster his host and bring it into danger, this is termed the business of the general.” ~Sun Tzu c. 544—496 BC.

The issue isn’t whether or not the situation gives you an advantage or disadvantage. The focus of  it all goes beyond survival, and goes beyond circumstances. One of biggest lessons and priceless things about having mentors is the relationship itself and on a daily what the younger generation of artists get to watch here in the studio is the creative process that’s involved to produce the work that you see posted here. The dedicated client Caesar came through to continue his collection with Jose-take a look.

Adaptivity, spontaneity, and fluidity has to be some of the keys to this form of Black N Grey tattooing. Like all visual artists, there’s a constant flow of images that never stop running through our minds-and especially when you’ve put in work for over 17 years of tattooing, that library is going to be pretty full. Nonetheless, that’s one of the reasons why this piece was critical to understand the overall composition and the true solution: simplicity.

Simplicity not just in the piece itself, but simplicity in every aspect of building a body of work and reinventing this form of art. Over the years Jose has seen artists in the multitudes–some come, some go. Some who’ve helped broaden the industry at large, some who’ve struggled to see past the very walls that block them from growing, and the many, many talented.

But that fact is–talent is not enough.

We bring this up because now more then ever tattooing is so open. Tattooing is no longer exclusive to one group of society or subculture. Tattooing is relevant to every class, every race, and every level of infrastructure-worldwide. Tattooing is culture. And as artists who continue to contribute to the culture, this obligates us, and gives of real responsibility to honor the trust of people who are willing to fly across the world to get tattooed.

This same responsibility is applied to not just the images itself, but the minds, hearts, and souls of every individual using a machine. The process is the practice.

Talent comes secondary from that will to continue and take the path that no one has taken-or the path everyone talks about taking. There’s plenty of people who talk about it, who visualize it, but time reveals the hard working silence of those who do it end up breaking all walls. Because growth is priority, everything else is irrelevant, and those focused on the task at hand allow no distractions in moving forward.

So we can stop all the guessing….

stop assuming….

…..and take action.

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