Not Trying to be Original
If there's anything I enjoy as much as making things, it's discovering how and why people make their things. I dig devlogs, process diaries, memoirs, the way something comes to be from nothing.
The other day I read something that still lingers in my brain, though unfortunately I didn't save the original link (I should try finding it again later). It roughly says that we are shaped by everything we have seen/encountered/felt (to which I agree) but that we shouldn't stop at just having our art be amalgamation of things we love.
That's the part I keep mulling about. I do, in general, enjoy the process of creating, and would gladly partake with no real goal in mind. I've been known to write following random prompts or challenges, draw whatever random thing popping on my screen when I just feel like holding a brush, make something I have no attachment to (it's the process I'm attached to).
However, the ones I do release to the world, the ones I devote my time and effort to, they're all love letters. Full of obscure internal jokes and inscrutable references, done because I want to see how much I can pay my homage to as many things as possible. To ponder and interact with topics presented in those media/experience my own way, to process the world. To entertain loose threads in my mind, A meets B in C if D.
Sometimes I wish someone would come out to say, "Hey, it reminds me to X and Y!" (and I do hear it from time to time, which brings me joy). No one would ever get every single thing, that's alright too.
I have no intention to pursue originality.
I am alright with being derivative.
My art is a chaotic synthesis of everything I love, and that's enough.