Are We Leaders or Are We Sheep?

Where do self-defining choices originate? Are they the result of truly visionary ideas, concepts, and preferences? Or are we mostly influenced by others? Family and friends, nature or nurture, people we wish to emulate, pop culture, trends, etc.. Are we leaders, or are we sheep?

Well at some point, someone had to have had an original idea, right? Like Pablo Picasso. He was an artistic genius; and he invented Cubism, a totally new and innovative style. Wasn't he a leader?

Perhaps. Cubism was an idea/style pioneered by Picasso, along with a few of his contemporaries; Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Leger, Robert Delaunay, and others. However, Cubism was based on Paul Cezanne's three components; geometry, simultaneity (multiple views) and passage (an attempt to describe, in visual terms, the concept of the Fourth Dimension)

If you look at Picasso's masterpiece, Les Demoiselles d' Avignon, painted in 1907, you'll notice how the faces of the women resemble African tribal masks. And, his abandonment of perspective in favor of a flat, two dimensional picture plane appears to be an adaption of Primitivism, an artistic style also implemented by Henri Rousseau, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Klee.

Picasso's "original" ideas were inspired by African tribal art, Primitivism, and Cezanne; as well as collaborations with fellow artists; and probably a number of other things. So, while he is definitely a rock star in the history of art, Picasso was not without outside influences.

The truth is, it is almost impossible to trace an idea or concept to its absolute, original source; because absolute, original sources are nebulous.

For instance; who was the first hipster? Aside from the fact that no one will admit that they are, or ever were, a hipster; who knows? My guess is that hipsters morphed into existence.

Maybe "once upon a time" there was a techy nerd in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who read Wired Magazine, and idolized Kerouac and Burroughs; and he had college buddies in an obscure indie band, who wore heavy-framed, geeky glasses, ironic tee shirts, and old school sneakers. Perhaps his girlfriend was a vegan chef/yoga instructor, and she and her girlfriends shopped at vintage clothing stores and thrift shops because they hated the mall, and rejected mainstream consumerism.

Maybe they were avid followers of an international organization that promoted socially minded causes, "green" living, and progressive politics. Most likely they were coffee snobs :), who hung out at their hip, local, roast-their-own-beans, WiFi access, coffee shop. They communicated with their friends via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or the latest version of iPhone; and so on. Soon, an ever-expanding network of like-minded folks had snowballed into the subculture that we now call hipsters.

But trying to identify the first hipster (or bobo, or hippie, or beatnik) is like trying to solve the dilemma of the chicken or the egg; you can't.

The truth is, we are human recipes; combinations of known ingredients; with maybe a little unidentifiable spice thrown in. We are fabulous works in progress; experts at gleaning concepts, ideas and inspirations and making them our own. Leaders or sheep? What do you think?

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

- Pablo Picasso

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