THE POWER OF VISION

I think the most important ability an artist or creative creator can have is not a technical one, it is vision.

By vision I mean the ability to look beyond what already exists. To imagine something that isn't here yet, and to see the possibilities that could emerge if you somehow managed to bring it into reality.

Technique matters, of course. It gives us the tools to materialize an idea. But technique without vision can only reproduce what we already know. Vision is what allows us to ask: what could this become? How could it change the current culture?

A powerful artwork doesn't end at the limits of the object itself. A drawing can become a comic. A comic can become a world. That world can generate music, images, toys, collectibles, communities...

This is where I think vision becomes something intrinsic to creativity.

For me, the most important thing an artist can do is change the course of culture.

Culture is constantly being built from ideas that, at some point, seemed strange, unnecessary, impossible, or simply nonexistent. Someone imagined a different aesthetic. Someone imagined a different sound. Someone imagined a different way of dressing, gathering, dancing, telling stories, or understanding themselves. Other people recognized something in that vision and carried it further.

This doesn't mean that every artwork has to change the world. I actually think approaching art with that expectation would destroy much of what makes creating interesting. Some of the most interesting works of art explore completely new possibilities, but they hardly ever connect with the general public.

To change culture, you need to connect with people. You need to touch their hearts or minds in some way. That's why, for example, I think musicians are more culturally relevant today than Artists with a capital A.

As someone pretending to be a comic creator, I'm making a bet that, in order to connect with people, you need relatable characters and a solid, interesting story. But not just an intellectually cool story. You need to bring things from real life into it. You need to give people something they can project themselves onto. Make them feel an emotional connection, but without forcing it.

When I work on MVNDY, I try not to think about it only as pages of a comic. The comic is the origin point, but around it I can imagine an entire constellation of possibilities: images, music, objects, websites, videos, fictional documents, collaborations, physical spaces, maybe things I haven't even thought of yet.

Whether all of those things eventually exist isn't really the point.

The point is being able to see them.

And perhaps that is one of the strange responsibilities of being a creative person: to spend part of your life looking at things that don't exist yet.

Then trying to bring some of them back with you.