Being what I want to see

I saw Austin Kleon's Be the weird you wish to see prints recently. And I'm writing the next part of my actual aunting experience which is very much about modelling behaviours. It also kind of ties into my average post. Indeed my first post on this blog was about how I wanted to make little and weird things. What puts me off saying 'weird' explicitly here is I don't want to be all "I'm so mad, me. What am I like." I have a horror of drawing attention upon myself and any sort of performativity. 'Weird' feels like a big label to give yourself and probably the sort of label you can't give yourself (I have a whole theory on these.) I think the crucial difference here is an overdone buzzword: authenticity. We all seem to agree the pendulum has tipped too far to the irony, apathy, and detachment side. We are ready for enthusiasm and earnestness to come back in style. We are rejecting cringe. It is not easy. We are not in a survival of the weirdest world. The ridiculous are not inheriting the…