We need art. The world can either be so crushingly dull or horrifically brutal that only love and art can serve as a respite from the storm. Consequently, it's of the utmost importance that artists should be careful with their profession. For millions of depressed and lonely individuals, art is the only friend they possess. It's the solitary ice floe that allows them to remain afloat on the frigid waves of life and bear its unruly chop. Creating art may seem like a trivial profession, but it is possibly more significant than most people believe it to be.
Although most treat the craft flippantly, there are always a handful of creative heavyweights that approach art seriously. Whether they show this trait by foisting undue importance on their work or they impose rigid rules on how to create quality art in their medium of choice, serious artists are an interesting bunch. In the video linked above, the legendary Orson Welles explains why filmmakers should avoid ingesting too many films to prevent infecting their work with homage. Considering how almost all contemporary art has become riddled with homage, it's clear that Welles understood the severity of the problem decades before we even recognized it as one.
