What's with everything?

Is it not said that, just before the fall of any great civilization, that civilization will be at its peak of artistic expression? Are we peaking?

Everywhere I look I see great art. I see lousy art. I see mediocre "canned" art. Nearly everyone is an artist in some way. It is artist overload!

It's much like having free reign at a candy store. You eat one sweet and sugary treat after another and another and another. Before you know it, you are sickened by the very thing you love most. And then you vomit. Several weeks later you feel ready to try candy again but something is wrong... you have an ulcerated stomach lining and can't seem to hold anything down. Now, no matter how delectable the treat, how fine the chocolate, how creamy the confectionery, every piece of it disgusts you.

I am an artist. You (most likely) are an artist. Combined, we know many other artists.

As I search for inspiration (mainly on the internet <-- lazy), I come across the same garbage copied and recopied. Wait! I know what you are thinking... "hey jerk-load, that's how great art is created, by copying the greats and using the ideas of others as a framework...." and so on. Yes. This is absolutely true but I have not been seeing a lot of framework add-ons lately... except of course, this (Drift by Carl Burton).

Could this be an effect of social media and the need to feel accepted by our cyber-peers? Maybe. Could this be the end of our civilization? Probably. Or, could it be that things have always been this way but since we are so interconnected through blogs and forums and chatrooms and instant messages and cell phones and email and the telegraph and television and radio and streaming downloads and streaming uploads and file transfers and data sharing and voicemail and the telephone and newspapers and magazines and cars and airplanes and buses and bicycles and motorboats and railways and paved roads and highways and byways and parkways and driveways and banners and flags and bags filled with rags that everyone's art is shoved into everyone else's face all of the time??? Hmmm... gives ya something to think about.

Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoy shoved art. It just messes with my inspiration in that sometimes I am truly inspired by this glut of art and sometimes I am discouraged.

I'm probably just going nuts.

Regardless of all of the above, I've recently stumbled upon a good website. Check out Motionographer.com for some real inspiration (or discouragement).