End of Line (Detail) • Takashi Murakami

I went to The Broad for the first time last week. It was my first chance to see Takashi Murakami’s work and I was really struck by how great it is in person. As a creator, it kind of pissed me off how perfect the work is, so I went home to do a ton of research on his technique. At some point I came across this old 2009 quote from a Guardian interview:

One of the visual qualities we look for in the work of the artists we employ at Kaikai Kiki is “madness”. Gauguin, Van Gogh, Duchamp, Warhol – they all possessed an imagination that exuded madness. I myself have trained everyday in an effort to get close to this madness, and the training itself probably looks like a form of insanity.

– Takashi Murakami

“I myself have trained everyday in an effort to get close to this madness” is probably the most badass quote I’ve ever read.

I think madness is the main reason I had to become an artist. The more mad I become, the more I find it necessary to channel that insanity into something of value, and artistic vision is really the only positive area of value that increases proportionally with madness. 🙂

I guess this title was misleading though, because I’m not going to teach you how to train your madness. That’s for you to figure out. All I know is, I’m right there with Takashi, working every day to uncover more and more of my own madness…