Can I have a date?
A dictionary defines an egotist as someone with a personal agenda, as distinct from an egoist, who is simply selfish. If the disclosure of interest in his topic is confession by the journalist of motive, the implication is, that interest in one's self is the lesser sin. Whenever anyone expresses an opinion on anything it interested in something. Whence the sudden remorse? Unless, that is, it is denial of self-interest. The irony of denial is, it can't be both ways. Don't try to deny it!
I declare in all honest I am not a critic. I am an artist. Speaking, again, but unavoidably, from my own experience, the burden of concealing the fact that I once wrote critically, as a sideline, about other artists, became unbearable. It has been said of such devious egotists, such as I, that, in effect, for an artist to even look at the work of another artist is as immoral as it is for a married man to look at another man's wife. That's two broken Commandments right there by the married man. And yet, if writing is to be more than the prattle of children and the senile, it must have a point. That point is the object of desire.
About desire, a critic of literature wrote:
"The moment a man begins to write about himself, to delve in the past, to ransack the storehouse of his memory; then—if he has anything of the literary artist about him, and otherwise his book will not be worth the paper it is written on—he will take in a partner to assist him. That partner’s name is Romance."
It is a Narcissistic romance, the artist's romance with his own work, as mine is. Not a mirror-gazing vanity, but a desperation gambit to gain everything -for nothing. I'm no braggart. I am acutely aware of my shortcomings. My act is a shameless self-disclosure of ulterior motive. Look, I plead, not at me, but at my art. It is, in fact, an influence imprinted on my modus operandi by a young apprenticeship in advertising. Not, however, as an advertising copy writer, although I worked in tandem with them, but as a designer. My practical experience with writing came later, with the aforementioned reviews.
The subject at hand (my art) is the object of writing. We are all born blind. We must be led. The way to lead I find works best is by spreading rumors. Not by pointing at others, much less by the overwhelming hyperbole of mass advertising, but by hints, rather, that lead to personal satisfaction -yours and mine. I have no remorse for my admitted egotism. We are all potential egotists. It is a matter of admitting to a preference for certain things, a matter of taste, that is to say.
The graphic art of Brian Higgins can be viewed at: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/8-brian-higgins
One-of-a-kind works of art can be viewed at: https://www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/1840403