Category: Creativity

Nothing in the world is like art. Everything in a room has a use . for something. Nothing is use-free. Except art.  Art is unique in that way. I would also put art objects in that same category. We call things on the shelf knick knacks but someone designed them as art objects at some point so they are art too.

The urge to create is so great that artist make things mostly for the sheer joy of it. It is like a compulsion to make it is greater than the what are we going to do with this now reality.

I have these little chihuahua salt  shakers. They are so charming that I probably would have bought them even if they did not have salt and pepper in their heads. If they were just little things to put on the shelf.. someone made them originally, Are they any different from what I do? I was looking at them this morning. Even if they were made in a mold in Mexico, someone designed them. They speak to me. I content that they are art and they are the same as a painting. A spark is a spark.

Anything made for the sheer joy and sheer compulsion of creating something that nobody needs is art in my book.
Examine things today and think of the person who was compelled to make the first one. . Maybe the person who designed the first one owned chihuahuas and loved them so much that they had had had to make a little figurine. I don’t think art is snooty. I think art is what you must do or you will explode.

I wish I could meet the person who made my chihuahua salt and pepper shakers. I bet I would find a soul mate.

I just saw the Norman Rockwell show at the art museum. What a huge body of work to have completed in one lifetime. Not only did he spend hours and hours painting in a painstaking manner but he had all the models and set up and photographs and stories to get done too. Illustration to the tenth power.

Such skill is beyond comprehension. Yes he was a master painter but more than that is he painted a picture of America during the 30’s to the 60’s. What he looked at was just his experience put on canvas. He painted America not only in the illustrations but in his technique too. He was bold and innovative.

I heard some people say that it was too sentimental but I beg to differ. Norman Rockwell was a breathtaking original artist. Nobody was or is like him. Not ever. This is an important show to see. don’t miss it.  It is America.

I wish I could just start painting and have all these great ideas nonstop to pour out. But no I have to slog through a few bad ones first to find the good one. People way that I paint fast. Well I guess so compared to a realist painter but they have an advantage. They are painting something real. it is right there to look at. I have to invent something from no real thing to look at. I have to make it up and it has to work. Oh I may look at a photograph or some kind of image to get going but I throw it out after about 10 minutes. What I want has to paint itself without me interfering I have no idea how most of my painting let painted.
I know this when I start out. It is just a journey of trust that it will show up and do it without me. I am just gong along for the ride.
Any artist will tell you that is true. the real stuff is not done by us.
My son playing the piano like this for years, He would just start going and let it take him to where it wanted to go. Listening to him play was profoundly breathtaking. It was like being in heaven.
He did not take more than a year of lessons when he was 12. that is it. the rest just came.
all great art just comes when you get out of the way. I know people will disagree with me but that has been my experience over and over again.

What is the only inevitable thing in your life? You will die. everything else between birth and death is not inevitable.
You may think you know what will happen based on past experience, but anything could happen at any minute.

I was thinking about a woman and her child who were playing on a beach in San Francisco not very long ago. A rogue wave(they called it) came in and they were both swept out to sea. Just like that. Or think of those people just minding their business when the earthquake started shaking the ground and everything went flying and crashing down.

Well there are tons of examples of things that go wrong on any given day. But we forget about that almost immediately and have this sense of nothing bad will happen again. What it should do is make you fearless. We don’t have to worry that our plan might not work. Everything might not work. The best thing is to trust that no matter what happens you will be ok.

We all have a defined time between living and dying. I believe it is preordained. So did Stonewall Jackson. he would ride right into battle without a care. And then the ironic thing is his own men killed him thinking he was the enemy. He knew it, you know it too on some level, worrying does not add one day to your life. Make sure the afterlife is squared away and this life should be worry free. You have to meditate on this a long time to get it in your brain, but it is ultra true.

The goal is not the be-all and end-all. Every step before you attain your goal is Life.  The Chinese proverb “a journey of a thousand miles is started with a single step” – well that is what I am talking about – all the steps.  The steps are just going somewhere but where they are going is not as important as the steps themselves. That is where we thrash about and grow and live and prosper. We don’t have to despise the steps before the goal.

The goal is just another step that we have ordained.  The goal itself is really just another step.   Stepping out in living stepping up the pace. stepping out in faith. all these phrases we use. Love your steps.

I remember a story about Kirk Douglas. He had attained fame and he was looking at a little apartment that he had rented when he first came to Hollywood. He said it was more fun then when he was all dreams and no results yet.
Reaching goals is fun for about 10 seconds and then you have to make a new one so don’t idolize goals too much. they are but a vapor. disappearing in the breeze as quickly as you see it.

But the struggle.  Ah, yes.  That is the great thing.