Category: Creativity

I cannot even think of a more wonderful time than to be with people who are able to communicate what is unique about themselves. We are all unique of course, but few people are able to fully express that fact. But when you find one , you will basically have the best time of your life just talking to them. People are so concerned with what others might think of them that mostly they end up conforming to the status quo. That is why there are fashionable colors and fashionable looks. Everybody wants to fit in. To get love. I think that is the only reason.

What if you were the only person in the world and nobody but you wee going to see how you were dressed. How would you dress? If I had guts I would wear cashmere sweaters and pants and great flowing robes. You always feel fancy in great glowing robes.

What is all this talk of clothes? Well clothes are just an outward expression of in inward view of yourself. And believe it or not but if you start dressing more elaborately , you will start thinking and feeling more elaborate.

My grandmother refused to ever ever wear pants. She always had a dress on even when she was working outside.” That is what aprons are for” she would say.

When I lived in San Francisco, I got a scholarship to go to the Academe of Art. It was a total free ride.

On the first day I had a class in sculpting that I had to take but did not want to because I had no interest in sculpting. I only wanted to paint. The professor said that he could not teach us how to be artists but only show us what he knew. I thought that was honest. But I did not care what he knew and I did not care what anyone knew there . I only wanted to paint and I already was doing that without their help. Another class I had there I heard a similar thing from another professor. After two weeks of this I left art school and never went back.

This is what is true. If you are going to be an artist, it does not matter how you get there. I totally believe that some people are born artists and that is that. I also believe that some people really love to do art but they are not artists. The difference between a born artist and someone who is just in love with art is vast. A born artist can do nothing else. There are no options to them but to do their art. Other people have options but born artists do not. There is no question ever ever ever ever at any point in their lives as to what they will do.

When I was in first grade during art class I knew I was going to be a painter, even though I had never held a brush. Wen I saw paintings in museums. I knew I was going to be a painter/ I never never never have not painted.

My parents , god bless them, knew this too about me and let me paint big paintings on masonite in my bedroom when I was very young. I only cared about paint and I loved the feel of it and the smell of it. And if you can believe this I have always painted ladies.

Beng an art lover is not a lesser life, it is just different. Art does not own you when you just love it. When you are an artist , it does own you. There is nothing else you can do because you are its slave.

When young people come up to me and ask for advice, here is what I should tell them if I was honest:  If you can be something else then do it, but if you can’t, then you don’t need advice.

Yesterday I wrote about how Frank Lloyd Wright got fruit, and how sometimes I get fruit.  Stew.

That is one way and this another. I get a glimmer of an idea, and then I look at it and alter it until I like it better and so on and so on and so on. I never know what the end will be.  I do not even have an inkling of what the end product will be. Even if I do a commission to paint a portrait, I do now know what it will be at all . It may look just like them or it may feel like them.

The same works for me doing a project. Say I have to start a new business. I will try one thing and change change change till it is good. You don’t need the whole idea to start. Only a little part of a corner of a smidge of one. My idea meter is, if it makes me crazy excited thinking about it, then it must be a good idea wants to be born.

When Frank Lloyd Wright was going to design the Waterfall house he spent months and months doing nothing. He did not even put a pen to paper and draw one line.

The people that had commissioned him to do the house were fearful that he would not get it done in time.

He was thinking about it. When he was done thinking he drew the entire design in a few days.

And it was fantastic.

The white space in our lives is just as important as the busy space. We have to incubate ideas that are big and revolutionary. These ideas come when we wait on them with expectation .

If you haven’t written that book yet you are always thinking about. It might not be laziness. It might be timing. Maybe you have to know one more thing before you can begin. Six months is enough time for any idea. Not six years or six decades that is too long.

I am soaking right now on a project. I am realizing that I must respect this important part of the process.

I have a muse. It is my small dog. Gertrude Stein had a little dog and she called him her muse. Why?? just because it is the little things that get us going. A sweet smile, a look of belief, patience with you. unconditional love. Yes you get all these in a dog and a tiny one is even better as you can put them in your pocket and take them with you. A buddy and pal and something to get your mind off yourself for ten minutes and look at the sweet eyes and realize you are not the only one alive. I like how they depend on you too. It s all good. I haven’t written for a long time because I got this dog and he is a sweet baboo. I am in love