Jon made a pretty spiffy comment to my last post:
Emptiness. Fullness comes from emptiness, and moves towards emptiness. Be empty about the strict pictures/intentions you have for your art, and Isness will direct what needs to be into the space you create.
What I really like about this is leaving the specific details to work themselves out. I got to class tonight during a discussion on making art, begun by one person's comment that she gets "all bottled up" trying to do some kinds of work; she makes some really lovely loose little sculptures but was a disaster at a couple more functional pieces, today.
And I was again uninspired to make anything. Life had provided plenty of material, but none of it mattered. I'd gotten a parking ticket for no apparent reason while I'd been at work, I registered to vote, had dinner. Before class, the phone rang as I was changing into my favorite ratty jeans and my toe caught an existing hole as I hurried to pull them on, making it much larger. The call was my mother, to call my grandmother; exciting family news. And yes, it was exciting, but not...
In last night's movie, "Adaptation", Charlie Kaufmann is advised, "find the one thing you care about, and write about that." So, I suppose, find the one thing you care about, and let the art be about or around or something to that. Well, in theory, at least.
I'm not sure what I care about. It's awfully easy to let things go on around me and not be touched by them; I nearly went kayaking tonight because the weather is so lovely. Different sort of meditation. (Here I paused writing for easily ten minutes.) That's it - what I'm really interested in is experience.
Not oddly, that's what my art and architecture have been about all along. Including the nice little pieces made tonight.
10 comments:
I'm not sure what I care about, either.
This is not necessarily the easiest thing to sit and be present with when everyone else seems to be clamoring and passionate about things that, to me, seem kind of empty and nonexistent.
I've discoverd another book for you to read: Cynthia Freeland - But is it art?
Well Julie in 1956 I got a program that has consumed me as first priority ever since: I became aware of God's personal love for me.
I was so overcome with gratitude that I wanted only to express it however I could. And still am.
Other, lesser priorities came in bit by bit, another love, marriage, family, calling: lots of satisfaction and lots of frustration.
in 1983 Blake came in and is now included with those other "care abouts". As Ezekiel told him, the greatest thing is to raise other people to a perception of the Infinite.
Interesting ideas..
I think creativity is connected to starting afresh. This sort of ties in with Jon's idea about emptiness and fullness.
In interviewing a noted singer/ songwriter once I asked her this same question- where does your music come from? She said that '..knowing would be too much- that we're here to simply let it flow, to not try and discover the source but to understand we are on this plane of existence to let it flow'. I liked that answer.
Being "interested in experience" may lead one to create (although it may be the one truly difficult endeavor to pursue) "an experience" for others...in trying to communicate emotion (both form & formless) into something solid and tangible, if only for a moment in the case of performance art or 100 years, in the form of a great structure or precise angle of glass against a skyline.
I like what Rollo May had to say about being an artist (which we all are- in one form or another):
"Whatever sphere we may be in, there is a profound joy in the realization that: we are helping--to form the structure of the new world. This is creative courage, however minor or fortuitous our creations may be. We can then say, with Joyce, 'Welcome, O life! We go for the millionth time to forge in the smithy of our souls the uncreated conscience of the race.'"
As for the greatest of Intention, that which is form and formless, and which is our being.... what need is there for inspiration? "It" (and we are that, too)cannot- not be anything other than manifesting, creating as well as creation itself.
It creates-----we slap labels on it, damning the flow, wishing we were here, now.....and being here, now and not realizing.
Anyway.....it's all good. Great question.
Very nice, very nice.
There is a big difference between experience and experiencing. Experience is the past.
"The fault arises from your sense of personal expectations. Of course, you could easily say that you do not have any expectations. But the desire not to have expectations only becomes another form of expectation. So expectations are a stumbling block. We color and re-edit our experiences drastically. How do we do that? We do it with our passion, aggression, and ignorance.
Passion colors our expectations with desire. We are constantly trying to mold our expectations in terms of what we want. The rest of what we hear is completely inaudible; the rest of what we see is completely invisible. We only take in what we want to see and hear. Whatever we see or hear is constantly subject to our rejection, or our ignorance: we push it away because it is personally inapplicable, or we ignore it, we create a mental block to shut it off because it does not suit our requirements.
When you are in a passionate state, you begin to like the world, and you begin to be attracted to certain things - which is good. Obviously, such attraction also entails possessiveness and some sense of territoriality, which comes later. But straightforward, pure passion - without ice, without water, without soda - is good. It is drinkable; it is also food; you can live on it. It's quite marvelous that we have passion, that we are not made purely out of aggression. It's some kind of saving grace that we possess, which is fantastic."
- Chogyam Trungpa
Dharma Art
Andrew; thank you. I know.
Bert, thanks, I will!
Larry, I suppose that may be... what I don't understand is why so many people think there are "things" to be "done"...
Rob, I think there's something there...
Isaiah, I like the musician's answer too. And your whole response, really, thank you. "It creates-----we slap labels on it, damning the flow, wishing we were here, now.....and being here, now and not realizing."
Imemine; true!
Anonymous - Trev? Other? - Great quote; a lot to take in, good observations. Thank you.
Julie,
You might be interested in a painting experience called "Process Painting". It is a very wonderful creativity process whereby you don't need to know how to paint, and you don't even know what you're going to paint till you do it. Google "Process Painting" and see what you get. I went to a workshop by Stuart Cubley, and loved it. Check this out: http://www.processarts.com/
Best to you,
M
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