People have been posting about things they are thankful for this month.
I've agreed with many of them, liked many of them.
I'm adding – I'm thankful for Pablo Picasso, whose words made me think hard all month long. I've learned some things that I wouldn't have without his words... most of them about myself.
Showing posts with label Picasso. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Picasso. Show all posts
30 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 30
Absolutely true... if it doesn't stir something deep inside of you, it isn't art (for you)...
We learn what we should like and we play that game, often very well. Then – if we're really lucky – we rebel and learn to like the subversive things.
And that is growth – or at least, the potential for growth
Why Pablo Picasso
"All art is erotic."And what stirs us changes as we change – evolves as we grow in knowledge (and self-knowledge...)
~ Pablo Picasso
We learn what we should like and we play that game, often very well. Then – if we're really lucky – we rebel and learn to like the subversive things.
And that is growth – or at least, the potential for growth
Why Pablo Picasso
29 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 29
I understand this obsession.
Doing some art doesn't mean working in the studio everyday – it can also be thinking about art (in a rigorous and productive way, not just day-dreaming) or talking about art with others or reading about / listening to / looking at art.
Why Pablo Picasso
"We artists are indestructible; even in a prison, or in a concentration camp, I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell."If I don't so some art daily I feel bereft and empty and no wee bit lost.
~ Pablo Picasso
Doing some art doesn't mean working in the studio everyday – it can also be thinking about art (in a rigorous and productive way, not just day-dreaming) or talking about art with others or reading about / listening to / looking at art.
Why Pablo Picasso
28 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 28
This one is funny.
It might also apply to art professors and art students too.
Why Pablo Picasso
"When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine."And probably pretty observant. I don't paint with oils, so I don't know about turpentine... but I do talk about where to get the best mosaic materials...
~ Pablo Picasso
It might also apply to art professors and art students too.
Why Pablo Picasso
27 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 27
This one is for Verdiano.
Why Pablo Picasso
"Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things."I am looking forward to the next workshop – I want to see where the next stepping stones take me.
~ Pablo Picasso
Why Pablo Picasso
26 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 26
One of the values of academic or other exacting training is that it gives you a great understanding of what you should do.
I'm not saying that by following the rules you cannot make amazing art... I'm saying that when you mindfully ignore what you've been taught – knowing full well that there are consequences – unpredictable things happen. And out of those unpredictable things, out of that experimentation, comes the new things that would never have happened if we were just plodding along doing the things we (and others) had done before.
Why Pablo Picasso
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.And once you've learned the rules really well you can break them, not with impunity because breaking them is still loaded with lots of risk even for those who know intimately how the rules go, but with a purposeful abandon.
~ Pablo Picasso
I'm not saying that by following the rules you cannot make amazing art... I'm saying that when you mindfully ignore what you've been taught – knowing full well that there are consequences – unpredictable things happen. And out of those unpredictable things, out of that experimentation, comes the new things that would never have happened if we were just plodding along doing the things we (and others) had done before.
Why Pablo Picasso
25 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 25
Late. Sorry. Was on the road and too busy with family to post. That's okay. Family is important.
Why do we have the uncomfortable urge to create?
As a kid I made contraptions (probably would now be called found object art or mixed media art) – three-dimensional constructions that sometimes spanned rooms (yes, plural – rooms) in our house. I built things outdoors (mostly in the trees). I mixed concoctions out of everything in the kitchen.
As an adult I still make things. And it's only been in the darkness of depression that I didn't make things.
So I'll keep making things. It makes me happy.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
Why do we have the uncomfortable urge to create?
Painting is stronger than me, it makes me do it's bidding.I'm not very good at just being... I have to make. It's not too Zen (whatever that is), I know. But it is what it is and I am what I am. Driven. To. Make.
~ Pablo Picasso
As a kid I made contraptions (probably would now be called found object art or mixed media art) – three-dimensional constructions that sometimes spanned rooms (yes, plural – rooms) in our house. I built things outdoors (mostly in the trees). I mixed concoctions out of everything in the kitchen.
As an adult I still make things. And it's only been in the darkness of depression that I didn't make things.
So I'll keep making things. It makes me happy.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
24 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 24
Do we find truth in art... perhaps.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth, at least the truth that is given to us to understand.I think we must be willing to sacrifice many of our preconceived notions before we can learn anything from art or beauty or love. Perhaps that is what Pablo meant by "the truth that is given to us to understand..."
~ Pablo Picasso
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
23 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 23
The urge to come across as knowing a lot only gets greater as more and more information is at our fingertips... never mind the fact that we are so ill-equipped to discern fact from fiction.
I've recently learned that there is a great deal of freedom in being able to say " I have no fucking idea..."
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
You mustn't always believe what I say. Questions tempt you to tell lies, particularly when there is no answer.Why is it that "I don't know" is so hard to say? We really don't like it when the question has no answer... or when any answer is as good as any other answer. We don't like ambiguity or uncertainty...
~ Pablo Picasso
I've recently learned that there is a great deal of freedom in being able to say " I have no fucking idea..."
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
22 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 22
A recurring theme for Pablo:
Maybe they are more than just skills – maybe they are paths to joy.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else.Staying flexible and being open to whatever happens are important skills. I think more than anything these are what helps me keep my balance and my optimism. It's when I get all tied up in a particular outcome (my own or someone else's) that I find myself anxious and miserable.
~ Pablo Picasso
Maybe they are more than just skills – maybe they are paths to joy.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
21 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 21
It's the subtleties in our lives that speak to our inner being.
I need to work harder on noticing the not-so-obvious things in the world around me.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.A life lived only aware of things easily noticed is a pretty mundane existence, a life easily controlled by the agendas of others.
~ Pablo Picasso
I need to work harder on noticing the not-so-obvious things in the world around me.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
20 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 20
So is Pablo being defeatist? Or is he talking about something else entirely.
Think of the smells and sounds that come to us on the wind.
Doesn't it make you want to head out on an adventure?
Doesn't it make you long to do new things?
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
The older you get the stronger the wind gets - and it's always in your face.Think about standing at the edge of the water with the wind coming to you from afar.
~ Pablo Picasso
Think of the smells and sounds that come to us on the wind.
Doesn't it make you want to head out on an adventure?
Doesn't it make you long to do new things?
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
19 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 19
The first part of this quote seems obvious, the second... not so obvious...
Learning how to minimize the effects of mastery without affecting the quality of the work we do is the real challenge. How to make the amazingly difficult, complicated things easy and simple – to clarify the method and the results – that is the step beyond mastery. Mastery can sometimes be achieved reasonably quickly... to go beyond that is a life's work.
The second part of the quote is telling me that when technique is glorified above the rest of the components of the work the results are often not what we would hope. Sometimes the purposely technically perfect ends up being sterile or contrived or trite or even merely consumer goods (think Thomas Kincade... a man whose mastery is obvious and whose work is pretty much meaningless, emotional drivel...).
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
The more technique you have, the less you have to worry about it. The more technique there is, the less there is.It seems obvious that once you have mastered your technique – and know you've mastered it – it doesn't get in the way as much as it does when you are still learning. But I think there's more to what he's saying than the obvious. I think this goes back to an earlier quote that I posted... when you've mastered the technique for your art you can take shortcuts or even ignore/break the rules and dependably come up with some spectacular work. It sometimes happens when you're still learning, but it's usually a happy accident at that stage.
~ Pablo Picasso
Learning how to minimize the effects of mastery without affecting the quality of the work we do is the real challenge. How to make the amazingly difficult, complicated things easy and simple – to clarify the method and the results – that is the step beyond mastery. Mastery can sometimes be achieved reasonably quickly... to go beyond that is a life's work.
The second part of the quote is telling me that when technique is glorified above the rest of the components of the work the results are often not what we would hope. Sometimes the purposely technically perfect ends up being sterile or contrived or trite or even merely consumer goods (think Thomas Kincade... a man whose mastery is obvious and whose work is pretty much meaningless, emotional drivel...).
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
18 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 18
This is absolutely the way I work.
You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.
~ Pablo Picasso
I make sketches and plans. I set out specific stone and glass. I test how things are going to fit together.
But all that changes once the mortar is on the board...
17 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 17
I'm probably taking this one too literally when I tell myself I must be contributing to my art practice everyday.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.Perhaps instead Pablo meant that we should be expressing our thoughts and feelings in our art – documenting our experiences in our art, our pain and joy and what we see and what we think.
~ Pablo Picasso
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
16 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 16
A little less scary than the quote from a few days ago, but I don't know which is worse - being artistically sterile, or being artistically pathetic.
Both are hard to think about, and maybe equally bad if you exist primarily to make art. And some of us do exist primarily to make art. I'm not sure that I do, but when I'm in the studio it feels – briefly, fleetingly – like my purpose it to communicate with ideas made manifest in art.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.
~ Pablo Picasso
Both are hard to think about, and maybe equally bad if you exist primarily to make art. And some of us do exist primarily to make art. I'm not sure that I do, but when I'm in the studio it feels – briefly, fleetingly – like my purpose it to communicate with ideas made manifest in art.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
15 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 15
I probably don't ask "Why not?" enough.
But I think I make up for it by almost always asking "What if...?"
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.
~ Pablo Picasso
But I think I make up for it by almost always asking "What if...?"
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
14 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 14
Say it ain't so, Pablo... say it ain't so.
But other days I know that computers are more than just useless answer machines. I know that they are tools for the great wondrous things that people do and say. And far too often, tools for the horrid, wretched things that people do and say.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.I work with computers almost every day... I have a love/hate relationship with every single computer I know. Some days I might agree with Pablo.
~ Pablo Picasso
But other days I know that computers are more than just useless answer machines. I know that they are tools for the great wondrous things that people do and say. And far too often, tools for the horrid, wretched things that people do and say.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
13 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 13
Scary. Very scary.
I can see it though. It's the story of the writer who has a best seller and then all their subsequent books are the same book with different details. It's the sequels and prequels to blockbuster movies...
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility.
~ Pablo Picasso
I can see it though. It's the story of the writer who has a best seller and then all their subsequent books are the same book with different details. It's the sequels and prequels to blockbuster movies...
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
12 November 2012
Pablo Picasso Month - Day 12
Abstract art often confuses people.
I don't like all the art I see. No one does. We all have our preferences. I do try to figure out why. Sometimes it's as simple as the lack of skill, or a theme or color scheme that puts me off. Sometimes it's much more subtle. I'm sure it's the same for you.
The important thing to remember is that art is supposed to generate ideas and feelings. It's supposed to make you think about something or feel something. And it should be more than "that's pretty" or "that's horrible."
So many people struggle with how to react to (or interact with) abstract art. We don't know where to look. We don't know what we're seeing. And facing the unknown we become uncomfortable and make the assumption that we really don't like abstract art. I think it's important to take a step back when we find ourselves making those assumptions. It's easy to like art (or explain why we don't like it) when the artwork depicts what we think we recognize (however I would caution against making that assumption too). What we really need is a way to approach abstract art that allows us to experience it without prejudice.
I've heard a lot of ways to approach art – both from the consecrated academic establishment and from others not so lofty... ways that are good and valid and valuable. When you are new to art school or art circles you get told how to do things – by everyone. However, I think each person has to come up with their own way to experience art (and only those who really want to will).
My approach to experiencing art is a bit like what C.S. Lewis recommended (or was it Tolstoy? I can't remember). The most important thing is to really take the time with a piece of art. I don't make way through the gallery/museum/exhibit quickly. Well, I try not to. This means that I often don't get to see all the art that's available – and that's okay. When I know that I've only got a short time I will sometimes do a quick scan and pick out the art that I feel drawn to ( I might love it or I might hate it).
When I'm in front of the artwork, taking my time with it, I try to find the story it is telling me. I look for recognizable imagery or imagery that I can associate meaning to. I make a story about it in my head. I really do try to keep it inside my own head and not tell others the stories – I don't want to annoy them and most people already think I'm a bit odd... and even more importantly – I might derail their efforts to create their own story with the art. Then I try to put myself in the story. After I've spent some time with it I will turn away from it (maybe even visit with another piece of art) and then I'll return to it and see if I see anything new.
I had this conversation last week with someone who thought abstract art was pretty useless... I think he left my office with a new appreciation for his ability to appreciate abstract art... maybe.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
~ Pablo Picasso
I don't like all the art I see. No one does. We all have our preferences. I do try to figure out why. Sometimes it's as simple as the lack of skill, or a theme or color scheme that puts me off. Sometimes it's much more subtle. I'm sure it's the same for you.
The important thing to remember is that art is supposed to generate ideas and feelings. It's supposed to make you think about something or feel something. And it should be more than "that's pretty" or "that's horrible."
So many people struggle with how to react to (or interact with) abstract art. We don't know where to look. We don't know what we're seeing. And facing the unknown we become uncomfortable and make the assumption that we really don't like abstract art. I think it's important to take a step back when we find ourselves making those assumptions. It's easy to like art (or explain why we don't like it) when the artwork depicts what we think we recognize (however I would caution against making that assumption too). What we really need is a way to approach abstract art that allows us to experience it without prejudice.
I've heard a lot of ways to approach art – both from the consecrated academic establishment and from others not so lofty... ways that are good and valid and valuable. When you are new to art school or art circles you get told how to do things – by everyone. However, I think each person has to come up with their own way to experience art (and only those who really want to will).
My approach to experiencing art is a bit like what C.S. Lewis recommended (or was it Tolstoy? I can't remember). The most important thing is to really take the time with a piece of art. I don't make way through the gallery/museum/exhibit quickly. Well, I try not to. This means that I often don't get to see all the art that's available – and that's okay. When I know that I've only got a short time I will sometimes do a quick scan and pick out the art that I feel drawn to ( I might love it or I might hate it).
When I'm in front of the artwork, taking my time with it, I try to find the story it is telling me. I look for recognizable imagery or imagery that I can associate meaning to. I make a story about it in my head. I really do try to keep it inside my own head and not tell others the stories – I don't want to annoy them and most people already think I'm a bit odd... and even more importantly – I might derail their efforts to create their own story with the art. Then I try to put myself in the story. After I've spent some time with it I will turn away from it (maybe even visit with another piece of art) and then I'll return to it and see if I see anything new.
I had this conversation last week with someone who thought abstract art was pretty useless... I think he left my office with a new appreciation for his ability to appreciate abstract art... maybe.
Why Pablo Picasso Month?
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