“Those who want to imitate anything produce nothing.” – Salvador Dali
This is true.
When I taught drawing I had to break my students of the idea that their big triumph was going to be when they could ‘recreate’ something they saw. I would explain that they are putting marks on a piece of paper, that’s all. They are not making a new vase, or a new naked person. They are putting marks on a piece of paper. Their triumph would come when they could make those marks be visually, and perhaps emotionally, exciting to someone. They were not going to achieve that if, as they were working, they were under the illusion that they were trying to imitate something. The harder they tried to imitate, the uglier their drawing ended up being, and the more ‘nothing’ it was.
BUT, it isn’t just wholesale imitation one has to look out for as a creative person. It is easy to see when something has been stolen lock, stock and barrel. But it is the small, partial, creeping imitation in the parts of original creations one more often has to be vigilant about watching out for.
Falling back on the illusion that ‘something seems so comfortable about this, it just fits’ and not looking deeper and realizing that comfort is really just you having seen it on HGTV, or at Target. Watch out for fooling yourself that you are original when you are merely rearranging something that has been around for years.
Imitation out of laziness or ease. Imitation out of fear. Imitation out of unbelief in your ideas. Those are the death knells of the ecstasy of originality.
Imitation equals just what Dali say it does…nothing.
“If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the blinds.” – Tom Peters
I am amazed when I look back at my professional life as an artist and realize how many times the opportunity window appeared and I pulled down the blinds. I didn’t think I was doing that. I actually thought I was opening the window and making my way through it. I know that many other people who were watching me from a distance thought I was doing the same thing as well. But in truth I fooled myself into thinking that opening the window a crack was opening it all the way.
Actually here is a better way to think of it. Opportunity is not one window appearing, it is a series of windows, one after another, that appear. Butou have to get through the first one to see the next one. And you may not see the next one if you are so impressed with yourself that you got through the first one. I think sometimes that is what I did. I thought, ‘Wow, I just got some publicity.’ Or ‘Hey, I got a piece in a show.’ and then left it at that. What I didn’t do was continue to look for the next window with the same purpose that directed me to the first one.
I have some regrets about that, wishing I had been more diligent, wondering what would have happened if I had been. But after that tinge of regret I move on, happy about learning what I have learned and grateful to know I always have more windows in front of me.
“The soul is dyed with the color of its leisure thoughts.” – Dean Inge
We aren’t talking about leisure as in recreation. We are talking about those thoughts that don’t have a specific purpose. They aren’t about getting dinner ready or talking to the boss or planning the wedding or funeral. They are about the thoughts that happen in between. The non-directed thoughts. What are your thoughts at those moments?
Some examples:
When you meander over the arch of your life, do you think about how you have been cheated or unfairly treated? Or do you look at the blessings, the unfairnesses that bent in your favor?
When you realize you have to go to the store at the last minute, do you think about how you have an opportunity to show encouragement or kindness to someone you haven’t even met (a bagger, a person who can’t reach a top shelf) or do you only think about the hassle of it all?
When you are fretting about your future, do you pity yourself and think how helpless you are? Are your thoughts based on fear? Or are they about what new, exciting things that may come to you, EVEN if it includes downsizing, moving, selling, changing, sacrificing. Are you thinking that even what you suffer might be of crucial importance for you?
Now, obviously, none of us spend our thought life thinking only the pollyanna-esque, ‘ain’t life grand even if I live in a dump’ type thoughts, and we shouldn’t. But we should evaluate what part of our thought life we feed and what part we starve. Are we LOOKING at EVERYTHING that happens, are we thinking about the ENTIRETY of it, or mostly the negative.
If you aren’t thinking about all of it, then you are using a limited palette in dying your soul. You are using the mud colors, the dirt colors, the garbage colors, instead of ALL the colors.
Whether your soul is dyed, influenced, infused, tainted, painted or gilded, what you think becomes who you are.
“Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who can’t attain it in anything.” – Eugene Delacroix
So, it’s another dichotomy. Seeking perfection all the time assures you that you won’t find it. So if you truly are a thinking perfectionist your strategy would have to be to not seek it all the time, but be aware of it when it happens.
I have found perfectionism in young people has to do with perceived external rules and pressures while that same phenom in older people has an internal rule or standard that guides them. While I think their is some sort of progress there, I also think that either way, the perfectionist is so constantly living with disappointment and frustration that no moment of perfection would be able to compensate anyway.
“When a person dies the clutch in their hands only that which they have given away during their lifetime.” Jean Rousseau
This dichotomy is seen in so many areas of life, love, wealth, that is almost seems a universal truth that the opposite of what you expect is going to be true.
I think that is why wisdom that you find among well-known spiritual leaders such as Jesus often seems at first to be in such opposition to common sense.
Turn the other cheek, The meek shall inherit the earth, one must be like a child to enter the kingdom…all these and more speak to the idea that what you would logically think is the way to go is actually the thing that is stopping you from progressing.
“I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.” – Wilson Mizner
If you don’t doubt you have no reason to explore for answers. If you don’t explore what’s the chance of you getting educated about something?
The other side to it, the more joyful side, is curiosity. Curiosity is not associated negatively with anything, it is just a state of mind that says you are interested in the world and finding out more about it. Of course those who aren’t curious usually think they have everything already figured out, which is often how people of faith can behave as well.
“When a person does not have a good reason to do something, he does have a good reason for not.” – Anonymous
I don’t know if I agree with this. It seems a little to ‘protestant work ethic’ oriented. You have to always have a known reason beforehand for doing something. You need to redeem your time, your money, your efforts for the greater good, or for business, or for your family, your home, something. You can’t just do something.
Is this true for you? If so, do you end up with what you want or does it still escape you?
If it is not true for you, what about it do you think actually would be a good thing for you to put into practice?
“Wherever They Burn Books, The Will Also, In The End, Burn People.” – Heinrich Heine
The act of burning a book is a desperate attempt to obliterate an idea.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of bad ideas out there that I would love to see done away with. Racism, homophobia, sexism, slavery, and thousands more. But the answer to the question of how to get rid of an idea is to combat it with reason, with arguments, with social force, with civil disobedience, with love. NOT by burning a book containing the idea.
This, of course, doesn’t even address the issue that in most cases book burners are not fighting the things I mentioned above. What they are usually fighting is a religion they don’t like, or a take on that religion (see Salmon Rushdie). Sometimes they are fighting a cultural issue (see Dixie Chicks, Beatles), or maybe a political philosophy (see Marx, Paine, Gandhi,) But in every case it is fear that drives them. Not fear based on knowledge and reason, but fear based on mob mentality and ignorance.
I am talking metaphorically now…Don’t burn a book today (or ever). Don’t burn a person or an idea either. Fight for what is right instead.
