Mastering the Myndsye

I turned on PBS this morning and was pleased to see something I haven't seen in years.  Bob Ross was doing his amazing work and it got me thinking about art in general.  I don't mean specifically painting.  I mean any creative form.  If I could see what went on in Bob's head I would probably have a much better understanding of what creation really is.  For now, I will just speculate based on my observations of his craft.

There are so many things that Mr. Ross was a master of and utilized in his work.  He had a basic vision.  He was also able to improvise on that vision.  He understood his craft and the tools he used.  He also understood the subject of his creation.  There are specific ingredients required for any creation.  Knowing these ingredients also allows us to better understand ourselves and the world around us.  Let me explain how this plays into any form of creative art.

Basic Vision
Having a mental picture to start off with is the basis of any creation.  This mental vision is actually the First Creation.  In song writing, the creator has some sort of subject in mind.  There are emotions involved, a basic story about a person or event, and usually there is a target audience.  Audience isn't always required but the creator will usually not be satisfied with just creating for their own pleasure.  The creator will often want to eventually share their creation with others.  Having the basic vision in raw form means that the creation has the potential of being so much more than what the creator could have ever imagined.  This basic vision has the ability of taking on life outside of the creator.  In a sense, the creator is really just a tool for birth.  There is something much more mysterious taking place than just a person with tools and blank media.

Bob started with a blank canvas, but he knew he was going to paint a scene of an overcast beach.  He knew there would be water, sand and clouds.  Short of that, I imagine he didn't have much of a set plan in mind.  His First Creation was always very minimal, allowing an opportunity for surprise, even for him.

Improvisation
The creator takes this raw First Creation and starts "going with the flow".  Whatever happens, happens, and the creator adjusts their mental picture through the entire process of creation.  An artist that is working with wood carving may find a knot that he didn't expect and then decides to utilize that knot to add more character to his work.  A musician may accidentally play a chord they didn't mean to but then realize that it brings forth new thoughts about the song being written and decides to implement that "accident".

The episode of The Joy of Painting that I watched, Bob Ross was painting an ocean-front scene with waves pouring onto a beach.  Toward the end of the show, he decided rather flippantly to add some rocks.  It was clear he didn't initially intend for rocks to be there, but the way a particular wave was created, he felt there was a perfect opportunity to place some large boulders in the water.

When you are creating, start with a plan of sorts, but be prepared to deviate ever so slightly.  You may find that what you create is light years beyond what you could have ever imagined.

Understand the Tools
To be fully effective, a creator must understand not only how to use the tools of a particular craft, but also understand that those tools can be used in new ways.  Watching Bob Ross, he displayed such mastery in his tools.  He knew how to take a dark background and lay color on it just right so that a specific effect was induced.  He knew how to drag colors across the canvas with specific brushes and knives.  Wetting and drying his brushes, just so, would allow certain textures to be created.

As a guitarist, I have an understanding of musical notes, tempo, hammer-ons, pull-offs, strumming and picking patterns, and various other tools.  Combining these tools requires understanding and practice.  A person doesn't simply pick up an instrument without some sort of understanding of music and technique.  A writer must know the language they are writing in, and understand how words fit together.  A chef understands the chemistry as well as the artistry of food preparation.

Whatever the media is that you use to create with, know the tools of the craft.  Continually learn how to use them.  Realize that there is always something new to learn and implement. The more you understand your tools, the more alive your creation will be.

Understand the Subject
This is the one thing that really amazed me while watching Bob's creation come to life.  He understood the form of nature.  He knew how wind interacted with trees, water, and birds.  He was a student of light play upon objects, and how material objects affect each other.  He saw much deeper than just the surface of a wave, or the way a cloud billowed.  He understood what made them look the way they did.  Armed with this knowledge, he was able to give full emotion to his art.

Even an abstract artist must have an understanding of the subject they are emulating.  There might be the use of numbers in an artist's painting, such as any art that is based on a Fibonacci sequence.  Sculpting the human form requires understanding the human anatomy and movement.  To write a love song, a lyricist must have experienced love.

Knowing the subject of your creation not only allows you to connect with it, but it allows the people who experience your creation to connect with the subject too.

I love being an artist, a creator.  There is something magical that I take part in every time I give birth to a creation.  The act of creating is more than just putting things together.  It is a craft that requires a certain amount of education and development.  It is a thing of beauty that is more than just accidental, although "accidents" can play a valuable role in creating.

The next time you listen to a song, or view a piece of art, I invite you to imagine what was going through the mind of the creator.  It may teach you something more about yourself.

Missing Pieces

It's late and this is the time of day when my mind usually seems to spin in overdrive so forgive me for the seemingly randomness of parts of this post.  Somehow they connect in my own mind.

My mind seems to be more so in overdrive tonight with the recent news that one of histories most notorious terrorists has come to the end of his life.  Is this the end of a chapter for America?  Is it the beginning of another?  What is in store for us tomorrow?

I don't really know if this news is cause for us to breathe a collective sigh of relief, or to be all the more watchful.

With reflection on the past ten years, I not only think about what our country has gone through, but I also think about the things I have gone through.  There have been several different chapters in my life that seem to conflict with each other.  Decisions that I have made run opposite to who I really am.  I am a good person, but have made some horrible choices.  At this moment, I feel like a man who is incomplete.  It is as if I am a puzzle with missing pieces.  Maybe I am a collection of puzzles and I have been going through the futile act of trying to put them all together at once.

I know this probably doesn't make sense to anyone reading this.  It hardly makes sense to me.  It just feels like at some point everything should make sense, and try as hard as I might, things just get crazier.

Have you ever had moments where you walk down the street or through the grocery store and you just look at faces?  Has it ever felt that the faces are extremely surreal...like you realize they have a perception of the world that is completely different of your own perception?  I think this is part of empathy, putting yourself in someone else's shoes.  It's an exercise I perform pretty often lately.  I hear their conversations and I try to imagine what is really going on in their minds.  If they looked at me, how would they perceive who I am?

This past week I have felt on a couple of occasions that I might be living someone's screen play.  On one hand, most screen plays follow a pretty standard format.  The protagonist starts at "Point A", and in the process of getting to "Point B" they experience different struggles.  There is growth in that journey.  We as the audience can see that journey, that growth, but the protagonist has no awareness of their progression.  At the end of the story all the pieces have come together and everything makes perfect sense, why we have seen all the elements of the story.  On the other hand, a good screen play is not so transparent.  Why can't I put together all the elements of my own story?  The faces I see in the grocery store are connected to my own life, yet they are so strange.  (Cue a famous Doors song)

I live in a world that I don't feel is really my own.  I feel out of synch.  None of my friends are the same ones I had three years ago.  My family is so nebulous that they begin to seem like strangers.  I am unemployed, yet I have all these skills and talents and by all rights I should be extremely employable.  But my life took a major turn, the economy turned south, I have experienced things that have forever changed me, and I simply feel like a stranger in my own flesh.

Like I said, it's late at night and my mind is in overdrive.  So many thoughts and like the pieces of my life, I can't put them together.  There is a picture there somewhere, but for now it evades me.