Being an artist

[Koa]

I don't know if it would have been better to just put this in any thread around here, but it's not like a random quote, it's something I've read yesterday and I've been cherishing it, so to speak, since then...

I'm reading a book by Sergey Dovlatov, and at some point he says:

Кстати, поэтому-то я и не художник. Ведь когда ты испытываешь смутные ощущения, писать рановато. А когда ты всё понял, единственное, что остается – молчать.

Which I translated (with the approval of a native Russian) as:


By the way, this is why I'm not an artist. After all when you feel vague feelings, it's too early to write. And when you have understood everything, the only thing left to do is to remain silent.

I find it so true...many times I feel that...I feel something and I want to write about it but I just miss the point...and when, IF, I find the point, well nothing comes out of it anymore... Maybe having 'understood' kinda puts inspiration at rest...at least for some people...the others are the artists, I guess.

[Virgil]

It reminds me of Leonardo DaVinci. He had a hard time finishing projects. Apparently he loved the strategizing and thinking through of the project but once he understood it thoroughly he didn't care about completion. The mental work had already been done. Some think it was Attention Deficit Disorder. Who knows?

[lavendar1]

This stuff fascinates me. Right now, I'm thinking about a favorite Yeats poem called Balloon of the Mind. It goes like this:

Hands, do what you're bid:
Bring the balloon of the mind
That bellies and drags in the wind
Into its narrow shed.

Sometimes if you can just tap into a bit of what's up there in your head and get it down into some sort of artistic expression that's even a little close to what you've imagined, it's a great feeling. There's a term that somebody (psychologists, maybe) calls flow-- it's when you get so close or involved in thinking about or doing something, that you become oblivious to anything but that experience. Often it results in the completion of some creative work, when (as Chekhov said in 'The Student') "everything [is] revealed."

[emily655321]

"By the way, this is why I'm not an artist. After all when you feel vague feelings, it's too early to write. And when you have understood everything, the only thing left to do is to remain silent."
Hmm... that's an interesting perspective he's got. But, for me, writing is how I bridge the gap between vagueness and understanding. I find that when I have a vague idea, the best way for me to come to a full understanding of it is to start writing, or to have a discussion with someone else. Ideas spring up out of the recesses of my mind when I search for words, things I never would have thought of if I hadn't tried to articulate that vague feeling. Perhaps artists are those who need to create in order to understand, and "art" is just the biproduct of their exploration.

[starrwriter]

Perhaps the trick is to write about the process of an idea going from vague to clear in your mind. That way, the reader is taken on the same mental journey the writer experienced. Artists (including writers) deal with process and change more than fixed ideas -- whether they know it or not.

"Convictions are the enemies of truth." -- Nietzsche.

[Koa]

Great insights, all of you.
I partly agree with emily's idea too, even if I haven't had that kind of revealing experience that often (at least recently...maybe if I look at the past...), I recognise what you say. Just the Dovlatov quote is closer to what my feelings towards creation have been lately. I think that all of these experiences can possibly be felt in different moments of life...possibly...




Sometimes if you can just tap into a bit of what's up there in your head and get it down into some sort of artistic expression that's even a little close to what you've imagined, it's a great feeling.

True :nod:

[hhc]

I write because I have to. If I don't write, all the stories and the ideas and the complaints and the regrets and the screams I have in my mind are going to pop out of my mouth. Writing is my way of keeping myself away from a breakdown.

But there's a slight difference between an artist and a person who writes. An artist's oxygen is his pen and paper. His DNA is programmed to make him write. The rest of us just write as an alternative to talking or crying.