One.
To create from nothing. The most difficult thing; the most dangerous. Simultaneous glorification and absolution of the self. This self that can create; this self that ceases to exist in the face of the thing created.
Show me an idea that I may touch it.
The ownership of the palm of the hand. Since speaking, man has said mine, mine, mine--the province of sweat and toil, of thought process and involvement, of claim-staking, of ownership, of owning, of one's own. the province of the one who dares seek it first.
What is the boundary of an idea? Where does it exist? Where doesn't it? When does it become one's own?: The moment it germinates.
O, seed; o, growth! O, fertile soil and the action of tilling. The intimately personal joy of the harvest.
Two.
The qualitative element over the quantitative.
Ars Poetica
like pulling teeth
like giving birth
like the pressure in the lungs from holding breath underwater.
like orgasm--a little death, the focus on one small center of the body, intensely personal, distorting, brief euphoria, only ever brief
like none of these things
a battle for the most accurate
the place in the world where the ideal of a thing lies; carving out layers and layers to get closer to the ideal, to the thing itself, the purest form
false journey towards revelation
said, unsaid, re-said
glimmer of hope of possibility of newness--maybe not a new idea, but a new perspective
unfamiliarizing to recreate
ground up; sideways; a lens convex, concave, flat, magnifying; different ways of seeing
not to lie
What is a road but an indirect method of achieving x?
Are there true straight lines in the world?
Places where there is truth in art:
the idea before articulated
color unsullied
not the language of emotion--emotion ephemeral, truth maintaining
accuracy, exactness, fact
the word representing the thing is not the thing itself but instead stands in for the thing but lies if it represents that the thing is other than it is
blessing in disguise
stagnation--stagnant--stagnation
a means of re-stimulation
means and ends, means or ends
ends
ends
ends
beginnings
Three.
The belief in inspiration:
Ascribes no power to your own mind. What is inspiration? Can you touch it? Is it atomic? A broken synapse? External? Like a cartoon bolt of lightning striking the "create" center of the brain? Onto the page/canvas/tape/&c. by osmosis from random particles in the air, fingers as a malleable catalyst?
The existence of a watch presupposes the existence of a watchmaker. He is not "inspired" to his craft, coming to its knowledge with the suddenness and force of a sneeze. He is patient, diligent; he fails, disassembles and begins again. He improves his dexterity wielding tiny screwdrivers, screws, to reach into the smallest spaces and connect them. He is patient; he creates many poor timepieces. He relies on habituation; he relies on skills acquired through repetition; his watches tell accurate time; he is patient.
The man who guards time and its measure relies on his mind, his knowledge, his memory. Why should we, as artists, require anything less of ourselves? Why undercut the powers of our own minds?
It is worrisome, to rely so heavily on oneself alone. It is fearsome; it is frightening; it is exciting. It is strength, or truth, unlooked for.
