From: machanicm@gtephx.UUCP (Mindy Machanic)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.fine
Subject: Re: Art thoughts
Keywords: creativity inspiration
Date: 18 Aug 92 21:06:42 GMT
Organization: AG Communication Systems, Phoenix, Arizona

In article <6029@lhdsy1.lahabra.chevron.com>, rcj@lhdsy1.lahabra.chevron.com (R.C. Jones) writes:
> 
> 
>    I would like to offer some thoughts in the hope of balancing
>    the current obsession with censorship. As a sculptor, I am
>    drawn to the ideas of the following passage.
>  

Thank you for this diversion!  :-)

> 
>          Philosophical Observations Regarding Art
> 
> 
>   Ordinarily it is difficult and, for most persons, impossible, to
> escape from the world of desires and wants, the world which gives
> rise to our willing and which can never be satisfied. Our wants
> are without satiation; thus, suffering, frustration, and a sense
> of deficiency are ever present to us. But if by some external
> cause or inner disposition we are raised above the cares of the
> daily world, our knowledge is freed from the directives of will
> and the temporal aspects of events, and we can achieve that
> transcendent state of peace, the painless state that separates
> the world of forms from that of suffering. This is the state of
> pure contemplation that the great greek philosophers spoke of.
> 
>   The artist who has attained this state and then represents it
> to us in his works allows us to escape the vicissitudes of life
> and to contemplate the world of forms free from the machinations
> of the will. His work of art is a means by which we can attain
> his heights. Nature, too, in certain circumstances, can present
> us with her objects in such a way that we transcend the world
> about us and enter the realm of forms. But the slightest wavering
> of attention on our part once more returns us to the world of
> phenomena; we leave contemplation for desire.
> 
>         Arthur Schopenhauer
> 
>         The World as Will and Idea.
> 
> 
>    How does one enhance the ability to achieve these fleeting
> moments which seem to bring the substance of creativity into
> our grasp?
> 
> --                              

When one is really into creating one's art, the state follows. It is 
creation as meditation. When I had access to a darkroom, I used to go
in there and 6 hours later discover it was 6 hours later and not just
an hour or so. When I really get into drawing, the same thing happens.
It is focused concentration: concentrate on the materials, on the
feelings you have when you are working, on the image you are producing,
and then the state of contemplation follows naturally. When you think
instead about things like producing a great image for your next show,
or how much you can sell this work for when it's finished, then the
work will be as superficial as the mental state it was created in. When
in contemplative mode, even if a work isn't technically great, its
content will have definite depth.



-- 
Mindy
*****************************************************************************************
Mindy Machanic  (AG Communication Systems/Quality Engineering, Phoenix, AZ)               
(This space available for interesting messages and the usual disclaimers...)