My Collection of Notes and Ideas

Do you ever write notes to yourself? I find myself constantly writing down my thoughts, ideas, whims, and odd observations; often times on bits of scrap paper or whatever is on hand. In fact, this is going to sound a little crazy, but I have a few boxes full of these collected notes. I don't know what I'm going to do with them - maybe some day go through, archive the good ideas and then throw them away. I just can't make myself toss out what is possibly a great idea. I guess you could say I am an idea pack-rat.

I knew a man once who had his entire double garage full of junk that he had collected. Heating and air ductwork material, odd pieces of metal, wire, tools, books, shelves, wood, anything you can imagine almost. I mean the entire double garage full, with stuff stacked like 5 or 6 ft. high and junk in the backyard too. So at least I am not an actual junk pack rat, just one that writes a lot of notes and keeps them! That's why I like the computer, it can store all of my writings in nicely typed, spell-checked, easily organized, searchable format. You know what I need, is a portable voice recorder that could just plug into the computer and automatically type up my words.

"A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought are commonly the most valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom return." - Francis Bacon

Even on the computer though when I write down my thoughts it's not really a journal, it is still more of ideas, prose, poetry, and weird wanderings of the mind. The most journal-like that I get is writing down my dreams, the good ones that I can remember anyway. Only very seldom do I write down or refer to an event that happened or people I that I saw. I guess I am more concerned with remembering why something was important, what ideas I can pull from it, how it made me feel, or my reaction.

Maybe it is just that I am lazy and don't want to get tied down to chit-chatty details or something. My notes are like an emotional snapshot of the mind; well an emotional and analytical snapshot. I am always making these lists, in order to edit down my ideas and organize my current creative thoughts. I start out with the intention of keeping things separate but my writing usually degrades into that emotional/analytical potpourri. Which no one but my own crazy mind would actually understand if reading it, and sometimes when I come back to my notes I don't even know what I was talking about.

Writing this blog has helped me to actually take time to organize, punctuate, and put good form to my thoughts. If you go back and read the first posts (if you're super bored or something) and read the progression of my writing, it definitely has improved. Writing every day is just as important as sketching or painting everyday I have learned. And if you're not actually physically doing it, at least thinking about it, that is work too.

My notes are like my sketchbooks, informal works that I try to go back to and then turn the good entries into paintings. Except with the notes; I go back and write at least a few paragraphs on the idea I wanted to remember or research what I was thinking about. So anyways, take Francis Bacon's advice and don't forget to write down that idea that just hits you, it truly might not come back.

The Symbolist Movement of the Late 1800's

My last post included a work from French symbolist painter Odilon Redon. I would like to discuss the Symbolist movement in more detail with this post. They are a group of late 19th and early 20th century artists and poets, including Jean Moreas (who published the symbolist manifesto in 1886), Charles Baudelaire, Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt, and Paul Gauguin among many others.

Odilon Redon, Cyclops, 1904.

Originating in France, with many German influences as well, it consisted of not just artists, but poetry and other arts also. Here is a quote from Jean Moreas from the aforementioned symbolist manifesto:

"In this art, scenes from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena will not be described for their own sake; here, they are perceptible surfaces created to represent their esoteric affinities with the primordial Ideals."

- Jean Moreas, Le Manifeste du Symbolisme, Le Figaro, 1886

Symbolism was a reaction to the realist or naturalism movement that also originated in France in the mid 19th century. (Which in itself was a reaction to romanticism, the cycle never ends!) The symbolists sought to express a more ideal reality, rather than the rigid and emotionless works of the realists. One of the main influences of artists in the symbolist movement was their dreams. Let's hear from the French poet and symbolist Charles Baudelaire on this point:

"Common sense tells us that terrestrial things have but a faint existence and that reality itself is only found in dreams."

- Charles Baudelaire, Les Paradis Artificiels

I couldn't agree more with those words. If you read my last post on the fact that all matter is energy, this would imply that dreams on some level are indeed real. Yes some dreams are just because you ate pizza right before bed, but some dreams are much more than that. Some are also just a reflection of your mind, and the things it observes every day. In any case my dreams have provided me with inspiration and a re-interpretation of my own ideas in ways my conscious mind would of never done.

Jean Delville, Orpheus, 1893.

Although I don't dig all of the work by the symbolists (still too real for my taste), I dig that they made efforts to break away from expressing or rather merely recreating the physical material world, and expressing more spiritual truths and ideals. I know I have harped on this point before, about that criticism of some modern art that goes, "a five year old could paint that" or "I could do that". That kind of thinking misses the point entirely on non-objective art. The point is not a showcase of how well you can recreate life with paint and a brush, the point is to express whatever the hell I want to and if you don't like it, go look at something else! Alright I got a little excited there, but I don't create to get validation, I create to express myself, and in so doing, learn more about my self.

Discussing Wassily Kandinsky's Essay: "Concerning the Spiritual in Art"

I was reading an essay recently by that most famous of early abstract painters (at least in my book) Wassily Kandinsky, published in 1914 as: The Art of Spiritual Harmony, (translated by Michael Sadler). I was particularly struck by the second part of it entitled; "The Movement of the Triangle". It describes a diagram that is a simile for the life of the spirit. I didn't see a diagram anywhere so I thought I would make one, because I don't know about you, but I am a visual learner. Sometimes I can read something twenty times and not really get it, until I map it out for myself. Along with my diagram, I have also selected what I consider the most vital elements of Kandinsky's "The Movement of the Triangle" and presented them below: (Click above for full essay.)

"The life of the spirit may be fairly represented in diagram as a large acute-angled triangle divided horizontally into unequal parts with the narrowest segment uppermost. The lower the segment the greater it is in breadth, depth, and area.

The whole triangle is moving slowly, almost invisibly forwards and upwards. Where the apex was today the second segment is tomorrow; what today can be understood only by the apex and to the rest of the triangle is an incomprehensible gibberish, forms tomorrow the true thought and feeling of the second segment."

And then here is my diagram:

(Note: the article is in the public domain, but the diagram is © by Ed Tajchman 2008.)

Kandinsky goes on to say:

"At the apex of the top segment stands often one man, and only one. His joyful vision cloaks a vast sorrow. Even those who are nearest to him in sympathy do not understand him. Angrily they abuse him as charlatan or madman. So in his lifetime stood Beethoven, solitary and insulted."

and a paragraph later....

"In every segment of the triangle are artists. Each one of them who can see beyond the limits of his segment is a prophet to those about him, and helps the advance of the obstinate whole. But those who are blind, or those who retard the movement of the triangle for baser reasons, are fully understood by their fellows and acclaimed for their genius. The greater the segment (which is the same as saying the lower it lies in the triangle) so the greater the number who understand the words of the artist. Every segment hungers consciously or, much more often, unconsciously for their corresponding spiritual food. This food is offered by the artists, and for this food the segment immediately below will tomorrow be stretching out eager hands."

Wassily Kandinsky

You can see from diagram a. above the artists and their vision; they create spiritual growth; spiritual food as Kandinsky says for the artists on the level below them, and thus move the whole of understanding forward. You can also see in diagram b. the ones on the bottom, inhibiting the growth of knowledge and understanding.

One modern example of the latter is, (I won't name any names) but think about the work of several of those very successful commercial 'painters', (you know who I mean). The ones who create overly-cheesy, 'safe', repetitious, massively reproduced work. I too If I so desired, could paint pictures of puppy dogs and sunsets and cottages and sell them for profit.

By giving in to the temptation to create solely for money though, and not taking risks, you limit your vision and growth as an artist. And therefore impede the progress of our understanding of reality as a whole, by not fully exploring the gifts you have been given. I'm not saying success is bad of course, but I prefer risky work; ones who create out of a desire to express themselves in a new and unique way; broadening the nature of our understanding of this world.

But that's just one aspect (from my perspective) of a very broad dynamic that Kandinsky is speaking of. So, hopefully I was able to offer up a little bit of spiritual food today for you with this post. If you read this much you might as well read the whole article, (link is at the top) it is a very fascinating read.

Art and Language

One has to appreciate Marcel Duchamp, one of the forefathers of the Dada art movement of the early 20th century. That the process of creating is more important than the art, and the disregarding of traditional art methods and ideas; are some of the main ideas behind Dada. Let's look at a quote from Mr. Duchamp:

"As soon as we start putting our thoughts into words and sentences everything gets distorted, language is just no damn good--I use it because I have to, but I don't put any trust in it. We never understand each other."

-Marcel Duchamp, quoted in: Art & Physics by Leonard Shlain, p. 204

Me, personally, I like to write and have always been interested in prose, poetry, words and word play. Some things though are only expressible in visual terms, ...emotion, intuition, the subconscious, ...which is why I thank Duchamp for helping to allow artists to break away from the traditional role of merely recreating reality. These ideas that became Dada are still only beginning to become widely integrated into modern culture in my opinion.