“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.” - Rene Magritte

The process of learning an art can be divided conveniently into two parts: one, the mastery of the theory the other, the mastery of the practice.  If I want to learn the art of medicine, I must first know the facts about the human body, and about various diseases.  When I have all this theoretical knowledge, I am by no means competent in the art of medicine.  I shall become a master in this art only after a great deal of practice, until eventually the results of my theoretical knowledge and the results of my practice are blended into one - my intuition, the essence of the mastery of any art.  but, aside from learning the theory and practice, there is a third factor necessary to becoming a master in any art - the mastery of the art must be a matter of ultimate concern; there must be nothing else in the world more important that the art. 

This holds true for music, for medicine, for carpentry - and for love. And, maybe, here lies the answer to the question of why people in our culture try so rarely to learn this art, in spite of their obvious failures: in spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power - almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn of art loving.             - Erich Fromm

"There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun."    - Pablo Picasso

It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one's memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory. 

"Faith in authorship matters. We read the qualities of a work as the forthright decisions of a particular mind, wanting to let it commandeer our own minds, and we are disappointed when it doesn’t. If we are disappointed enough, when the named artist is familiar, we get suspicious. But we can never be certain in every case that someone—a veiled mind—isn’t playing us for suckers. Art lovers are people who brave that possible chagrin."

- Peter Schjeldahl

Friedman: Why "How" Matters

Tom Friedman writes in the NYT about the market problems in an interesting slant: what we do is equally important, to how we do it. This is more than the common 'corner cutting' concept, it's an assertion that the culture changed to get it done from get it done right. Thanks again, Tom.

Goal Setting For Skeptics

LifeHacker has a great article for those of us who have a lot to do, and can't keep our minds wrapped around those things.  Have a read!

Open Thread

“Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.”

                                                         - Jackson Pollock

Open Thread

"Life has no meaning unless one lives it with a will, at least to the limit of one's will. Virtue, good, evil are nothing but words, unless one takes them apart in order to build something with them; they do not win their true meaning until one knows how to apply them."                                                         - Paul Gauguin

Open Thread

One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever come to sit by it.  

Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on the way. 

                                                         ~Vincent Van Gogh

How to Wake Up Enthused Every Day via Dumb Little Man

I love the Dumb Little Man.  It is a blog of good things each of us would read and absorb, if we had the time.  I secretly envy the proprietor as he is managing to work and run this blog with daily posts from contributors, and yes may even be making a little coin on the side with Ad revenues.  Genius!

I've linked to this article to give you a flavor.  So please link and check out:  How to Wake Up Enthused Every Day and see what you think!

Posted using ShareThis