Philosophy, Art, & Ideas

An 'Original' Idea...

Is it possible to have one, or has everything new and fresh been done, said, blogged about, 'YouTubed', gone viral, or already been published?

Is there anything unique left to be imagined, or is everything simply a reference, done with a twist, to something that exists or has previously existed?

It's not a trick question... more a philosophical one... like... 'Which is more powerful, love or hate'?... or 'Is the glass half empty or half full'?

Our glasses were definitely full. Bev ordered an iced tea and I chose to drink water with lemon.

What more could we possibly discuss over meatloaf and chicken salad sandwiches after spending nearly two hours on the phone chatting and making plans for this little get-together, when I was handed this newspaper article.

The headline read... "Wise Beyond His Seven Years", about a boy, a second grader, named Jack Smalley, who won a certificate, medal, and $25 in a philosophical slam contest for his winning answer to the question: "Which is more powerful, love or hate'? It's amazing that someone so young, with such little life experience, could produce the winning entry. In Jack's words... "Philosophy's not hard. It takes a lot of thinking, but that's pretty much all it takes."

This article was all it took to get our conversation going.

Soon I began talking at length about two recent exhibitions I saw: one by Emily Spivack called 'Sentimental Value' at the Philadelphia Art Alliance (May 17-August 18, 2013), about items of clothing acquired from eBay and the noteworthy stories and memories that go with them, and the other by Judy Breslin called Haiku/QR (June 7-July 6, 2013) at the LG Tripp Gallery, of brightly colored stickers of QR codes embedded with her poetry, placed throughout the city, then photographed. Both shows were about words and stories, both very interesting.

Then I posed my philosophical question: Is it possible for someone to have a totally original idea? Perhaps these two art shows, which seem at first unique, are merely modern day versions on the telling of stories that have been around since the cave paintings of Lascaux. Bev's answer to my question was immediate, a definite, "Yes!" My opinion is 'No' and that I'd die a happy person, if in this lifetime, I could come up with an original idea of my own. Honestly, it's not that easy.

I'm always questioning my ideas: Are they unique? Are they significant? Are they worthy of someone else's time and attention? The more I question, the less I create. If a quarter of what I've produced in my head was made, rather than discarded before a brush ever stroked the canvas, I'd probably be able to fill both 'the Whitney' and 'Museum of Modern Art'. Either I'm a born conceptual artist or someone loopy with too many thoughts stuck in her head.

With my head in need of rest, once home, I grab a book never before opened, purchased from a library book sale, intriguingly titled: 'Beg, Borrow, Steal: A Writer's Life', by Michael Greenberg. The first paragraph read...

"MY OLD MAN was like Zeus's father Cronos: he couldn't bear the idea that any of his children might surpass him. Life radiated from the central pulse of his scrap-metal yard; the world beyond it seemed to make him defensive and nervous. Self conscious about his lack of formal education, he took my bookishness as a personal affront. "Which do you think is worth more," he once asked me, "a commodity or some goddamn idea"?

Like the question of the chicken or the egg and which came  first, can a commodity exist without an idea at its inception?

Lunch may be over, but apparently the philosophical questions are not.

Ideas: Borrowed? Appropriated? Stolen" or Original?

Interestingly, quite a few people share my view:

T.S. Elliot said, "Immature poets borrow, mature poets steal."

Natalie Goldberg remarks on copying...

"We always worry that we are copying someone else, that we don't have our own style. Don't worry. Writing is a communal act. Contrary to popular belief, a writer is not Prometheus alone on a hill full of fire. We are very arrogant to think we alone have a totally original mind. We are carried on the back of all the writers who came before us. We live in the present with all the history, ideas, and soda pop of this time. It all gets mixed up in our writing."

Austin Kleon's take on where artists get their ideas...

"Every artist gets asked the question... Where do you get your ideas? The honest artist answer is "I steal them." First you figure out what's worth stealing, then you move onto the next thing. That's about it. When you look at the world this way you stop worrying about what's 'good' and what's 'bad'-there's only stuff worth stealing and stuff that's not worth stealing."

From Austin Kleon's book, 'Steal like an Artist' are these two quotes: one by Jonathan Letham who said, "When people call something 'original', 9 out of 10 times they don't know the references or the source involved.", and from the French writer, Andre Gide..."Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again."

And quoted from Anna Held's book, 'The Blank Canvas', a recollection by Jacques Lipchitz... "I remember one day when Juan Gris told me about a bunch of grapes he had seen in a painting by Picasso. The next day these grapes appeared in a painting by Gris, this time in a bowl; and the day after, the bowl appeared in a painting by Picasso." 

'Ex nihilo nihil fit'... Latin for "nothing comes from nothing". Even the ancient Greeks believed that things could not disappear into nothing, just as they can't be created from nothing.

And with nothing more to say... What's your take on the concept of 'original' idea? Is there a question rattling in your brain that needs answering?

Here are a few links you might find interesting:

The newspaper article, "Wise Beyond His Seven Year's" Here.

Emily Spivack's show here and from her website 'Sentimental Value', a story about a bridal gown for sale on eBay here.

Judy Breslin's solo show here and the latest on 'Why QR Code Poems Cause Conflict in Philly's Old City" here.

Austin Kleon's blog here.

Interview with sticker street artist Curly here.

More sticker art from 'Tag This Philly' here.

Appropriation or downright plagiarism... Lady Gaga is sued for $31 Million here.

Keep thinking and always....

XOX... Dyan

Rain & 'The Killing'

It was raining hard... long... with no end in sight. Like thieves in the night, we fled the scene tired of being drenched, hungry, and held captive. Only... it was mid day and I'll tell you more about it later... much later.

Sounds like the beginning of a thriller novel, but it isn't; the event did happen.

Question is: Why would something long buried come to the surface now?

Could be: I'm watching too many murder mysteries, something to do with the weather, or 'Scorpio' prominently positioned in my natal chart. 'Yo', it could be any number of things.

Thing is... I AM watching too many 'whodunits' (slash) detective shows: 'DCI Banks', 'Scott & Bailey', 'Elementary', 'Top of the Lake', to name a few, but none of them as intensely as 'The Killing'. In less than a week, Michael and I watched both Seasons 1 and 2 (26 episodes) making it my favorite program of all time, tied only with 'MI-5', the British spook (spy) series, sadly no longer being aired.

But no sad tears here... last night 'The Killing' returned with Season 3 on AMC.

If... I can just hold out and wait for the DVD's to be available on Netflix or Xfinity's 'On Demand'. Then I can watch the entire season in one long clip, easily following the show's many twists and turns... instead of being fed small doses, one episode every seven days, and forgetting what took place the previous week. But for me, 'Little Miss Has To Have Everything Now!', that's a pretty BIG, IF.

If not 'crime scene investigations', maybe it's the weather, the rain, rain and more rain we've been getting that's contributing to this flashback of 'fleeing a scene drenched and hungry'.

I don't mind rain when I'm comfortably situated indoors or outside somewhat sheltered under an umbrella. It's just that I don't like being soaked, wet and chilled to the bone, or blinded by moist droplets fixed to my glasses. Who does?

I do like: the sound of rain, staring out of steamy windows streaked with raindrops, and being transfixed by misted landscapes captured by skilled photographers.

No, this is not my profile for match dot com. It's that last phrase... 'misted landscapes captured' that had me mesmerized and continually drawn to the story line of 'The Killing', one long rainy production about the search for a killer... filmed in Vancouver, made to look like Seattle, the city of rain.

The quality of the photography, shot in shades of blues and grays, colors reminiscent of ever-present rain and the drudgery of having to solve a difficult crime, is absolutely brilliant, something rarely seen on American television.

While you might want to avert your eyes from a few of the bloody scenes, there's no way to circumvent the rain: a drizzle, a downpour, the after effect on wet pavement, and reflections on transparent surfaces. Even a momentary pause in precipitation, has cameras angling to other water sources: the ocean, lakes and marinas, essential references to the mood and mystery of the show.

And if the weather (rain) isn't clearing up the mystery of a recalled memory, then maybe it has something to do with 'Scorpio' my Ascendant Sign, rising on the Eastern horizon at the time of my birth, also a water sign, not to be confused with Aries my Sun Sign. It's astrology lingo for someone who appears secretive, keenly observant, having a love for the mysterious, and as a profession, would make a good private investigator, detective, forensic specialist or FBI / CIA agent.

Career wise I chose differently, but the skills and interests are still there. Give me a mystery or crime to solve, and instinctively, within minutes, I've discovered the 'motive', 'nailed' the suspect, and bingo!... closed the case! Not so with 'The Killing', where at each turn my assumptions were proven wrong due to scripted material deliberately crafted to mislead. An arresting tactic, but... 'No fair play', 'Yo'!

And speaking of lingo, have you noticed within this post, the occasional interjection of the word 'Yo'? It's deliberate.

It's Philadelphia slang for "Hey!", used as a greeting, as in... "Yo, what's up?", or an exclamation... "Yo! What the bleep are you doing?", or added to the end of a sentence to exaggerate a point as in, "I need sugar 'wit' that coffee, Yo!"

Stephen Holder, the lead detective in 'The Killing' uses it frequently.

Occasionally emphasizing his point with not one but three Yo's, as in "Yo,Yo,Yo little man." Or... "Yo, you're becoming like a beautiful mind with that board." ... a reference to the movie 'A Beautiful Mind', and an evidence board filled with crime scene photos and statistics organized by his partner Sarah Linden.

Holder is a likeable character, funny, somewhat lost and full of 'Holderisms' like: "Let me break it down for you. My body's my temple, right? But here? (pointing to his head)... It's a  control tower. See People be wanting to put everything in a box, get spoon-fed the answers, make everything black and white. Me? I see the grays."

Crazy as in good fun crazy.

Not like... "It was raining hard... long with no end in sight crazy. Like thieves in the night, we fled the scene tired of being drenched, hungry and held captive... which was plain ole white bread crazy, which was the original story I was about to tell you before this never, never, wish to be repeated again crazy, crazy story popped into my head. This one....

I was considering venturing into the scary wet woods early one morning, as friends I barely knew camped out soundly in sleeping bags.

That night I slept in the car (my version of camping out), when someone or something began violently rocking the vehicle I was in, back and forth, then back and forth again, terrorizing me.

From the cracked eggs and other food supplies strewn about, I could only imagine it was a bear who decided to have his way with me.

But it wasn't just him.

While I walked the grounds alone, hoping not to find 'man or beast' along the way, I met a Park Ranger. We talked and ambled along a random path, which by no coincidence led to his private cabin. "I'd like to show you my frames", he said. Frames? Not prints or paintings, but frames. I saw three small, slightly damaged, empty picture frames sitting on his dresser.

What was I thinking? Obviously, I wasn't. My gut told me to get out fast, which I did before being chatted up further and becoming another statistic on some cops evidence board.

So here I am... many years later back in another set of woods trying to flee the scene.

Only this time there were no sleepovers, bears, or lecherous rangers. Instead, there were five of us, each of us a few credits short of whatever, wishing we were anywhere other than this environmental center being lectured to by a crazy woman on the ways of the Seneca Indians... a subject that should have been interesting but clearly wasn't.

As she beat on her drum, all I kept thinking about was lunch and the sandwich Michael packed for me. But to my horror, I learned there'd be no munching on packed lunches or bought meals, but that we'd be eating...'The Seneca Way' (also the title of the course), foraging for food: berries and edible plants... in the rain, without umbrellas or any other rain gear. Seriously?!... I'm afraid so.

The Seneca are also known as the 'Keepers of the Western Door', named for being the westernmost of Six Indian Nations, but from where I stood, there were no doors anywhere for making an escape.

Drenched, hungry, and held captive, I was about to give up any hope for survival, when I was elbowed by the guy next to me (another student), who whispered... "I know some arches where we can take cover", then added, "Trust me." Hmmm... I've heard that line before, but still followed him down a path that led to a parking lot... and his car.

Ahh...a man of his word... my hero!

We spent the remainder of the afternoon drying out, sheltered, in deep conversation munching on burgers and fries waiting for my real hero to appear... Michael, my husband, who drove through some powerful storms to get me home.

And the next day... there were three little Indians left to munch on berries and leaves, unless they too managed to escape or drop out of the class as I did along with my partner in crime.

'Yo'... 'Yo'... 'Yo'... "That's a Wrap!"

How do you feel about mysteries?

Have you ever been in an 'iffy' situation and gotten yourself out?

Here are some links you might find interesting:

A brief video about 'The Killing': Seasons 1 & 2 here.

A video of Holderisms, a peek into the character of Stephen Holder here. 

The installation of 'Rain Room' first shown in London's Barbican here. Now being shown through July 28, 2013, in New York at MoMA PS1 here.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a......

XOX... Dyan