Creative Mind (2)

In my life I might have seen billions of images,  I’ve seen hundreds of thousand of Art images include

the artistically well designed commercial products.  And I met hundreds of artists. With a curiosity of

how those artists create their art,  how they conceived the original image or idea. ( Secret of Creation)

It seems there are some distinctive types of creative mind and its mechanism and the tendency.

In most of the cases,  there is the original image or real existence which inspired the artist.

The great artist, Pablo Picasso created many ( too many  😀 ) mind-boggling extraordinarily images,

yet he never created any new image.  He only created new style to show the same subject.

Even heavily decomposed, deformed cubist paintings still maintain the image of the original subjects.

Same apply to Salvador Dali.  Unless the clock with needle hands exist, his melted clock never appeared

in this world. ( Think if it was a digital clock with LCD face, the image couldn’t be so striking as we are

much familiar with  funny shaped plastic products )

So, only pure abstract art deals with totally new image, still, what inspired Mondrian was the Japanese

house interior design which Bruno Taut brought to the attention of the west.  And even looks like abstract

expression of Henry Moor’s sculptures still shows the woman as woman, unmistakably.

Yet still, some artist create utterly incomprehensible image which is not a result of random chance.

Some people are able to conceive pure image which seems to have no origin.

( Here I’m not talking about the twist of ordinary idea such as ” If the bloom handle is straight stick,

why not an useless twisted metal ” or ” If the public display has to be decent and acceptable, why not

smelly animal dung ”  kind of idea ——- it’s still in the logic, only a negative process.  Nothing  new.)

I had chances to talk with those artists who create utterly incomprehensible images and found

they are not necessary aware creating strange image  ” Ah,  I just like it.  It’s  who I am ” —–  ! ! !

It seems there is a completely different type of brain exists.  Naturally they seemed to have very

different perception and the handling of their life style too. —— not necessary street-wise or

smart to sell their art, since they are neither a good communicator. ( often talks incomprehensible

though, the line on the palm indicating, the person got well developed brain )

___

They are the person of  True-Self as the one born to be = as the Dharma created. ——– So, would they

make an Enlightened person or at least good Buddhist ?

Good question, and this question signify the clear distinction What is the Buddhist.

——— Once, Master Dogen questioned  ” If everybody born to have the Dharma within, why the past

Great Masters needed to have practice to get it ? ”

The small children are the angels, as they are so natural and innocent ——- as they are in their True Self.

So, the cliché was created.   Of cause, it is only a nice flirtation and the myth. If it has even a shred of

viable significance, 99% of world population is the great artists and the Enlightened people, —— and

the Child Parliament with Child PM governing the country. ( Why not  😀  )

—-

True Self in the Buddhist term is not simply the self as a person happened to be born with.

It is the Self once denied Self.  ( So, the process is much more important than the result —– in the first

denial,  Selfish Ego and the Emotion would be eliminated.  Hence, in the second denial when the Self was

revived, the Ego and Emotions are missing —– or came under the control.  Self itself looks the same though )

T—

In the zoology, to define whether the particular animal can recognize the self / if the conscious

of SELF exist in them, scientist use a mirror to observe their behaviour. (If the animal can see a   reflection

of him as him or the other animal —– and become aggressive or see behind of mirror etc )

Just to be the Self as he was born, is easy as all the animal is living in this way.  But able to have the

conscious of Self and able to differentiate behavior ( control ) needs to have much evolved brain.

Control  what ?   Control, mainly the instincts, and suppress the emotion. Then able to do something

more complicated projects / preconceived plan with observation feed-back and judgments.

To control the behavior in order to have a harmony with environment,  the observation of outer world is

of cause essential,  and in the same time observation of  the Self too.  This is the Self-conscious.

So that the matter is  if the one can detach the view-point and watch the Self from a distance, objectively.

But, this is nothing but a  Self alienation.   This Self alienation is the trade-off, necessary compromise to

survive in the social environment.  Hence, we social animal / human being was forced to live with the watchful

eyes of the Self.  Then, where is the estranged True Self, became a perpetual conundrum.

—

In the Buddhism, the matter of Self and the  Selflessness seemed to be a bit over emphasized  because of

Buddha denied its existence in the first place,  in order to differentiate with the popular Vedic teachings.

But, as I explained afore, the restrain of the raw Self / Ego is the basic rule to live in the society.

( So, we often use the expression ” Play a roll ”  ( Away from  being in the Self )

Even in a pack of the animal, pecking order (control of the greed ) or breeding right of the alpha-male

(control of the sexual desire) etc —— the denial of one’s Ego is the essential rules of the survival.

Buddhism is not asking the follower to do anything special —— just be a sensible member of the society.

Same apply to the Ten Commandments, it didn’t need to be given by the God. It exist long before the Myth

was invented.  Otherwise the primitive society could be fallen into disarray and couldn’t be survived.

—

Japanese language having one of the most complicated honorific expression system.

How polite,  has to be exactly matched  to the social scale —- too polite to a junior person mean blunt despise.

( Even a man of respectable position in his forties could lose the trust in just one word . —— I still regret

a word to my professor when I was 25 —— even if it was meant to be a joke )

So that, it is very easy to assess the quality of the person (and their up bringing / family ) just see the wording

in a letter or listen the tongue. —- trouble is, the person  may not aware the situation and what he is speaking.

Here, the clear eyes to see the Self and the reference data to judge the situation is essential.

Yet True Self is ever more reclusive.

___

NUDE 4×4+1

As a mean of communication, the Art has very peculiar property.       Since when I was doing photography, this

peculiarity is one of my conundrum. Some photos are the Art, but most of them are just a flat copy of the object.

But, strangely, anybody can distinguish a good photo in

one glance.      And anybody can also distinguish good art

as The Art at one glance.——– (so, conceptual art is not art,

but it is only an intellectual concept, as the name indicates)

With my artist friends, photographer friends discussed together

in many occasions, still we never found a good explanation

in the words,  why and how do we know, is it the Art or not.

Because ART is a communication between  Subconscious

to Subconscious / one’s inspiration to the other’s feeling

without involving the conversion to the linguistic Notion.

(Its mean, the ART strikes the EMOTION straight, not the intelligence)

So that even if we found the typical sample, it is impossible to

describe it in the words, instead, just point the very sample and say  ” You see this is it “.

——————–

Something similar phenomenon is in the artistic expression such as in the abstract figure.

This is the matter of cognitive ability. —— How simple and even simpler, we still able to recognize as it is.

———- The photo above is, some said,  the most simplest and cheapest nude sculpture in the history.

It is just a twisted wire though, even 5 years old kids instantly recognized it ” Ah, it’s a  woman “.

This Wire Nude was made by just twisting a wire 4 times clockwise for right-hand side, and 4 times

anti-clockwise for left-hand side, plus one for the head.  ( Hence the title 4×4+1 )

I experimented many design and simplified further and further.  This seems the minimalist’s limit.

(Sitting woman putting both hands to her head—— in case, if you couldn’t make sense from flat photo)

It is impossible to describe exact shape in the words,  still it convey the message, ” This is the Woman”

and people can see and feel straight, this is the woman. ——— and makes them smile  🙂

——————–

Our brain, Deep Layer / Subconscious System has remarkable ability to capture the meaning beyond

the ordinary intellectual logics. ———-( I’m still puzzling, is it Pattern Recognition or something else ? )

And this is the way, how direct transmission of  Zen  works.  ” You see, this is it”