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Artistic genius across three different artistic disciplines.
Picasso’s genius for painting; Chaplin’s genius for film making; and the Beatles’ genius for songs are fine examples of how artistic creativity can be used to approach complex problems.
These guys all were masters of creating art that depicted universal experiences that could be appreciated by us all. They were spontaneous and intuitive in their approaches at first and then built discipline and persistence as their projects evolved.
So to understand creativity , we must understand the character of the artist.
Picasso
Pablo Picasso chose to express himself through painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and ceramics. He was the first artist to enjoy worldwide fame thanks to the mass media of the twentieth century. He created over 147,000 works of art, making him one of the most prolific artists ever.
In 1907 he painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, a total departure from the commonly held artistic ideas of the time. This painting is considered the most significant work of art in the development of cubism.
Pablo Picasso Le Demoiselles d'Avignon 1907 A game changer.
Picasso was a passionate man, with a short temper, a large ego yet he was also a pacifist. His proclivity towards peace was best expressed in the massive 1937 painting Guernica based on the savage bombing of this Spanish city by the German Luftwaffe. This incredible painting is considered the most powerful political image in modern art.
Pablo Picasso Guernica 1937
The 1957 film ” The Mystery of Picasso,” recorded a master at work. You can witness a score of Picasso’s works materialize, stroke by stroke, from blank canvas to the final work of art. The film is made with a stationary camera focused on a translucent piece of paper that Picasso sits on the other side of as he draws and paints. The camera records his work on film as though Picasso is painting on the other side of the movie screen.
The creative process Picasso exhibits is illuminating. He begins very simply, the way a problem solver should always start. He draws simple forms in bold black lines lines on the white picture plane and then adds various layers of color and a few layers of texture. The sketches evolve the as he works and show us that our perceptions of things often depend on the moment they are being perceived.
Notice how as Picasso’s paintings evolve, there are no set rules, just as there are no set rules for problem solving. Picasso supposedly was as astonished at watching the film of his process as we are.
Picasso’s work teaches us that the path of creativity is about sensations and desire occurring over time. The aim shouldn’t be about forcing coherence and logic but to build upon instinct and feeling.
About the motivation for producing art Picasso wrote, “You should have an idea of what it is you want to do…but it should be a vague idea.”
That leaves room for spontaneity, exploration, discovery, and serendipity. Freedom!
Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin "The Little Tramp"
Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential filmmakers ever. He acted in, directed, scripted, produced, and after the advent of sound, scored all of his own films.
Up until his last movies, Chaplin never shot with a working script. He would start with a story in his mind and constantly retool it, often shooting hours of scenes that wouldn’t make the final cut until he was satisfied. He spent his nights critiquing the rushes with his assistant directors. Chaplin and Picasso shared a similar technique working with no predictable road to follow. Both artists had spontaneous and intuitive approaches at first and then built discipline and persistence into their projects as they evolved.
City Lights turned out to be the longest and most difficult project of Chaplin’s career. He ended up spending two years and eight months to produce the film, with almost 190 days of shooting.
Incredibly the finished film looks effortless and flows smoothly never once feeling forced or labored.
He spent weeks on the deceptively easy sequence where the Tramp meets the blind flower girl for the first time. The effort was spent on setting up the premise of the story. In three minutes using only action, he establishes their meeting, the Tramp’s realization that she is blind, his instant fondness and pity for the girl and her misconception that this little homeless guy is a rich. I say it was time well spent. Genius.
This is completely lost on contemporary filmmakers. All they do is destroy the magic of cinema by going on and on about the difficulties and suffering they endured to make their movies. Do they spend that time on the story? Do they labor over giving us a great premise with interesting characters! Of course not. All that time is spent on digital effects, choreographed fight scenes and airbrushing the wrinkles off of the Sex and the City chicks.
They work so hard on making it look “realistic”. Thousands of man hours, millions of dollars are spent trying to make Harry Potter zipping around on a broomstick look real. Then what do they do? They completely undermine their “effort” by treating us to behind the scenes “this is how we pulled it off crap.”
Am I the only one that sees the utter stupidity of this?
But, I digress.
Comedy. The brutal art form where if you succeed, “you kill” and if you fail, “you die.”
The 1936 movie Modern Times shows several elements crucial for problem solving. It’s important to remember that words and actions can only be understood in context. Perceptions of situations and the situations themselves are two different realities. In this film, Chaplin illustrates the struggle against the dehumanization of man by machine in a context of humorous misunderstandings and conflicting perceptions.
In comedy, as in problem solving, there needs to be an ease and spontaneity of acting that can’t be associated with seriousness. Chaplin illustrates that through humor, we see in what seems rational, the irrational; in what seems important, the unimportant. Humor also heightens our sense of well-being and preserves our sanity. Spontaneity is one of the greatest requirements of comedy, creativity, and problem solving.
Chaplin’s comedy is based upon actual life, with twist or exaggeration, to bring out what is real. Chaplin said that he didn’t want perfection in the acting. A perfect picture would seem artificial mechanical. He wanted the human touch, so we would love the picture for its imperfections. Similarly,a solution to a complex problem may not be perfect for everyone, so it must have a human touch in order for it to be acceptable.
The Beatles
Formed in 1960 and disbanded in 1970 The Beatles are arguably the most dominant pop artists of the second half of the twentieth century. Their influence on popular culture extended far beyond their roles as rock stars, as they branched out into film and even became spokesmen for their generation.
John Lennon
John Lennon was a singer-songwriter, poet, artist, and peace activist. Lennon was a master of turning things upside down to create humor. It showed up often in the Beatles’s music and many television appearances. Once when asked if Ringo Starr was “the best drummer in the world”, Lennon said, “He isn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles”.
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’.? They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
— John Lennon
John was married twice and had two children. He was assassinated in New York in 1980.
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney is listed as the most successful musician and composer in popular-music history. Aside from his musical work, McCartney is an actor, a painter and an advocate for animal rights and vegetarianism. He has five children by two women. One of McCartney songs is: Picasso’s Last Words.
George Harrison
George Harrison was an accomplished gardener who adopted Hinduism later in life. He had one son. Harrison died of cancer and his last rites were performed according to Hindu tradition, with his ashes scattered in the holy River Ganges.
Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr was the last to join the Band. Ringo has three children and was the first of The Beatles to become a grandfather. Starr played the Mock Turtle in the film version of Alice in Wonderland. He has acted in several films, and voiced animals in cartoon shows and narrated children’s series in television.
The Beatles also had a film career, beginning with A Hard Day’s Night in 1964, a black-and-white documentary about a short period in the life of The Beatles. In 1965 came Help!, a Technicolor extravaganza shot in exotic locations with a thin, plot about Ringo’s finger! Then in 1967 came the Magical Mystery Tour followed shortly by the animated Yellow Submarine. Finally, the documentary of a band in terminal decline, Let It Be was shot over an extended period in 1969; the music from this formed the album of the same name, which although recorded before Abbey Road, was their final release
The Beatles are the perfect band for exemplifying a peaceful attitude toward conflict. Their songs are replete with ideas, concepts, and messages of peace and harmony.
In the Beatles’s lyrics one rediscovers values for solving problems, “We can work it out”, teamwork “All Together Now” and “Help” , acceptance and the connection between people who are different from each other “Let It Be”, the use of love and kindness to get results “All you Need is Love” and “A Taste of Honey” , money is not everything “Can’t Buy me Love”. The lyrics to each of these songs are familiar, but few of us grasp their true meaning.
It’s vital to understand the artists’ personalities in the context in which they existed and HOW they did their work be it painting, movie making, or music.
Changing prejudices is one of the jobs of an artist. With our work we must create new understandings of the world.
Am I saying art and creativity are the solutions to the world’s problems?
Sure…why not!
Drink to Picasso, drink to his health, you know he can’t drink any more.
Special thanks to the band Elken for the song “Don’t’ be long The Beatles v Elken”
AM2CON!
Mark your calendars Anime fans! July 1-3, 2011
It’s the Am2con! The most anticipated anime music and manga summer convention in southern CA! Established in 2010, the am2con is a multi-day (3 days) event with no general attendance/badge purchase requirement and is aspiring to be a key meeting place for fans that share a common interest in Asian music, Animation/Anime Comics/Manga.
AM2 will be held on July 1-3, 2011 at the Anaheim Convention Center in sunny Anaheim, California.
Be sure to stop by the Man vs. Art Table in Artist Alley and say “Hi!”
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Holy smokes! Has it been 50 episodes already?!
This calls for a drink! Cheers!
I’ve had a blast producing the show. I’ve learned so much about art, artists, and about myself. Since day one, I decided to produce my show to a higher standard of quality than most others in terms of production value, editing, writing, music, comedy, and honesty in the content.
From Studio Raul it's Man vs. Art!
The inherent difficulty and comedic irony of producing a show about Visual Arts in audio.
Why on Earth would I choose to produce an audio podcast about visual art? What am I stupid?!
If I may borrow from the great JFK, I shall explain why.
But why, some say, an audio podcast about the Visual Arts?? Why choose this as your goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 84 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Wolverine fight the Hulk?
I choose to produce an audio podcast about visual art. (interrupted by applause) I choose to produce an audio podcast about visual art in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of my Artistic energies and skills, because that challenge is one that I am willing to accept, one I am unwilling to postpone, and one which I intend to win, and the others, too.
I’ve busted my butt and am damned proud of what I have created. It takes a lot of hard work and time to produce each and every episode and I’m always looking for ways to raise the bar and give The Minions the best show possible.
What are you saying?
Man vs Art is about the struggle it is to be an artist in this day and age. There are many obstacles in your way. I don’t try to sell everyone on art being all warm and fuzzy and that success is just one pencil stroke away. On the contrary, I try to put it bluntly and tell you how tough art can be. Not to discourage you of course, but to get you to work that much harder and be prepared when you hit a snag. It would be irresponsible for me to paint this ideal picture of being an artist, full of romance, fun, money, and fame only to leave you to be taken advantage of.
Being an artist is tough. But if you stick with it and do your best, no matter how rich or famous or poor and unknown you end up, you will have a BODY of work that is your own, and in the end on your deathbed that’s all that should matter to an artist. Did I leave a body of work that is worth conserving? Worth studying? That’s the ultimate reward. Money comes and goes and fame, well someone once asked Homer Simpson what being famous was like and his response said it all. “Being famous is great. People know your name and you don’t know theirs.”
Then and now.
Man vs. Art started with me just experimenting with podcasting and it took about a dozen shows before it clicked. The show has really come together nicely with it’s standard features like Interviews, Personal Rants, The Minion Mailbag, the Pantheon of Awesomeness, Minion Voice mail, The Art Joke Minute, Project Jose and more! Then there are the recurring characters, some more recurring than others. There’s my drunk midget announcer and sidekick Che, Jim Lujan, Jose Gonzalez, Sheila from West Hollywood, Chibi fan Noodles, and Sebastian Snotpockets from Saskatchewan!
To my Guests.
I’d like to thank all of my past guests for all of their valuable input and time. I’m pretty selective about who I bring on as a guest. I only bring passionate, fun, creative, and hard working people to the show. People who can talk up a storm about art and have the body of work to back up their words are requirements. No matter how talented an artist may be, no one wants to listen to an inarticulate bore with the personality of a log.
The Man vs. Art Minions RAWK!
I would especially like to thank all of the Minions. Those of you who listen to the show and follow the blog, you rule! You folks are the heart and soul of the show. Without the Minions Man vs. Art would be some lone nut talking to himself about cartoons. Instead it’s some lone nut talking about cartoons to thousands of lone nuts who listen to him while drawing cartoons. Beautiful isn’t it?
Today’s podcast is a “Greatest Hits” collection of some of my best informative rants, interviews, and some shout outs from true Minions!
INFORMATIVE RANTS
- Episode 14 “So you wanna be an Artist?” I share a story about the time I was in Europe and helped launch a young Artist’s career.
- Episode 15 “Jim Lujan Plus A Man vs. Art look at the mindset of the artist.” I explain about the two types of negative people artists have to deal with. Douche Nozzles, and Dumb asses.
- Episode 16 “The essence of Drawing.” I give advice on archiving your work and learning good studio habits.
- Episode 21 “The differences between Bad, Good, and Great Art.” A great bit I did on the 3 types of art.
- Episode 36 “Pitching your stories and Ideas.” My suggestions on how to pitch a story well and organize your thoughts to tell a story.
- Episode 45 “For the love of Drawing” My love letter to drawing and how drawing has shaped human history.
INTERVIEWS
- First up is Don Bluth from episode 28. He’s the highly prolific animation director who’s vast body of work that includes some of the greatest animated films of all time like An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and my personal favorite The Secret of NIMH.
- From Episode 31 Some cartoon wisdom from Animator Writer Director Tom Sito who was trained by some notable animation artists of Hollywood’s Golden Age as well as cartoonist legends like Harvey Kurtzman and Shamus Culhane. He has worked in almost all sides animation production- Feature films, television, titles, industrials and commercial advertising.
- Then from Episode 40 is the exceptionally talented Artist, Animator, Director, Professor, and Writer Nancy Beiman who has worked with Chuck Jones, Bill Melendez, Gerhard Hahn, Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney Feature Animation, the Disney Channel, Disney television movies, and Warner Bros.
- Lastly from Episode 34 is my unforgettable chat with the King of Independent animation, the one and only Bill Plympton whose signature technique and dazzling visuals have been tickling your animation cockles for over 25 years. Here Bill shares with us some behind the scenes fun on his latest feature THE MOVIE THE NEW YORK TIMES IS CALLING “RELENTLESS AND BRILLIANT”! Idiots and Angels.
SHOUT OUTS
Special thanks to the folks that took time to call ed in on The Man vs. Art Minion Hotline and give a nickel’s worth of their two cents for this episode!
Enjoy the show and here’s to fifty more!
Ciao,
R.
