Tag: Pablo Picasso

Breaking the Rules (Essence Over Form)

 

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
― Pablo Picasso

 

I was told tonight on social media that my haikus would never sell in Japan because I don’t stick to the strict rules of haiku. There is supposed to be mention of a season in each one and strict attention not only to syllable count but sentence construction within so that:

The autumn flower
in its last breath’s conclusion
prepares for a new life

might work and satisfy but

Seeking more knowledge
I submerge within shadow
finding my substance

doesn’t even tho it may prove more evocative for many and definitely is a clearer form of self-expression. I replied that to analyze poetry with slavish attention to rules might very well miss the point of the poem entirely. It’s always good to have an understanding of the rules of any system yet I value essence over form any day. It may not sell in Japan or anywhere else but it is definitely a more satisfying experience.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Nature Friend (Barbatos)Barbatos by G A Rosenberg

 

Insect AbstractInsect Abstract by G A Rosenberg

 

The Finding Process.

 

“In my opinion to search means nothing in painting. To find is the thing. Nobody is interested in following a man who, with his eyes fixed on the ground, spends his life looking for the pocketbook that fortune should put in “his path. The one who finds something … , even if his intention were not to search for it, at least arouses our curiosity, if not our admiration … .
When I paint, my object is to show what I have found and not what I am looking for.”

–Pablo Picasso

 

Many times when I start on a picture, I start by throwing patterns up on the screen, either royalty-fractals or mixtures of gradients or just splashes of colour. I play around putting various filter and light effects on the pieces and just play, rather like a child finger-painting. Occasionally something will happen in this random picture and an image will turn up. I don’t look for it tho am open to whatever develops. When the image comes along, (this happened in the Wrath picture earlier this week) I start enhancing it, either combining it with a reference or enlarging that part while shrinking other parts, muting out the background and bringing the found image to the foreground. I then continue on, certain that the picture has revealed to me what it wishes to be. It feels totally natural rather like how I have heard sculptures talk about the block of marble containing a particular statue inside and they just bring it out. I love creating this ‘found’ art fully as much if not more than the pictures I set out intentionally to create.
Blessings, G

 

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Befriending the Sun (Amon)Befriending the Sun (Amon) by G A Rosenberg

 

OracleOracle by G A Rosenberg

 

Barcelona, Spain

 

“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.”
–Pablo Picasso

 

After 18+ hours on planes and airports we landed in Barcelona Spain. This city is amazing in all respects. It has the European architecture that I love so much and on any given street you can see a combination of elaborate artistic buildings (Gargoyles, cherubs, statues of saints, ornate iron work and turrets) mixed with street art graffiti.
We went to the Picasso museum and got to see an amazing representation of his art and I was able to appreciate the people appreciating it. Amazing how many people look at art, trying to remember what they are supposed to see, feel and note about it based on hazily remembered art history courses and plaques. Experiencing them with fresh eyes and little training, different things kept occurring to me. Ideas that he exposed about masculine and feminine, shadow and substance. It made it quite a powerful experience.
At night we walked along Las Ramblas with some of the most amazing people watching I’ve done in quite awhile. The light seems different here as does the temperature. The people are amazing. The journey continues.
Blessings, G

 

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At the Picasso MuseumAt the Picasso Museum
 

ColumnColumn

 

Working For the Muse to Come

 

“Inspiration does exist but it must find you working.”
— Pablo Picasso

 

A few years ago I made a contract with myself. Every day I would create either art writing or both. Every night I would blog. I knew then and time has shown that by doing this not every piece I do will be my best but some will be. Not every word I write will inspire but there will be some that do. However if I only create when I am sure the piece will be great I would perhaps make one picture a week. If I wait for a great concept to write about this blog would probably be much emptier. Instead nightly with electronic brush in hand and with poet’s heart I seduce my muse. I woo her with honey and with silk and I flow out onto the screen. Sometimes I create only pretty patterns or colour splashes. Other times the magic comes but I am open to it all. At least for me Inspiration flows best when the channel is open. Besides the time that I spend in the zone creating is the best part of any day.
Blessings, G

 

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Burgeoning AwarenessBurgeoning Awareness by G A Rosenberg

 

A Simple DinnerA Simple Dinner by G A Rosenberg

To Destroy is to Create

“The urge to destroy is also a creative urge.”
― Pablo Picasso

 

Destruction and creation are inextricably tied together. What is change if not destroying what is so that something new can take its place? If you want to destroy something utterly what you want to do is create openness where that thing currently exists. Every moment of every day, we destroy something in ourselves in order to create something new. On a physical level, its how our digestive systems work. On a mental level its part of the decision process. What is a choice but a destruction of options? For every song created, silence is destroyed. For every piece of art made, a blank canvas, paper or screen is no more. We tend to think of destruction as a negative thing and yet without it, we’d be stuck.
Blessings, G

 

Click on images to see full-sized:

 

Many Paths TakenMany Paths Taken by G A Rosenberg

 

WhirlpoolWhirlpool by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 20 2012

“I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else.”
–Pablo Picasso

I have every intention tonight of returning to last night’s subject of responsibility and freedom and how they interrelate with compassion. Indeed i feel lately that most of my thoughts and meditation have been spent on those subjects. I have a bit of a side trip however. Something amazingly cool today that I wanted to share with you.

Today we went to the National Gallery in London. I went from hall to hall looking at some amazingly evocative art and was impressed as always by how you can look at some of the pictures and continually see something new whether it is something in the subject’s expression or in the colour choices or the light or the way that the various character’s interacted with each other, each picture spoke volumes.
Then I started watching the other people in the art gallery. I watched their body language and expression and how they interacted with each other. I started thinking about what their clothing styles said about them and what their lives were like. Gradually it dawned on me that what I was watching was art watching art and how much of a masterpiece each one of us are.

Next time I go to an art gallery, I would love to bring a camera, not to photograph art but to photograph the people looking at art. For what I saw there was beauty.
Blessings,
G

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Gallery Tour B by G A Rosenberg