This week I listened to author Jeff Goin’s podcast, Hello Creator. In episode eight, the question of art and practicality was the topic, and Jeff asked, “Should art be practical?” We all assign to good art some meaning, even if the artist never intended it to mean anything. Goins talked about how the artist’s honest expression opens the door for the recipients of art to put their meaning into it. What if good art is meaningless?
This reminded me of a quote from Pablo Picasso, who wrote, “If you give certain things meaning in my paintings, it might be very true, but I never had thought of it.” The song that got you through that breakup or the movie that inspired you to pursue a career in teaching might very well have never intended to do so. Yes, artists hope to touch their audience. But, even when artists intend to heal or inspire, the result is still up to the listener, the reader, or the patron in the theater. The intention of the creator is not as powerful as their invention.
We don’t force our way to create; we discover our way to it.
RIch Kirkpatrick
Toulouse, a French artist-researcher, explains that invention is far better than intention. It’s discovery rather than a contrived revelation that reveals creative genius. The truth is this: We don’t force our way to create; we discover our way to it. The word invention in its French roots has the same meaning as the rights one has when finding a shipwreck. Like the evidence leads the detectives to the crime, the artist takes the inspiration around them to create. Instead of an organized path that leads people to attribute a specific meaning in our work, we find the unintended consequences of invention as the true power at play. Artists can’t force meaning into their work. They discover it just like their recipient does.
What about meaning? Solomon says that “everything is vain” or meaningless. He even goes as far as to say that history will forget us and that even what we make “has been seen before.” What if our value has nothing to do with what we make? What if we find our worth in simply being a human who lives and breathes at this very moment. Good art, I think, reminds us of our worth as it grounds us. We are alive.
We live in this moment, not in one we have to create for tomorrow or one we envy from the past. So, for art and life, invention is better than intention. Striving is meaningless. But, living is meaningful–not empty, static, hollow, or cruel. When we create, it’s more like breathing than striving. Yes, it is hard work. But, we don’t make art from something new, do we? We are simply channeling what we discover by being here in this moment. And, that is easier said than done.
If you’ve read this far, this is the kind of conversation found in my yet-to-be-released book, MIND BLOWN: Unlock creative genius by bridging science and magic. Want to get it first? <Sign up here>
Notes:
- Jeff Goins, “On Being Practical,” Hey, Creator!, August 31, 2021, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hey-creator/id1574528727?i=1000533865088.
- Pablo Picasso, Propos sur l’art, Reúis par Marie-Laure Bernadac et Michael Androula (Paris: Gallimard 1998), 51.
- Ivan Toulouse, “How Do They Do It? The Importance of Being … eArNe(ARTI)ST,” The Creative Process: Perspectives from Multiple Domains, ed. Todd Lubart (Paris: Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture, 2018), 34.
- Ecclesiastes 1