The Most Important Things
In a post earlier this month I was talking about making old things new again. I haven't really done anything with the old paintbrushes or scraps that triggered the thoughts, but I have kept thinking about them. A fellow artist recently told me that keeping things and making them important when they are arguably not is kind of what artists do. He was also revisiting remnants from his past and looking at them in a new way.
Poet and critic David Antin says of Baldassari's work, "For something to be a cliché it has to have been true once. A cliché is like a pencil that once had a point and its point has been blunted by use to the extent to which it is no longer a useful writing instrument. But if it was once useful, then there is some possibility that you can recover it by placement of it in some odd position. That is, you can retrieve its meaning and capabilities in some way."
I'm focusing more on the idea of looking at something differently, placing it in an "odd position" as Antin says, to reveal potential. I do think cliche's are very interesting though. They always seem negative but really exist for a good reason. I'll come back to that later. I'm on a roll with retrieving meaning and capabilities from what is apparently useless.
Back to Austin Kleon's book and the great quotes within...this one by writer Nicholson Baker reminded me how I once kept a list of "the most important things" each day.
If you ask yourself, ‘What’s the best thing that happened today?’ it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that pulls up from the recent past things to write about that you wouldn’t otherwise think about. If you ask yourself, ‘What happened today?’ it’s very likely that you’re going to remember the worst thing, because you’ve had to deal with it—you’ve had to rush somewhere or somebody said something mean to you—that’s what you’re going to remember. But if you ask what the best thing is, it’s going to be some particular slant of light, or some wonderful expression somebody had, or some particularly delicious salad. I mean, you never know…
I kept track in a sketchbook. The only real difference between what Baker suggests and what I did was that I didn't necessarily consider what was important was the "best." I didn't want to select the good or the bad in an effort to keep these things-in a way- pure. I tried to leave out extraneous detail but sometimes specifics were important. I didn't spend too much time thinking about the things before I wrote them which is why some things are crossed out. Not that what is crossed out to be ignored, it's just not necessary to understand the importance. I went to get the sketchbook and was startled to find that I began this project on Oct 30th of last year...
THE MOST
IMPORTANT
THINGS
TODAY
10 30 11
THE SOUND THE
TEA KETTLE MAKES
AFTER POURING OUT
SOME WATER AND
THE LID HITS THE
METAL AND THERE
IS STILL WATER INSIDE
CINNAMON LIFE
(THE CEREAL)
COMFY REDHIGHSCHOOL
SWEATSHIRT
I'm wearing that red sweatshirt and I do not wear it often. This is significant. I don't know why but I know it is. There is a connection between past and present even if it is just that the important things a year ago today are still important. Moments and feelings. Those are the important things. Moments and feelings that happen once and can happen again but never exactly in the same way. The fact that they can reoccur is comforting and the fact that there is always a change is inevitable and exciting.
THE MOST
IMPORTANT
THINGS TODAY
10 30 12
WAKING TO THE SOUND
OF A FRENCH HORN
THE COLOR OF WET LEAVES
AFTER A HURRICANE
ROSE PETAL TEA
ACCEPTING AND
ACCEPTANCE
Poet and critic David Antin says of Baldassari's work, "For something to be a cliché it has to have been true once. A cliché is like a pencil that once had a point and its point has been blunted by use to the extent to which it is no longer a useful writing instrument. But if it was once useful, then there is some possibility that you can recover it by placement of it in some odd position. That is, you can retrieve its meaning and capabilities in some way."
I'm focusing more on the idea of looking at something differently, placing it in an "odd position" as Antin says, to reveal potential. I do think cliche's are very interesting though. They always seem negative but really exist for a good reason. I'll come back to that later. I'm on a roll with retrieving meaning and capabilities from what is apparently useless.
Back to Austin Kleon's book and the great quotes within...this one by writer Nicholson Baker reminded me how I once kept a list of "the most important things" each day.
If you ask yourself, ‘What’s the best thing that happened today?’ it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that pulls up from the recent past things to write about that you wouldn’t otherwise think about. If you ask yourself, ‘What happened today?’ it’s very likely that you’re going to remember the worst thing, because you’ve had to deal with it—you’ve had to rush somewhere or somebody said something mean to you—that’s what you’re going to remember. But if you ask what the best thing is, it’s going to be some particular slant of light, or some wonderful expression somebody had, or some particularly delicious salad. I mean, you never know…
I kept track in a sketchbook. The only real difference between what Baker suggests and what I did was that I didn't necessarily consider what was important was the "best." I didn't want to select the good or the bad in an effort to keep these things-in a way- pure. I tried to leave out extraneous detail but sometimes specifics were important. I didn't spend too much time thinking about the things before I wrote them which is why some things are crossed out. Not that what is crossed out to be ignored, it's just not necessary to understand the importance. I went to get the sketchbook and was startled to find that I began this project on Oct 30th of last year...
IMPORTANT
THINGS
TODAY
10 30 11
THE SOUND THE
TEA KETTLE MAKES
AFTER POURING OUT
SOME WATER AND
THE LID HITS THE
METAL AND THERE
IS STILL WATER INSIDE
CINNAMON LIFE
COMFY RED
SWEATSHIRT
I'm wearing that red sweatshirt and I do not wear it often. This is significant. I don't know why but I know it is. There is a connection between past and present even if it is just that the important things a year ago today are still important. Moments and feelings. Those are the important things. Moments and feelings that happen once and can happen again but never exactly in the same way. The fact that they can reoccur is comforting and the fact that there is always a change is inevitable and exciting.
THE MOST
IMPORTANT
THINGS TODAY
10 30 12
WAKING TO THE SOUND
OF A FRENCH HORN
THE COLOR OF WET LEAVES
ROSE PETAL TEA
ACCEPTING AND
ACCEPTANCE
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