Why wreck a blank canvas?
2010-11-18
At the last apartment I rented, everything was white on white when I arrived. White walls, counters, table, furniture, and carpet.
So I took it one step further, bought five blank canvases, and hung them around the apartment. Especially one big one, right at the entrance.
Visitors would get upset, saying, “You've got to put something there! You can't just leave it blank! It needs color!”
I'd say, “Good point. Like what. What do you imagine?”
They'd say, “Y'know, like some bold splashes of dark red, but not too heavy. Something with clean lines.”
I'd say, “Hmm.... I'm not sure what you mean. Can you describe it more?”
They'd stare at the blank canvas a bit, and go into more detail about what should be on it.
Eventually I'd say, “Nah. Not going to do it.”
“Why not?!?”
“The reason I love the blank canvas is because it makes everyone day-dream. The process of imagining what should be there is much more fun than if something was already there. There have been a hundred paintings imagined onto that canvas. It's got unlimited potential. It'd be a shame to wreck that with a bunch of paint.”
The blank page starts with unlimited potential. But each word you add reduces its possibilities.
Same thing with that business idea you've had forever.
Or that beautiful person you haven't spoken with.
So maybe you should just leave them in your imagination, where they're at their best.
OR...
MAYBE...
The one thing that would be even better is if you
You've been in Asia too long, Sivers.
... in contrast, when I sit down to write, the first thing I do is put an imperfect mark on the page, so that I am not staring at a blank page. My creativity gets *started* once there is something imperfect to build upon.
http://bit.ly/cultofdone
Beautiful thought. Dreaming is fantastic. Realising is even more satisfying, but we can never realise unless we dream. Thanks for sharing.
That's a funny story! Was this at the apartment I visited? That place was beautiful, and definitely pretty white.
How does one think of not-thinking?
... found my blank canvas within
Nice way to see things... I also like the simple things
No Thing = Unlimited Potential
Some Thing = Potential Defined
Really Something = Potential Defined and Realized (made REAL)
There is nothing more wonderful than a blank piece of paper and pencil or pen in hand with which to express something to yourself or others.
It is one of life's great joys that is probably reducing as people jump straight onto a digital screen.
I definitely like the things we don't see.
We are all blank canvases in a way- aren't we?
>>comment left intentionally blank
I think John Cage would have liked this one.
Hi Derek,
What's interesting is that the whole wall was a blank canvas before you actually put one up. (or five)
But only once someone "frames" it, does the urge to fill it turn into a meaningful conversation.
What else needs "framing" in our world? hmm...
Ah, but a single word on it could help connect all those stories and dreams, as well as prod them into the world. Without your verbal prompting as well, those visions would say within our heads.
Interesting story, Derek.
''The one thing that would be even better is if you''.........
Take some Action to make the blank manifest to a ton of money in da bank
How about your new place in Singapore? All white? In Taiwan they always do the white walls. It's a thing of pride. I had to learn not to touch.
Does someone have commitment issues? Maybe,maybe not. Fortunately there's always another blank canvas of some sort right round the corner!
The opposite is also true! Think of the Sisyphus myth. The completed work of art is the rock rolled to the top of the mountain. It teeters ecstatically at the pinnacle for a moment and then rolls back down. It is the rolling back down that stokes the imagination.
Derek, I love the way you think.
BY the time a child is thirty second old it is no longer a blank canvas. The purpose of a blank canvas is not to imagine, although that is a necessary step. It is to become. On your wall, great idea for conversation. In your life, better to do something.
i live with 4 artists.
i'd love to see what would happen if I just hung up a bunch of blank
canvases. they'd probably all go mad.....
The sound of one hand writing nothing.....
I'm all for leaving it to my imagination, but eventually one has to fill in the blanks in order to see the bigger picture.
I painted my interior garage walls and invited people to write whatever on them, after parties and gatherings. I love looking back at the messages and knowing where I have been with people and who has been at my table. People like to write on walls, but respectable people never do, unless they come to my home.
Everyone, right now...
DON'T THINK OF A PINK ELEPHANT, DON'T THINK OF A PINK ELEPHANT, DON'T THINK OF A PINK ELEPHANT.
There.
Looks like we are on the same blank page Derek. I left my walls blank. Much more tranquil, and works well as a background when shooting videos.
You're funny!
I've got work to do - JS
This is why songs are so hard to write in the beginning. Nothing could possibly be as good as I want it to be, right?
Love the way you ended!
Wonderful, thought-provoking blog! I get your point and it certainly has merit but I want to live in a world where there's colour so I chose to paint and re-paint my canvas over and over again. We can't create anything if we keep it locked within our imaginations and don't share it.
Kids would ruin that quickly!
... painted a picture of a blank canvas?
I want to say something, but I am drawing a blank.
blank
imagine what I'm thinking!
oooh, it's SO good!
and FUN!
"The one thing that would be even better is if you" opened your closet and pulled out some paints and brushes and told them to do their part.
{ me }
Just hung my canvas! Great idea!
your apartment would have driven me insane, a living memorial to not having made any choices.
-- Derek
“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice” - Rush
Awesome! Seriously, I'm a fan of art, don't get me wrong, I love a great work hanging on the wall, but I wrote a song called Dreamer about this very thing, the girl in my dreams does way more kinki in my mind than she ever does in real life... Right on Sivers!
Johnny Austin!
inspiring!
I teach my students to treat a dance like a blank canvas, to make pause the default and only move when the music really moves them.
this takes that idea to a new level!
Seriously, I'm doing a project for kindergarden age kids right now and that's exactly my approach. Beauty and very little melody; they can "hear" their own!
well, there's a bunch of reasons on my site. but riddle me this derek, i read your blog because i am a former customer of your CD Baby company. back then, i was happy enough to give you money for CD's full of music, not CD's full of 75 minutes of silence.
it's nice to spend time imagining what *could* be on that canvas, but there's value in actual paintings vs. paintings that do not exist. thought without action does not make a difference to this world...
We just did a resort model room in Maldives. The room was 100% white. Including all furniture cabinets floors walls. Everyone hated it. Funny, when you leave man alone in a white room it drives him insane..
-- Derek
Just makes him hear his own thoughts, instead of others' thoughts, for once.
I'm buying a blank canvas this weekend and hanging it in my living room. Thanks Derek!
This reminds me of a story I heard about JJ Abrams. He bought a box at a magic store when he was a child that was wrapped in question marks which he said “It represents infinite possibility,”
Here is the TED talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html
It basically should never be opened in the same way your canvas's should never be occupied.
The second you do, the mystery is solved.
Thanks for the great post.
it really surprises me as to why you haven't found yourself living in a buddhist temple, looking over a calm lake. I forget the name of the film but you always remind me of a zen monk
I love the way the blank canvas forced an exchange of ideas and revealed the creative heart of the visitor. Nice.
Unless a canvas is painted, how would we ever know it was blank...
A man once took his sons out to a construction site to help him excavate some ditches. They complained that the job was too difficult. The man told his sons that it was easy. The ditches were already there;all they had to do was get the dirt out of them.
-- Derek
Beautiful. You are truly an artist Derek. Looking at the 45 comments before me. Less than 5% of people can get you.
Beautiful.
Blank or not, it's still a choice and with every choice—inevitable consequences. Much as I might like it, I can't live in Paris, Barcelona, Madison and Singapore at the same time. Wherever you are, whatever you do or do not do, you miss out on something else.
But it's okay. It's the trip.
I agree with Sivers. They teach all kinds of nonsense here in Nashville that gets in the way of writing a good song, like "writing to the title", "emphasizing the hook", "matching melody and rhyme scheme in each verse", "bridges should be short", "chorus should rise up from the verse", "what's in it for the woman", etc. etc.
None of this has anything to do with writing a good song. Good songs are about two things, an "idea" and "sound". Everything else is incidental to these two parts of a song. Even instrumentals have both parts; "Baby Elephant Walk", "Wipe Out" and "Green Onions" are about an idea, as well as about sound.
"The Rose" and "The Boxer", for example, are neither written to the title, nor is the title or the hook emphasized. Rather, they are about an idea and about sound, how the complete finished composition falls on the ear of the listener. The same is true about "Slip Sliding Away", "Main Street", "Desperado", "Knocking On Heaven's Door" and most great songs.
And Merle Haggard's probably most successful hit, "Going Where the Lonely Go", which was a huge crossover hit on rock, pop and other stations as well as country, breaks about ever rule I've ever heard taught in Nashville. Setting up rules about songwriting or any other kind of art is never a very good idea.
I have heard all of what I listed above and many more bad ideas taught to songwriters in Nashville, while I have never heard anyone here teach about either the "idea" or the "sound" in relation to songwriting, which might explain why there are at least 50 songs written about the same damn theme of getting drunk in Mexico and, not even the first one was worth hearing even one time.
Thank you, Derek! You have just helped to justify my current artistic and literary paralysis! It is not that I am lacking colorful ideas - rather, I have simply evolved to the white light end of the spectrum!
Picasso wouldn't agree!
If its intent is solid, creativity allows you to harness your inspiration and turn it into something tangible, audible or sensory. It reaches its zenith when others can experience it (whether they like it or not). Otherwise, a magnificent creation - the song unsung, the sketch unpainted, the story not written - remains a desolate white canvas for no one to enjoy, and for the artist only to imagine...
You took away the last argument in favor of getting out of bed in the morning. ;-)
Brilliant! You've just given me the idea I needed for my next release - a blank CD. People will buy my CD and they can look at it and maybe even put it in their player and listen to nothing. We'll do away with all that writing and recording stuff! (just kidding, you know I love you). JW
This reminds me of this proverb: "Speak only if what you are going to say will improve upon the silence."
Moving forward, If I had to eat manna and only manna every day, where I had to choose what I wanted it to taste like, my creativity would not know any better then to choose only what I have experienced in the past...
you've got to be a "trip" to be with !
What ever it takes to get your mind going! To me, real inspiration seems to come from natural things like the sound of a brook or the wind in the trees or maybe an old cowboy tune (like 100 or more years old) that keeps playing in you mind.
A blank canvas is only stimulating to the creative mind, which is in the minority. If this were not so there would be no need for thought provoking art, music, film, or literature.
Thanks for the discussion on the importance of becoming blank. All of us have been painted on and and conditioned so extensively, that the real challenge for any artist or songwriter is to find that blank canvas within that is free from corporate, parental, religious, or governmental mind control. Surprisingly there are still original thoughts, but only after deprogramming one's self. Only then can a person find the fertile void that creativity comes from. For some reason, staring at a fire and thinking of all of the people that have done the same throughout history frees me from the current thoughts. Thinking about the Earth going through space at 63000 miles per hour will do it to. Thanks again
I think i get to understand what u mean. It's kinda similar to the way i like to plan my trips. Every single day i add a new tip to my not-organized-at-all journey. i don't even have decided where to go. People like about it, they give me pieces of advice and suggest/warn about things. But it's a blank plan. And I love it cause it still admits everything!
Regarding the house, i do prefer changing decoration from time to time. Specially when I feel sad or angry. I make changes and furniture by my own with things I have and things that others gonna throw away.
Amazing phrase this one: "The blank page starts with unlimited potential". I'll use with my students of Journalism ;)
When I went to school, I liked to get started a new notebook every year, with their white sheets. A new opportunity to write without errors now time
That's great, if you want the end product to be a perfect blank canvas. It's been said in this thread already, but I feel it's critical to ruin the blankness almost immediately, to avoid freezing with self-loathing/self-editing thoughts like, "Every thing I put here has to be perfect..." Then you'll never play that first note into the perfect silence, and you'll never mar the perfect blank page with that first word. Great if you're seeking zen calm, horrible if your goal is to write, or to play, or to paint. I write gibberish to get the process started; one of my best friends does calculus homework on her canvases before she starts painting.
Love this post, Derek. I appreciate the gentle way that you acknowledge a key barrier to creativity and point the way forward - i.e., take action.
Concerning ways that we can overcome the anxiety produced by confronting blank canvases, allow me to share this piece I wrote last year titled "Getting started" http://musiciansway.com/blog/?p=343
Yes for some people this is a great way to get the inspired.
That is how I paint sometimes. I buy the blank canvas and let it sit around until an idea comes to me.
Thanks for sharing !
What really needs to be said is nothing
Thanks Derek
Perfection...
Tabula rasa! I love the whole concept!
This post made me laugh out loud. I love how you took it one step further with the canvases, especially taking care to place a large black canvas at the entry way. I'm seeing a very funny improv sketch piece forming here...
Make your dream a reality.
Och away man, yer erse is oot the windae with that one. You just dismissed the whole history of Western painting. Let's not bother daydreaming and just paint the bloody things and stop piss fartin' around.
The highest form of imagination is space. I agree with you in leaving the space blank because it does allow people to creatively participate on so many different levels in ways they may never dare to dream or think. Blank Space IS the ultimate canvas for the dreamer. IF there is already somebody's idea sitting on your wall it limits the potential of those who dare to boldly insert their ideas of what that space means to them and how they would fill it in their own way.
You could've saved the money on canvases and just put up empty frames! They're cheaper.
Wow,the people who lived in that apartment would not be wise to:
1. Own a black cat
2. Eat spaghetti
You might say that my life was a blank canvas being defined by the ways of this world instead of being defined by the one who created me, so my canvas is no longer blank because I'm a continual work in progress by Him
Reff:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%203:14-21&version=NIV
Kind of an interesting Rorschach test huh? Probably fascinating insights from people's reactions.
People who don't tend to be creative thinkers could be reminded of the possibilities of imagination and natural creatives could see it as an illustration of how we can't just perfect the world in our imagination - that we need to stop staring at blank canvases if we want to see real world results.
Or it could go the opposite direction and just drive people nuts! As they say, perception is projection.
Fantastic Derek! But, by sharing this with us, you've shown how, in the end, humans cannot live with a blank canvas, have to bring the world of the imagination into the physical realm. If you really loved the blank canvas, you would have kept this story to yourself. But human nature is to share, and art one of our main ways of sharing.
An artist hangs a painting on his wall. Visitor after visitor looks at the painting and says, "Hey! That's not finished! Why don't you finish that?!" And the artist says, "Well, how would you finish it?" And visitor after visitor says, "Well, I'd do this and that and then something else." And the artist says, "Well, that would really defeat the purpose of the art."
I'd imagine that many people have had that experience with an idea of their own. You share it with someone and the person says it's not finished; that is, lists off a handful of ways that it could be changed.
Of course, feedback is great. But if you never say, "OK. This is ready." You'll never hang it on the wall. You'll keep it in your studio, forever a work in progress.
At least, that's what I took from the story. Thanks for sharing.
The white canvas is like childs mind. Really cool idea. Better yet why don't you have some paint and let your guest leave a thought, word, picture, whatever. I did this in my jam room and my friends have left the coolest things on my wall.
Aware of the unlimited potential, I have an overwhelming desire to fill my blank canvasses!
People are still free to interpret the results in hundreds of ways; and, most of all, I continue being creative and productive.
I'm also a Rush fan.
In my world the kids know how to fill the canvas.
The adults want to talk about the rules of the game first...can we , cant we, are we allowed to .
My bedrooms is all shades and textures of white - with a large piece of bleached muslin for "art" - helps me to unwind and help me dream into the next day
About 50% of the general population, based on inborn preferences, would agree with your statement that "..the blank page starts with unlimited potential. But each word you add reduces its possibilities..." and the other 50% would say that if no words were ever added, then no song would ever be written, no invention would ever become a reality, no business would ever be built, and we'd all still be living as dreamers in caves.
... Bill Pere
What do YOU think I should think of this?
When people come to MyGigNet, they see so many potentials in direction and development that they get overwhelmed. They don't know where to start. I only ask, "what do you want, need, or envision?"
The answer is usually pretty quick and clear.
My response: "Then that's what it is."
Followed by: "And....."
I have a few blank canvases in my house, a constant reminder of limitless opportunities.
Perfect Derek! And my life is Empty and Meaningless and Full of Possibilities!!
I like the idea of the 'blank' canvas. It is like a clean slate concept. The idea of a few splashes of read, okay. Hmmn, I just finished a painting. It was of nothing, just a signature. The idea was like a fine bottle of wine. A signature series.
Not sure my wife would go for this idea.. I like it though!
Hi Derek!
I like this because I have begun painting again and I am very happy living in my imaginary world.....heh.. I painted a picture, to sell for cash, and I was encouraged because it sold before I could take it to the gallery...Yeah!! So I am now staring at a blank canvas...imagining...getting ready to paint again!! It's a beautiful world!!
Rachel
... replicated the blank canvas, put them on amazon for $2.99, and go on the lecture circuit.
"Blank Canvas" is my bands name
never put off today what you can put off tomorrow
I once painted my living room white, no pictures were hung. I was so uncomfortable sitting in the room, I had to repaint it cream. I'm uncomfortable with white....even a blank canvas, I quickly give a slight wash.
Open it up and explore the potentials. A blank canvas is like a glass of water. You say that with each word you restrict it's potential whereas I think with each word you create new potentials or avenues. Here in Edmonton they have a campaign to rid the city of ALL graffiti which I find insulting. Graffiti is a cultural characteristic of a city. Look at New York, Chicago, LA, any major City in the World and the Graffiti "Says" something different in each one of these Cities. But as much as some may hate it, it is Art. I wrote to our Mayor and asked if he was trying to make Edmonton an "All White" City ..... White or blank canvas is great but exploring your thoughts or ideas is freeing the canvas from the prison it resides.
We have had the same blank canvas in a bag in many walk in closets over the years. Now I finally know what to do with it, if I manage to dig it out.
Reason is: choosing is a profound acceptance of our ephemeral existence. All other choices left untouched. Beautifully excruciating.
And choice of emptiness should be better than having not been born at all. I think Malevich did the white thing so wonderfully.
Postscript to my comment.
In my house my wife and have every room a different color. Kitchen Bright Gold/Yellow, Living Room Aqua Blue, Office - Apple Green, Craft room - Brick Red, Master Bedroom Royal Blue, and you get the idea .....
Cultivate the ideas and don't let the outside World interfere !
it's the discussion of what friends imagine that's interesting. But our imagination is fluid, so to actually imprint the page or canvas with one's imagination is to capture it forever. My memory is one thing, a photo of that memory is another... But you got me thinking!!!
I like your line about a blank canvas making everybody daydream!
Sometimes white on white has value as it tends I have found to clear the mind and give some very sterile thinking to things. Not that this is a good thing to have a steady diet over by any long shot, but from time to time its like a big boost.............just my thoughts.
There's plenty more blank canvasses if you stuff up. You wouldn't expect a four year old to bring back a blank sheet of paper from pre-school, and it's always a masterpiece. Sometimes a blank canvas means fear of commitment or fear of failure. But imagination has it's place.
Well, maybe "Blank Canvas" is a good idea for a song. Try sending it to some Nashville songwriters and see if they can "hook" it to death, so you never want to hear the concept uttered again.
I'm reminded of Rod Stewart's song "Lady Day", which is a story told from beginning to end without any rhymes at all other than two incidental rhymes; no hook, no title to speak of, no repeating verse, no chorus, no bridge. And all kinds of "umm's", "la, la, las" and other noises thrown in spots by Stewart to fill in blank places where there is otherwise no lyrics.
I wonder if he asked permission from his mother first, before ignoring the so-called "rules" and "tools" of songwriting...
Hey Derek,
I think it's our nature to participate and transform. Children on a beach, musicians sculpting sound...it's not about doing it or not. For me it's about the sensation of the impulse that says "jump in...go for it," and then comes the joy of illustrating ourselves when we do.
For some....a blank canvas is an excuse. As long as it is blank, you can dream what you are going to put on it. "One day, I'm going to put something cool on that canvas. I've got so many great ideas." Once you put something on it, you have committed to a responsibility. A responsibility to respect the inspiration and do the work required to FINISH the vision.
For some....the dream is enough.
Weird how art and fear go hand in hand, eh?
Imagination is more powerful than knowledge.
Mr. Einstien wrote that and I'm guessing he always started with a blank canvas.
Something always comes from no-thing. So nothing and something form a harmony. The blank canvas is already "ruined" by simply being in it's presence.. it's already being "interpreted". On the other hand, I can't STAND to leave sh*t alone!!!
--- a blank comment? ---
The main thing I take from this blog is a blank canvas provoked diversity in thoughts/ideas. Whereas a beautiful or abstract painting may provoke limited thoughts/ideas or thoughts/ideas relating to only one facet of life.
The last thing is this: What works for a few may not work for a few more.
Everyone walks to a different destination.
Good post Derek!
People will see what they choose to see whether it is blank canvas or not. Each individual has their own interpretation of what they see and hear. The artist has no control over that and must continue to create.
They say silence is golden. I think minimalism is sophistication.
People will see what they choose to see whether it is blank canvas or not. Each individual has their own interpretation of what they see and hear. The artist has no control over that and must continue to create.
love your blogs and sometimes, love the replies even more--
interesting how infinite possibilities has left many people replying with only a few words
Staying in the question--what a humanoid concept--
As my nephew would say:
I Yikes it!
I love this! If I use the imagination, it will look different everyday as my perception of life and the world changes. One person can look at this and see it as nothing, while another looks at it as a gateway. Brilliant!
Here's Malevich's white on white -
look at this carefully!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ad/Marevich%2C_Suprematist_Composition-_White_on_White_1917.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimir_Malevich
Boy, do I love this ! It is always the incompletion, that which fires the imagination. It is never the completion; it is the desire to complete without the doing. The could be, the could have been. How much of the creative energy of life is consumed in what could have been. You can always control the verity in your own mind. It is only when it is exposed to the reality of out there that it becomes less, other than what I meant. Derek,you do good. You always make me think! Thank you!
I'm smiling....
The use of imagination is why a book is always SO much better than the eventual movie that is created based on the story depicted in the book. Something---make that IMAGINATION is lost in translation.
isn’t
easy
is it?
Or paint the walls, and leave the canvas blank.
I am happy you chose not to leave this canvas blank when you wrote this.
Artful, thought provoking and inspiring.
Thank you.
I like the middle path. Have some parts of your space very open and others more crowded, with a pretty good border around things hanging from the wall.
Another point - I often look around the walls of my house and see my guitars on hooks, a painting by an artist I know, a print we bought in Paris, a glass bowl from Venice etc. and getting a lot of pleasure going down memory lane.
Very well s__d.
A blank canvas evokes a gaggle of thoughts and emotions... "The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen, not touched, but are felt in the heart." Helen Keller
"Before you speak, consider first weather or not the silence is better." I forget who said this but its pretty brilliant.
Love It.
White = reflection of All color.
The blank canvas = infinite imagination.
Carol, no doubt Derek has merit as an artist, though I disagree that less than 5% of people "get him" We all get him ... Imagine if you will, what the World would be like if we were all agreeable ...
#
# Carol N (2010-11-18) #
Beautiful. You are truly an artist Derek. Looking at the 45 comments before me. Less than 5% of people can get you. smile
Beautiful.
Brilliant!
Nice... great stuff once again... thought provoking... and not to mention... this could save me a bundle on my next home decorating ;-)
Wow. It's just like Jumbo Jacks with No cheese.
One word ~ Brilliant!
I appreciate this very much.
We're always telling our story aren't we.
Imagination is more important than acrylics= Albert Einstein
..you'd like it in Scandinavia then..there can also be something souless, empty and homogenous with all white..a blank canvas surrounded with colour would be more up my street. Etch A Sketch is wot yoo need m8.
This is a great idea. More than likely some would take this concept to their canvas or instrument at home and try to make some money (with their art).
I agree with leaving things to the imagination,that's the engine room for so many us-the driving force.
Just Genius..........
The subtley of understatement. Shibumi.
Imagination is the reason for nearly all we produce or have.
"What if..." is the most powerful tool of the human mind.
Daydream about what the people who come and don't make any comments say when they leave.
Wow his place was bland, what a void, and they say he's brilliant...too bad brilliance can't buy you taste.
I feel like my canvas is already full. Time to start over.
My sister and her husband's house still has the white primer on the walls in a large part of the downstairs area. They are thinking about painting the walls but I keep telling them the plain white is awesome and they should keep it
Less is more. Rest for the eyes and mind.
i LOVE that vibe man...thats one of the best insites you've sent and believe me my mind has created millions of answers to the "why dont you" .....lol...seriously!!!
.
So you're basically paraphrasing Michaelangelo who said the sculptures he made were already there in the stone...he just had to expose them...only he didn't just leave the stones lying around...consider yourself exposed.
Yep, been away too long! Gotta make a mark, or how will anyone know that you were around? Kinda like pulling your finger out of glass of water and looking for the hole! Maybe we are not supposed to leave reminder, beats me! I have no idea of what is really important any longer! Gotta do something to make me feel good, the rest of the world can take care of itself!
hey Derek -
Geddy Lee was paraphrasing Sartre when he sang, "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."
Nice choice btw ;)
Einstein use to have 7 sets of the same attire hanging in his closet. He said it made his life simpler. I love that thought. In doing so, I wear the same thing everyday and don't have to make any decisions except: "Is this clean or used"?
My Idea of success is being able to go about my business without a wallet or keys of any kind. I can think of 2 sure ways to do that.
your form wouldn't let me leave a blank comment!
just when I thought that would be clever.
or MAYBE....
temporarily turn your Fantasy frequency down to zero... along with all desire for worldly accomplishment..
wait...maybe tap a drum lightly to help you wait....
....and see what comes into your consciousness...
????? what will you do next ??????
This made my day. The concept of blank canvas hanging on the wall really does challenge one's mind. If you're OK with this I have a small canvas her in my office that I will hang up to see what responses I get.
I think even a blank canvas should at least by signed by the artist!
I once saw a documentary about Syd Barrett and he said the same thing, about reducing possibilities. It would probably begin to explain some of the inertia he fell into after getting booted from Pink Floyd.
However, inertia tends to be overwhelming and stifles creativity, so, one the one hand, defining something limits it, but never beginning it at all..."LET THERE BE LI....ahhh, nevermind".
A white canvas is a new beginning and starting something new makes you feel...
Young
Powerful
Playful
Free
Creative
and expansive.
But when you start bringing up old situations and dragging those worn-out things you could have left behind and put them into this new venture - that’s when limitations start, right? Hey! What if everyone really believed that each moment was a white canvas? Maybe use it as a sail instead of painting and not for a ship in a bottle.
Looks like a convection heater.
It does let one to imagine what one wants & liberates the mind.
This is a lot like the point i try to make with people about the creation of a piece of music, and what argument you would make for it, as an improvement over the silence it has replaced.
Great and some great comments created from the haze of white. Too hospitalized for me. We all have our own things me I always wanted to be in a rainbow painted room maybe a reminder I am chasing a pot of gold...Or just cause I am spiritual. I just went to a 17 year old girls funneral she had a white coffin and the kids all wrote messages in different coloured felt pens. It makes me think that at least one of the canvases could of been for writing messages and one could of been turned into a ever changing picture. Let the visitors leave something new each time. Just what came to my minds blank canvas...
I agree. The most inspirational thing to me as a songwriter is a brand new legal pad. Imagine all the creative opportunities it holds. All the song ideas I'll write in it, the house plans I dream up...like a blank canvas-it is the best thing to keep in front of you!
now that IS thinking outside the box..... call it 'minimalist' art and ...gee....just look at the VERY subtle brush strokes!
cheers
Interesting psychological experiment Derek ... but ...
Why are you encouraging people to leave the canvass blank? encouraging fear of failure? ... (i.e., the first word or brush stroke will limit what else you can do, so don't!) ... encouraging fear of creativity?
Don't be afraid people! Paint your canvass any damn way you want to ... paint hundreds, thousands of canvasses ... put "yourself" into it. Unless you're blank inside.
Of course this could also be procrastination dressed up to look profound! LOL!
YES! Finally. People have reacted in a similar way to my musick. Use your imagination!
I just had the best laugh of my day with the first response...Holmes...on this page. Well maybe you have been in Asia too long ! So this is where we hear it for human differences ! I could never live in all that white....love the
snow,love white lilies,love white
ice cream,love some white furniture,
paint etc but would go crazy within 24 hours living in an
operating room or dentist office
decor. As for blank canvas theories; I'd have to say that day
dreaming,imagining,and paying attention to dreams and instinct are absolute necessities for everyone-be they in the arts or not. Some artistic creations need
pre heat, slow cooking ,even cooking over night . Some need fast-as-a whip-open-up-a-can-of-beans-and stir.I use all...most
people do. There comes a point when
we are ready to "put it down".The
trick is not to allow the soul connection to our work be dictated
by "striving for a final form".That
is a whole long work shop in its self.
With deep respect to you and
everyone .Vivre les differences !
wichampi.
Some days my canvas seems blank. Then my inner muse takes over and paints it hot pink.
I always dig your ideas and examples, Derek. This is very YOKO ONO of you. I love her concept works, like a painting in the mind. She has instructions for paintings and art actions that you can imagine. Imagining the painting or art action is just as good - and even more freeing, in a way, than finalizing the canvas for all time.
Another brilliant fave (that you may know of) is her little canister marked "sound of snow falling on Mount Fuji." Inside is a short piece of reel to reel audio tape. So lovely!
Thank you, Derek!
Two words:
Paul Rebhan
You are one crazy white guy.
Yeah, but I've got some really nice art, I'm not at all tempted to hang blank canvasses instead.
Your right, as usual.
Everyone has a different idea of what should be. The only reason people ever like the same thing is when the media (T.V. commercials, top 40 radio) repeats something over, and over, until it destroys your ''blank canvas'' entirely.
That's why lame songs get to be hits, woman marry for money, and people work 9 to 5 all there lives! In the end it seems conforming to society is a huge mistake
Finally! A truly creative post.
Creativity=Possibilities=Creativity
Too bad our organizations are canvases covered with management-inspired junk instead of employee-inspired possibilities.
Well done, Derek.
nice one! I get similar reactions to an empty spot in my living room where people expect a TV.
I guess in a way to me TV is the opposite to a blank page and leaves no room for imagination.
People are douches. White is the whole spectrum of colours, while black is the whole spectrum of colors, but absorbed instead of being spread.
White=all colors in one.
If this doesn't make sense, people need more white to understand.
If they can.
imagine what you would have done with an all black apartment, with a black canvas on the wall...
Derek; I Love the concept and the thought of expanding one's mind. I think it would eventually drive a sane person crazy. A blank canvas in a way does make a statement. All you need to do is have two small black dots,the size of golf balls call them eyes and wait for a viewers reaction. BUT! I have to agree with Christine B, I need a little color in my life.
Thanks for the thought provoking article. take care
Sand paintings have become a type of performance as the painter creates, destroys and creates again. The continual act of creation is displayed on a large screen for audience viewing. Of course, there is dramatic musical accompaniment which I find distracting and beside the point.
The concept of tabula raza relates to the concept of a creator which will ultimately, if sufficient desire is present, express what is in its soul, and commence a process which must run to its ultimate conclusion. One could argue that we are in the midst of such a creation, and are twisting and turning it according to our conflicting wills as we move forward in time as we inevitably must, and if what we do displeases the creator, it's tabula raza time again, so let's make/do something beautiful, shall we? like an apartment of blank canvases on blank walls, expressing the unexpressed.
This concept made me laugh, and I've yet to figure out why, or whether I should even ask, but if I had to guess, I would say that the moment of realization, when the light shone into Derek's head, and he began to ponder being and nothingness as regards his apartment, reminded me of the many similar experiences I've had, which for some odd reason I find wildly, joyfully amusing. Perhaps it's a counterbalance to the dreary everyday thoughts that one has accepted and become dependent on and hasn't thought or dared to question...like the rat who has learned the extent of his maze and runs round it endlessly without learning a thing, until a ray of light penetrates and leads to a whole new world.
Thanks for this one, Derek.
Kinda like looking at God, a blank canvas describes HIM better than a zillion Idols, but if you look real close you see the face of everyone having ever lived, living & ever will live, all at once, kinda like writing a song. Besides I have more fun writing than remembering & repeating.
Very good point. Derek
lol
very wise and very true but there is a but,
a possibility is as dead as a dead horse and equaling nothingness if you dont use the potential as a source of expressing that potential.
Life and experiencing life should be the same . you cant experience a potential unless you have chosen it to develop it in order to experience it. even white is a visible metaphor for all possibilities as it obviously is not, as white can be experienced so in a way it is finished ( developed and becomes tangible). It is light which by itself is invisible and transparent which is the true potential of all colors and not as an metaphor.
But i got the point :D
Only in your rented apartment can the potential of the blank canvas be kept blank in spite of your guests trying to drag in change; elsewhere, life tends to fill in the blanks though we may not always like what's put there....so we stress out trying to alter what life put there, but the potential of the blank never gets back to its purity and innosence....
White can be really classy
U need a little creativity to see possibilities
Once you go with infinite possibilitities, many will say ´ nah,can´t be done, impossible,it´s dumb,blasbhemy!!! ...
just because they are afraid to take the unknown path!...
You simply choose not to limit yourself! Never they realize, that you don´t seek power!! It comes only to those who don´t seek power, but the truth absolute. Whatever it is. ONE thing is certain: It is always in the realms of unknown.... because It simply abides in the eternal NOW. Therefore unlimited...you will receive, all you venture to give, all we say it´s our souls-sight-listener! Till we sail! & I will be there! Yes tfto. Wonderful Sails! ;)
I was going to mention the Syd Barrett story that seems the most relevant to musicians... Syd actually lay in bed for weeks and months (years?) because if he made any decision he immediately limited all his other possibilities... he was afraid to even sit up and put his feet on the ground.
Duggie Fields: When he gave up the group he took up painting again for a bit, but he never enjoyed it. He didn't really have a sense of direction. He used to lie in bed every morning, and I would get this feeling like the wall between our rooms didn't quite exist, because I'd know that Syd was lying in bed thinking, “What do I do today? Shall I get out of bed? If I get out of bed, I can do this, and I can do that - or I can do ‘that’, or I could do ‘that’.” He had the world at his feet, all the possibilities, and he just couldn't choose. He had great problems committing himself to any action. As for committing himself to doing anything for any length of time - he was the kind of person who'd change in the middle. He'd set off, lose his motivation, and start questioning what he was doing - which might just be walking down the street. http://www.pink-floyd.org/barrett/quotes.html
For me the blank Tarot card in the Rider Tarot deck always fascinated me. In the early ‘90’s I used to have a blank Tarot card stuck on my wall above my desk and would let my mind fall into it sometimes with the same intent with which I read my normal Tarot. I used it as an open invocation tool.
While I was just researching the blank Tarot card I found this – a whole deck of blank cards that are supposed to be used to make your own designs… but imagine just doing a reading with all blank cards! http://astore.amazon.com/abraxastarot-20/detail/0913866229/002-5221495-2539218
In my search for 'emptiness' in the ‘90’s I also found that in a pack of Domino's there is a 'double-blank'. For a while I carried one in my pocket to remind me of blankness when I was out in the world too, and I could turn it with my fingers in my pocket a bit like Tibetan Mala Beads http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_prayer_beads and feel the blankness.
That leads me to my next point about Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen practices that revolve around the focus on ‘emptiness’ http://bodhi.sofiatopia.org/dzogchen.htm
Very creative - in your own way Mr. Sivers
this way, the picture will always be different to each person who sees the blank canvas. I work in an art store (although I'm administrative not and artist) and no two artists are alike.
Many times I am inspired by the creativity in others. It pushes a button somewhere in my soul that prompts the creative side in me. Put some paint and brushes nearby and invite your guests to feel free to participate in the finished work.Could turn out to be a masterpiece.
Sometimes things are best if left alone...adding something takes away from it!
I always kept my walls white in apartments that I rented. Mostly because I didn't want to have to paint it back to white when I moved out.
Still, all white is kinda dull, no? I always envied people with great paintings and decorations at their places.
So THAT'S why I'm not getting any dates lately. Everyone's staring at blank canvases!
Kabbalistic tradition explains that the blank white parchment of a Torah scroll represents the infinite light of God. The problem with confronting the infinite light of course is that it is so overwhelming that nothing can be seen, perceived, or understood.
When the scribe starts to write the words of the Torah with the obligatory black ink he blocks out the "light" of God, but paradoxically it is only then that we can begin to understand and "see" God.
Just a little thought that seemed to go along with what you wrote.
Sincerely, Moshe Averick
I see what you did there.. =]
Art and decor can upstage the form and function of a space, imposing moods and snagging attention from the central activity of a room, leaving it more static than dynamic.
On another note, my friends' "eco-resorts" in Baja were so much better during their early wall-less construction than after completion. Open air kitchens and showers, using composting toilets and tents, made for a better experience there.
bravo derek
If I was living in a white apartment it would very quickly become brown ... scary ... yes I like the idea of a blank canvas ... my challenge however is not imagination but completion which Im not sure if a blank canvas would inspire ... love your work!
I dunno Derek.
This whole universe is a black void and the only reason there is light is because we are putting it here.
So why would anyone decide to create blackness?
Love,B
Great inspirational message. Well taken! Thanks
Derek,
, just like that if you keep you canvas devoid of unwanted things it will be ready to receive all sorts of experiences.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Although I came up with a different conclusion. Mine was to do with being empty yourself so that you are open to new ideas that people can project on you. You know it is like that story of a sage asking for more tea while his cup was full. You can't really get more tea if you are all full
-rsg
Paint It Black
I want to see it painted, painted, painted black!!
Sorry - just had to
Keep on rocking, and smiling everyone!
I think you should make one of those canvases a dry erase board and hand your guests a dry erase marker as they enter your apartment. ;)
FUNNY!
Derek, the canvas was not blank when you put it up. It contained 'the energies and colors' of your thoughts or purpose.
You seemed to have achieved what you set out to do.
Awesome
Why the blank canvas if the wall was already white - why not just hang a frame?
A similar way to induce a dream state is to stare out of the window - I spent a lot of my school time doing that - especially in lessons of subjects that didn't interest me with teachers that didn't motivate me.
At some point, though, we have to commit as artists and people to putting the first brush stroke (or note for us musicians) and find the courage to overcome our paralyzing perfectionism and make one creative decision after another until we have a painting, a new song, or a finished CD.
This is a great idea if all your visitors have wonderful visual imaginations and are feeling creative when they step inside your place.
If not, then it might be wise of you to make these double-sided with something truly wonderful on the flip-sides, and flip them for the people that visit you who have 'blank canvases' inside their minds and seek external stimulations to find their satisfactions...
My oldest daughter's response was, "let your imagination run wild". I say add a low bass beating every 1/4 note and a high pitch sound noting on the 1/16. Add a straight jacket to the participant then the effect with create a long lasting affect.
...put something down that you're not afraid to look at. If you don't like it you can always wipe it clean.
all my blank canvases are under the bed since I closed my eyes to see and bent my hear to hear..., music
This space [ ] intentionally
...left blank
well done Derek
Each day is a white canvas. Decorate each one to define your life.
I love the idea. I just don't think I'd like to live with that in my place. If I visited or stayed there to experience that kind of "art" I would be thinking about the shadows and the light which to me are a kind of color. My walls are also white and I don't feel a need to put up art either because they are always changed by the ongoing change by natural light. (But when I broke the landlord's clear clock with 4 black stick people at 6, 9, 12 and 3, I brought a very small Rie Munoz with me to put in its place.)
Light is always a kind of color so to me there is no blank canvas. The idea sort of represents to me a newborn - it will become itself eventually. Also, what were the shape of the canvases you used? Shape also influences thought and imagination in my opinion, as it carves out the shadows. :D
White on white apartment? I'm not going to your place for dinner! Man, you'd love these weirdo architects in Tokyo.
Fantastic Derek what a great idea why mess it up with a colored picture. Might as well keep the whole place white for conversation. Perfect. Cathy
I like it. Thanks for the thought.
I have bought you a paint brush and a few tubes of paint for Christmas, Derek.
If you don't want to spoil the canvas, you can paint on the back.
What a fun essay!
Adam
What if it was a blank sphere?
Uncarved block
i like the fact that the blank canvas leaves room for everybody -- there's no pushing or insistence on "self;" no branding; no logo or endorsement; or blind following of the style du jour. just space.
i like that.
I didn't read all the comments so someone may have beat me to it, but there's a play called "Art" that basically is about a guy who buys a huge "painting" of a blank canvas. It certainly brought up a lot of stuff for his friends. It's a great play if you ever get a chance to see it. As a composer, I often don't listen to music for months on end because I want to be more in tune with my own music and to be more of a blank canvas. I like your aesthetic!
That is a great idea! You should also put some some frames with some blank Polaroid pictures in it.
It is very inspiring to have to get other peoples ideas without asking for them too.
Thought you had stopped posting on your blog. Glad to see your writing again. Always very inspiring!
Thanks!
Definitely a cliff hanging thought...
I believe you can have a blank room not an entire apartment, the idea of creativity is great, but life is full of colors.
That line of thinking feels a little introverted and maybe even a tad selfish.
No offense, just saying.
Say for instance you equate white with silence.
All of my songs would be perfect (if they never left my head) BUT I'd never have anyone to share them with.
Half the fun of breathing life into the silence or the white space is the sharing and the inspiring that results from the physical manifestation - kind of like a domino effect of inspiring others.
Imagine if Monet would have kept his canvases blank, or the Beatles would've kept their music in their heads or Derek Siver's kept this Indie CD distribution idea in his head.
Life would feel a little empty, a little boring.
Either way, it was a genius way of looking at things and very thought provoking. I love the way everyone thinks on here.
Have paint available and tell folks to put up or shut-up...
Ken, you nailed it!
Derek,
Most interesting! Leaves a lot to the imagination. You are a true Artist.
It takes real vision to do something like that!..
Keep up the good work.
Eileen
I tried to enter a 'blank' comment but it wouldn't allow me to. Kind of like the way my brain won't allow me to go 'blank'.
Solitoode
.
Beats Yves Klein's "Blue Monochrome" hanging in MOMA in NYC.
I loved the story. And I love the idea of all that white for it's serenity.
Once again your genius amazes me Derek.
Being a visual Artist- painter-stone sculptor I can totally relate to this blank canvas concept. Did you know Picasso did that at one point of his career, He signed a blank canvas. It had never been done before and therefore qualified as a new contribution to the world of Art.
Perhaps that's the message here, is that we all need to keep a focus or sometimes a lack of it to produce something new that hasn't been done before. It's important for me to always be seeking to make a new contribution to Art and Music. Something that hasn't been done. Derek knows how experimentive I am. I recall him communicating with me about how much music we were releasing and that he understood that we could improve and further develop our sketches of some songs we released. Our band was formed in the David Bowie Gallery swapping Mp3's so it was very interesting seeing the final song because we'd never know what it would be. It left something to the imagination like you refer to here Derek.
I must admit I love White Too and did the exact same thing with my last studio. Everything was painted white. It's clean,bright ,cheerful and like a dream as I see it.
You should once again be complimented for stimulating our creative juices. I just love you Derek. You're the best mate.
By the way as an Artist I recently had to make the most difficult choice of my life. Stay in steady eddy safe zone and not do my Art and Music or leave my marriage and do what I know best. I left and am so happy now. I still love my wife but cannot work there and grow. That was a tough call but the right thing to do to allow myself to be what I really am. It's the old not being afraid to jump off the diving board into the unknown.
see www.cdbaby.com/cd/openeyeu1
Cheers to you Derek!
Derek, I've wanted to ask that question of God more than once.
I find blank canvases to confusing. I need something drawn there so that I have boundaries, but not too much detail so that I can imagine the rest.
No one's mentioned the simple beauty of the Beatles' White Album cover. We used to stare at it, stoned, and really get into the music because there was no distraction.
God love that band!
-- Spider
Ha-ha some one is jerking our collective chains. I seem to remember some modern artists back in the 60's actually trying to sell blank pieces of canvas with similar explanations of the beauty: "is that it represents nothing therfore it represents everything and everyone"...... (art for the masses). Seems like I read a similar explanation just recently about how the random videos on youtube were beautiful for the same reason. No we dont need Blank Canvases we need Blank minds! Ooops we already have tons of those! Ellsworth Toohey would Im sure see the utility in the blank canvas ..... I think its time for me to go back and reread "The painted word" good one Derek!
Looking at a blank canvas is like listening to silence. You can really hear infinite melodic possibilities that shift and change seemingly on it's own but voicing a melody often ends up dictating only one way of conceiving a melody or sound.
As a visual artist I find this topic particularly intriguing. In my efforts throughout the years I’ve always adhered strongly to the theory of creation out of destruction, that is at any given moment being fully prepared to deconstruct or obliterate what has been created and reduce it down to the bare “white” surface if necessary for the purpose of keeping the picture plane endlessly open and full of possibilities. In this way nothing can be done that can’t be undone or redone for that matter.
doo witty witty doo witty witty
doo witty witty dah...
Zang bangalang zang bangalang
zang bangalang blah...
Or kippy kippy flor nippy nippy
ziffy diffy miffy doo
I dropped my brushes...
now it's up to you...
A famous artist called Albert was interviewed by a reporter who visited him at his home in central OZ. He owned a lot of neighbouring houses that were filled with his relatives. Rep:- "How did you pay for all these houses Albert? Not from painting surely?". Albert:"No. I made my money out of mining."
"What?, gold or silver?"
Albert: "No, Kalsomining!"
This is why I tend to make instrumentals or instrumentals with sound effects. Because, people tend to personalize everything and the lack of words in a song has got some of the greatest comments I have received.
It's a beautiful thing.
Excellent. The stifling of people's imagination is in constant play in today's society. It is what you "the viewer" make of it. An open book, an open page to leave a mental mark and remember the calmness before the color of emotion and memory.
You know the Sondheim musical "Sunday In The Park With George?" It ends with these lines:
"White. A blank page or canvas. His favorite. So many possibilities..."
I've got a fairly recent tune with the hook line of "I want to know you like before I know who you are", meaning before I spew all my thoughts about you all over you. Because she is truly so much more fascinating, grand and mysterious than my thoughts or my "knowing" what she is could ever be. A bit of a similar thought in some ways to your blank canvas. I feel like we all have paint guns for minds, that spew all over everything we think we see. Then we see what we painted. And so it is - and no doubt as it should be. Thank you for this and all your other essays, Derek - keep them coming! (On your own schedule, of course!)
huh?
You should get a white piano and give a performance of John Cage's "Silent Sonata."
I took a liturgical arts class at the Grunewald Guild in which the teacher recommended that you make arts for particular worship services out of the flimsiest, most degradable materials possible, so they will not last and possibly become sacred cows. "Don't fill every space in the church with banners," she said. "Artists who come to the church will think you don't have a place for them. Don't tell the artists 'We already have a Thanksgiving banner.' Leave room for artists to create." I love to see the art that is emerging from people in and around our church. (Fairview, Oregon)
Ah! Therefore by having the blank canvas it forces creativity. Interesting. However, in regards to thomasknoll (2010-11-18) comment, "... in contrast, when I sit down to write, the first thing I do is put an imperfect mark on the page, so that I am not staring at a blank page. My creativity gets *started* once there is something imperfect to build upon." Also a very interesting idea as well and a potential cure for writer's block when the black canvas isn't helping. Finding your creative mind can be quite a task in itself at times. It's almost like saying, "I'm going out to find myself. If you should by chance see me return before I get back... hold me until I get there."
Wonderful thoughts, expressed well. Thanks.
I have registered a lot of domains, for different kinds of businesses. I keep daydreaming about doing this or that. I know that once I actually launch a business, I will be too busy to think of any others, and that will of course narrow down my choices. So far, I haven't picked which one to start first. Your article has put things into perspective, and I think it will help me decide.
Thanks!
I HAVEN'T HAD YOUR BLOG IN MY INBOX FOR SOME TIME, AND I WAS WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED. NOW I KNOW; I'VE BEEN GETTING BLANK E-MAILS!
SERIOUSLY, DEREK, THANKS. THOUGHT-PROVOKING AS USUAL.
love it, lol!
in your honour i'm going to put 4'33" on my iPod and listen to it on repeat all afternoon.
I'm not sure I agree with the statement "The blank page starts with unlimited potential.
But each word you add reduces its possibilities."
In the abstract this is of course true. But in practice, some of us can be so overwhelmed by a blank canvas that the creative juices just can't get flowing. For folks in this situation a word or two (while limiting the totality of possible options) actually opens the way for us to engage the process of creation.
So in this case limiting the canvas a little creates a more accessible canvas to work on.
take a leap
Good Point! Leave them guessing. When it is filled with their ideas, you have no room for your own.
Derek you have just sold about 255
Blank Canvas caused allsorts of Problems in the Home Me trying to stop what Friends I have Left from touching my White Picky surrounded
by my coloured one's. Now just Stop It. MTNMAN.
You should get a dwarf butler to stand there and hold the blank canvas. Then if people said "You can't have just a blank canvas", you could distract them with the dwarf.
You know, because it's a dwarf.
I like to dream
and have lots of dreams
but I find that if it feels like I just might be able to pull off the dream, such that it might actually turn into a reality, the dream is much more satisfactory.
so, contrariwise, if I go for a long time without every carrying out any of these dreams, they become less plausible
and because of that
I absolutely have to, every so often, actually follow through, and carry out one of the dreams, to keep the dreaming close enough to the realm of the possible,
otherwise the dreaming loses its pizzazz
and I would lose interest in even dreaming.
B
You'll love this scene from Singapore then Derek - ImprovEverywhere paints a blank canvas at Raffles Place. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfIXcf43ph0
Derek:
)
Thanks for sharing your lovely story. I lived in a house which had all white walls, white furniture, & white carpet for many years. One day I decided to remodel the gameroom and had it painted olive green. It became the room that I wanted to be in most often. It was peaceful, warm & inviting. Pretty soon the whole house inside was painted colors. My home music studio is now lime green with black furniture. Adding the color changed everything! It was like getting a new house without ever moving.
It's the same with songwriting, the notebook is blank, then a song is scribbled down & it gives it life.
BTW, I used to live in Singapore, yeah it's nicer than Kazakhstan
No one can become great without using imagination. Great and precise article Dee.Thanks for picking our brains again.
Dear Derek,
I like to build rhythms like that.
Less is more!
All the very best
Ray
Clinging to only potential seems a bit treacherous to me. But maybe that's just me.
Based on this, I am stimulated to publish and release a very significant multimedia CD, DVD, and book package that I have imagined and that will be distributed as 350 blank pages within two hard covers, and virgin DVD and CD discs! This unique entertainment package will be titled, "Unltd. Possibilities"....suggested retail price of $39.99.
You may go to my site and request advance orders!
U This is life blank canvas is truthfully
your life is show
blank canvas ?
you is truths man.
Good Dear Friend............
I took the notes off my score
I took the ingredients out of my recipes
I took the letters off my keyboar
Thanks for sharing this Derek, love the idea. All my interior design issues are now resolved! I've always found it interesting how uncomfortable people can get with purity.
Hi Derek,
We're obviously on the same page... or canvas.
15 years ago I designed a new home office that is truly white-on-white. I ripped everything out of the space, including window sills, and started with a 20x30 empty box called a room. I painted the walls and ceiling white and installed a white marble floor. I then proceeded to design white desktops attached to two walls, put in a white leather sofa, white high-back chair, white computers, etc. I also installed six recessed halogen ceiling lights on faders. And here's the kicker: I have one very large canvas. Blank. White.
My office space is beyond neo-futurist. Beyond minimalist. Almost beyond Zen.
I've never been happier.
Here's why I did it.
I've always believed that the most important thing in a given space should be The Person in that space. I also happen to LOVE white because it's not a color. Rather it's the combination of ALL colors. That's how I relate to it.
So you see Derek, we are truly on the same page.
Signed,
One of your oldest friends,
Thomas
Love it!
We built a big beautiful home and kept it white for 5 years (except the kitchen was maple cabinets and deep green counters). We put it on the market and although we had dozens of lookers, no one bought it for an entire year.
We took it off the market and I decided to put color in every room with matching drapery, bedding, furniture, accessories. Everyone who saw it said it was "gorgeous".
We put it back on the market with the price much, much higher. We had contracts the first day on the market with the buyer requesting everything in the home that matched (bedding, drapery, etc).
Our subconscious mind is trained that blank canvases are void of life, when in fact, its unlimited by what our imaginations can create.
Another Thought Provoking Post Derek! Hugs.
What good is money if you don't spend it?
Leave one wall blank for imagination purposes but not the whole apartment.
Always a thought provoker and always a pleasure. Thanks Derek for all that you do.
Visual 4:33? Placing canvases forces an "art" or "painting" perspective whereas having *nothing* doesn't force anything. Warhol's favorite artwork = an empty frame on the wall. Great topic.
Also... this scenario is such a great litmus test for a person's headspace/subconscious attitude. The meta-Rorschach = I'd worry about working with someone who has a negative reaction to an empty scenario such as the white-on-white idea. Half-full v. empty etc.
I once asked someone "what would you suggest I do with my music, then?" It was a question that came after a discussion on why my music had not yet broken out.
There response?
"I wouldn't do anything with it. Just let it be. The moment you start marketing it, is the moment the beauty of it dies."
Okay, maybe they were a bit harsh with their idealism, but it reminds me of this story of yours, Derek. Maybe we should just let our imaginations be the only reality.
Except canvas manufacturers. Theirs is a business we need :P
everything starts with a blank, then a thought, then thoughts become things...
dreaming is fantastic: it's where everything is born...sooner or later, though, you gotta put legs on those thoughts in order to manifest them. THAT is the beauty of it...seeing it in real life
Sounds like a classic concept, but the all white room everywhere evokes imagery of being in a straight jacket in a padded white rubber room. You can think of all white as freeing, but all anything can also be misleading - like an all black room, or an all red room... However with the all white room, you may be drawing some parallels to heaven. Maybe it is a free feeling of being in the clouds.
"White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection."
(www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html)
"In some Asian cultures, white is considered to be a color that represents death." (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White)
Personally, I feel whatever inspires you at the time is fine. Most things in life are phases but when phases are prolonged they may become obsessions. Creativity is somewhere in between the two.
I dig the metaphor, but all white is so unnatural - it requires lots of bleach to get to white, to say nothing about staying white. It's physiologically hard to bear, causing the pupils to contract tightly. But would all gray or green or brown inspire these ramblings?
nice idea, but you have to be careful you don't take it so far as to never create anything for fear of spoiling the canvas...
Blank canvas on bare wall? You can be a conceptual artist. It does bring up the question of why most people would feel unsettled by that. Wouldn't it be scary though if one day you walk in your house and all your blank canvases turn into finished paintings. Maybe it's scarier if all your paintings, posters, or photos turn into blank. okay, your blank canvass just inspired a "Twilight Zone" episode in me this morning.
Story from country I came from:
On Art class teacher gave task to students to paint something on topic "Winter".
When class finished, one of the students gave blank paper to the teacher. Teacher was furious and demanded explanation.
Student said: Well it's perfect Winter scene on it...
Teacher asked: So what's on it, smartguy?
Well, it's valley, sheeps, a shepherd and a tent.
Why cannot I see the valley?
Well it's covered with snow.
Why cannot I see sheeps?
Well you cannot since it's snow around them, not enough contrast.
And where is the tend?
Well tent is covered aswell.
Ok and shepherd is covered also?
No, it was cold so he went in tent...
After consideration, student actually got highest grade.
* * *
It's been telling from person to person as urban legend but it's very close to "what can be blank canvas"
Great though provoking content as always Derek...
Ha ha wonderful Derek...there is a mystery and beauty in the pristine Undefined that Perfection can't touch.
I LOVE the start of movies where we don't know what the hell is happening for a while. That it could go anywhere has magic stimulation for me. "The Wings Of Desire", even "The Matrix"...
I think I've tried to build my life to invite these moments as well. Some see it as navel-gazing I suppose, but it's the path to all I don't yet know, and that's the road down which I most love going!
Contrast is all. A blank canvas sitting alone and unexplained in the 42nd St subway station at 8:30am. Sitting Zazen at the football stadium. Urban disassociation: Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan - the mid-sixties interviews. Falling asleep watching a program and waking up 2 hours later with the TV blaring. How come that din didn't wake me up? Contrast is everything.
ahh.. I like all white spaces... luks high tech as well as spiritual
Have a wonderful holiday season, Derek and as always thank you for the inspiration....Suzzz
Every great idea or thought,enters onto a Blank mine.
Hey Derek , Quentin here how goes it great thought. Though the canvas is blank it offers infinite possibilitys the challenge to create something of merit makes you reach deep within to produce the best that you can.
My favorite Move My Life .
And Your sivers
Instead, try to realise: there is no canvas
Start with a stroke of the paint brush and keep adding to it...an endless canvas or painting that never ends,... I get it;-)
Very kool, Derek!
Indeed...I sense that same blank canvas evetrytime I look at my guitar. The possibilities! Oh my! I know that every song ever written is somewhere on that neck!
Thanks for that.
Always yours and always avoiding signing music contracts...
Peace
Cazzy
The Alien Bluez Dude
A white canvas is as static as a coloured one. It's the act of transition from one stage to the next that defines life. Who knows, maybe future digital canvases will include footage of their creation process, as well as the final artwork?
One thing's certain: you got people talking again, Derek
i know what you mean BUT for unbelievable inspiration of why you should not leave a canvas blank please look at www.susannahbettag.com and click on the 2009 paintings. UN-believable! i challenge you to prefer a blank canvas to esp the gold and silver leaf ones. i discovered these last week and everyone i have shown them to since has had the same response i had. it is viceral! emotional! and i am a musician not her agent! you will definitely hear of this young painter in the near future. meanwhile, the answer to your question is .... well, perhaps YOU had better leave the canvas blank when it comes to painting but not everyone should.
ps Frank Colon's comment -- brilliant! hahahahah! years ago i bought a book called everything men know about women and its pages were totally blank.
Reminds me of the play "Art" by Yasmina Reza; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Art%27_(play)
I agree with comment #21 that there needs to be a balance between thought and action, but I think with the information overload problem a blank canvas is refreshing, restful, and a gift to the self. Our heads can be so full of other men's thoughts that there is no room for our own.
Sounds like the logic to create ideas and imagination! Nothing wrong with that...unless the person has a blank mind...might make them feel too much at home
...
Very Best Regards,
George
Good fun. Thank you.
I think you would enjoy reading the short play "ART" by Yasmina Reza.
Wishing you well,
V.T.
Beautiful.
Sorry My favorite Movie Is My Life .
And Your sivers
I like it. "Easy Mind" is pleasant.
Hmmm...
Alot of mileage out of this one.
Love reading the responses as much as your post.
Have forwarded to artist friends.
Dream on.
K
Where else would inspiration come from but a white canvas?
That blank canvas ideas is sheer genius. I might just have to be a copycat and do so as well! It would be great inspiration.
great insight! makes me think about the instrumental song that words would just ruin!
Hi Derek,
That's a really interesting article. I'm working on compiling my cartoons in a book about art which features my cartoon character Little Savage ™ and this is what she had to say about the blank canvas several years ago!
http://www.littlesavage.com/savage_art_galleries/littlesavage_perfections.htm
On Nov 18, 2010, at 10:44 AM, Derek Sivers wrote:
.....painted everything black, then wear only white clothing.
curios...would a blue canvas say the same thing as your white canvas? How bout red? yellow?
What are odds of renting Buck Rogers old apartment… very futuristic and clutter free – sounds great! I just bought a new guitar but I don’t expect I’ll be playing it much now (sigh). I’m going to have to start using my imagination instead (gulp). The biggest hurdle will be to reprogram my pre-conditioned “songwriting reflex” of turning the amp up to 11, donning the Spandex, and scuffing out yet another derivative song. I’ll definitely give it a try though, and perhaps there could be an original song in my head after all? Very thought provoking post.
What a conversation starter... look what it did here. It's an art to make people think.
Makes perfect sense. Reminds me of the (love)story when famous John met avant-garde artist Yoko for the first time and pretended to hammer a nail into the ceiling. Really, what would we be without hope and imagination?
some people need direction
some people are direction.
btw i play the number that comes up when i post, i haven't won, might have to sue you for emotional trauma. nothing personal, just biz. hehehehee
interesting how that blank canvas, kinda, sorta, reminds me of a TV that is turned OFF.
Minimalist a bit?
:D
Ok Not only has the original post kept me laughing but...unless Im wrong and comment #1 is correct, out of 300+ comments only a handful seemed to see through this charade. Give or take 1 or 2. read comments: #8, #18, #21, #29, #44, #56, #76, #88, #150, #166, #206 and #266.
Art is not supposed to be a reflection of the person looking at it. If it is... just hand them a mirror and be done with it. Zen Buhdhist and Taoist philosophy aside There temples had real paintings and sculptures in them. Of course once you make a brush stroke or lay down that first note you have limited the possibilities. Folks I dont know if anyone has told you or not but thats the whole idea! A thing ....any thing is defined by its limits. Its what gives things shape and form and substance. But yeah maybe we should get out the buckets of bleach and fix all those ruined canvases in the Louve and think of all those ruined parchments by writers and composers like Shakespear and Beehtoven....better crank up the bonfires! Oh those pretentious pretenders to the throne who would limit our imaginations .....Ppfffff
Mel blanc ?
I have a blank canvas hanging in my kitchen. I have no plans on painting it.
Derek,
I admire you, even more because you are the only celebrity I know of, the answer our emails
How in heavens, can you manage to do that?!?
Abraços,
Tuti
Something like that happens with music too. I'm a composer, and sometimes, if I put a video accompanying a certain music, it might kill the "visuality" of the sounds I am working with. For example, I just made this piece called "Eclipse", trying to evoke an image of an eclipse in people's minds: http://soundcloud.com/carlos-lopez-charles/eclipse-7 ... sometimes I'd rather have people create their own mental images than imposing them something to watch while they listen.
i put a TV in a fireplace, then tuned it to a channel between stations so that it displayed only so-called "snow", which is theorized to be the background noise from the big bang. some visitors got the idea. some were hunting for a remote.
Very nice Derek - the responses are even more intriguing. It makes me think of one of my favorite David Wilcox songs, "Leave It Like It Is." If you're not familiar with it, I'd encourage you to check it out. Meantime, keep 'em coming! --Brother Dan
In order for this comment to appear you requested my website, which is extremely colourful and filled with lots of pictures, music, stories etc. It's not white. It's filled with the results of my imagination insofar as I was able to realize it { in LIFE } and print it on a budget with my webmaster!}... in order to SHARE that realized work, idea,perspective with the world , which is a by product of why an artist exists in the first place.
I liked the comments of #54 about Nashville songwriting. Couldn't have said it better, but it's not just Nashville. Teaching SONGWRITING? You either got it you don't. Co-Writing? it's a BUSINESS to keep at least one songwriter in royalty checks! The two most successful songwriters in the world Bob Dylan and Dianne Warren - don't co-write except in the most rare instances. Their IDEAS remain , thus , undiluted by a lesser talent, unable to match their own innate genius
I heard a lady tonite who brought me to my knees in tears with one of the best IDEAS in a song I'd heard in YEARS.
An awesome singer , but not a pro by anyone's standards. That song is as good as it gets, and she's never studied a lick FROM a pro. It was all about her experience of a friend- INSPIRED writing from the gut and I was MOVED!
Her canvas was full of moody shades and I so appreciated how she painted the picture for me to FEEL. a Bold stroke here , a subtle shade there, just a wisp of playful whimsy and then wham drove home a painful truth NO ONE in the room missed.
I didn't need my imagination to SEE what she was talking about, I used my own MEMORY and personal EXPERIENCE and she struck a resonant chord. Isn't THAT what artists do? Inspire others?- SGW
Awesome! Being blind, I always have a blank canvas, and my imagination lets me create some terrific images. Although many of them are probably not accurate, it always keeps life very interesting. Great story!
It's funny how a blank canvass can get people thinking more than if the canvass had something on it.
great article, got me thinking.
Sooner or later a blank canvas will be painted.
It exists to be art work.
Not to remain blank.
Everything we do is terrible or not. It depends on how you look at it.
As a visual artist, I relate with emptiness as "negative space", so it's part of the whole design. Reminds me of the emptiness of the Zen garden, used to create stillness of the mind and therefore peacefullness of the mind. The act of creating patterns and other elements also helps create a meditative state of mind. So: the blank canvas begs you to actually, physically, create there, and by so doing you participate in and become part of the creative act. Go for it.
agree with #327/329...as long as there are people(artists)with ideas to express on earth the canvas will be painted...even one color is an expression.
I'm old enough to remember radio, and I can remember listening to the shows and visualizing what the people and the locations looked like. TV did away with the need for imagination for better or worse. Now it seems everything has got be be filled to the max with no blanks spaces.Even on educational shows such as Nat Geo they feel synthetic background music is needed. I wonder if the people who create the shows ever watch them to see the finished product. I doubt it.
I would have a heyday in a room blank with so much potential. I have a bowl full of Rubix Cubes and Magic 8Balls in the lobby of my business Business. I find that the dreamers always grab the mysterious 8ball.
So I've grown,,,,I'm looking out at my lawn and garden and have a few spaces,,,,,,think I'll fill them with white flowers. Do I get it?
Oh boy, pegged me right here haha >>
The blank page starts with unlimited potential. But each word you add reduces its possibilities...Or that [of the] beautiful person you haven't spoken with.
I love the idea! Imagination never gets old in my book.
Madeleine Engle once said "inspiration comes during, not before, the act". As spirits trapped in human bodies, I believe we have no choice but to commit deeds, however, imperfect. In fact, that is probably the point. Imperfection is the human condition. The time for pure potentiality will surely come when our spirits leave our bodies.... I like the way you think Derek!
the idea is, to fill up the blank canvas.....AND also get another blank one to take its place.
never assume the canvas u filled, is the last one u will EVER fill....
Robert Rauschenberg did something pretty similar in the 50s with his White paintings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rauschenberg
i think the person imagined what s/he did because it was set in the context of being on the walls of Derek Sivers' house - s/he would have seen a blank canvas if it was seen in another context
as an artist, i collaborate with my muse to invent contexts around preexisting blank canvases that people already have in their lives - check the song in my link and leave a comment of what you think!
white hides in itself the seven colors of VIBGYOR. So it is complete in itself yet has such immense potential. one blank page leads to another one, hence using one only leads to the next blank one unleashing new dimension once again.
There will always be another blank canvas - always. A filled canvas by anyone, about anything...brings meaning where none had previously existed.
A producer that recorded our band made a similar point. We were recording follow-up demos to our first ones that had garnered some interest. (His name was John Pilla and had produced people like Arlo Guthrie for Warner Bros., etc.) We hoped he would do more than just record us. We wanted him to "produce" us too.
He told us that for our purposes, we needed to leave room for someone else to listen to and hear things they would change or add. Otherwise, it would be "finished" and not leave any room for someone to project their production tastes and ideas onto. It seemed to make sense, but I thought that maybe it was that he didn't want to work any harder than he had to.
This concept is to the point and says nothing...pretty deep.
someone.. was it Rauschenberg?... had a show of white canvases that went to Europe. He said, "It's not worth the postage to send the canvases. Just buy plain white canvas, stretch them to these sizes, and I'll tell the museum handyman what color white paint to buy."
And, once I bought my son, age 8, an entire complete box of baseball cards. No fun at all. he couldn't open each pack to see what he got, and nothing to trade. Just set the complete box on the shelf and knew if he touched them it would reduce their value. Really blew it that time.
Hello, Real good stuff... there's the power of potential being blank, you know...could be pregnant with just about everything.
Stay blessed Derek
blank before the breath?
we fill and can eraze each other
we spectate or we burn
partly we are victims of past wars
do we blame masculine or feminine
dark sea of awarness to the brightest star
space debris rockets and egos
blank games
The thought of those sterile rentals makes me crazy! Think I bought a house mainly to get away from all white.
Less stuff is more - I agree, but to loose the color and textures of nature is sad. Of course you were probably doing it as an experiment in human nature (and maybe to get your deposit back), but I do hope you have found a nice colorful place to rest your head these days!
PS I thought about the post quite a bit, being a "wordy" creature, the idea of each character taking away from the page's possibilities kind of freaked me out! No way I can reign myself in.
'THE BLANK CANVAS'
...by Michael Iva
What is not,
helps us define what is.
What is not,
soon becomes what is.
The what is,
is what was not.
What was left out,
is just as important
as what is put in.
White space
is as real as what fills it.
All acts of human creation,
start with a blank canvas
use it wisely. . .
one of the biggest sales on one of my paintings was "Prescription", a white canvas, 2005. However, it did contain about $25,000 worth of old pharmaceutical medication dissolved into the white pigment.
This puts me in mind of the play "Art" by Yasmina Reza. A man pays 200,000 francs ($40K) for a painting that is a plain canvas with several narrow diagonal lines on it in white paint. The presence of this painting causes great upheavals in the friendships of the man and his two oldest and dearest friends -- one who thinks the man has paid a hefty sum for nothing and the other who can see nothing pleasing about the painting himself, but feels it is fine if the painting pleases its owner. These two men also have paintings (of more conventional subjects) in their residences, and discussion ensues over does your art define who you are -- or do you choose your art to reflect how you want to be perceived or how the world perceives you?
So it brings me to the question of what's on your canvas? Also, can we ever just Gesso over the whole thing to make it white again, or is it like converting a tattoo that's grown undesirable into a more pleasing image by addition rather than subtraction or obliteration.
The other question Derek's post raises for me is -- "Can minimalism be overdone, and if so, how would you know?"
Derek,
Ah... a blank canvas. It leaves everything to the imagination!
It's like writing a song. One of the hardest parts is where to place the silence...
Peace,
John
YAY! I love this................ Seeing a myriad of possibilities is both my strength and my weakness.... holding off from pinning things down too early.... allowing for improvisation .. leaving the canvas blank till the final moment.... hmmmmm an exciting way to live but often needs balancing for me with a good dose of commitment - a focus on finite ideas and creative projects - always a juggling act of blank and semi imagined canvases : ) manifesting the occasional completed painting, musical piece or choreography etc is good too : )
.
.
Blank, as above
Often times when creating it's better to remove (simplify) rather than add - makes for a stronger statement. In the end I'll ask myself... does the world really need another bad painting?
The smallest of actions is always better than the noblest of intentions. Robin Sharma
The music I create IS the blank canvas which the listener fills with their emotions, images, feelings, and associations. The limitation I find most difficult to impose is assigning a title (words) - it limits the open-ended potential of the "canvas".
It's the thought that matters, not the action
Some of the best music I have heard is where I can imagine music within the music that ISN'T being played. I told this to one of my college music professors. He felt that this was an indication that the music was inviting you to participate.
"Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures come and go."
Ramana Maharshi
I could swear you read my Freedom Poem, from Spoon Theory - A Rhetorical History. LOL! I should be so lucky really.
- Be Anything you want in life.
Just don't be difficult - There's no forgiving that.
Wow. So many insightful and provocative comments! Your white canvas continues to inspire deep reactions from people.
Well done
Hmmm, there should be only one picture in the canvass and everybody knows what it really is "A cow eating grass".
I love the idea of having a blank canvas and to deliberately not put anything on it, love it!
w
-i don't understand
go west
-i walk to west
turn on the light
-the light is shining everywhere. now i can see.
look
-i can see a dvd
look dvd
-it's jimi hendrix' woodstock
play
-congratulations!!!
Silence is like that sometime. It's not only surprising in this noise-filled planet (and head), but is alarming in its blankness. Filling it from within myself IS meaningful. I do like some good tunes and the sound of birds in the morning too of course!
Das unbeschriebene Blatt ... seems You lve the virginity
Being your friend is hard work!
The odd thing is, I looked at the title 2 maybe 3 times, wondering why you'd write, "why wreck a BLACK canvas".
As soon as I saw "blank" it gave the game away
nice idea, but in reality that would be way too boring for me (all white on white). yick.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Robin
Just reminds me of starting a new year at school and being given our blank exercise books and pencils...was So excited..wondering just what I might be writing in them. Is still one of my favourite things to do...buy new note books, exercise books and feel that same excitement again!
I most certainly dig your thoughts!
Do you have any advice for those who have been bold enough to "paint" time and again, but are repeatedly disappointed with the results? After a while the blank canvas starts to look pretty good... but I don't want the blank canvas to become the expression of fear.
Personally I wouldn't want my own house to be too much of a blank canvas - I mean I'd decorate it a bit myself. But what you're saying is true, and it does allow your guests to use their own imagination.
I suppose I'm going to reveal my pragmatic side, but a blank canvas is just a big question mark to me..... is it just an unattended piece of raw material, or is it a statement of genius and unlimited possibility, or is it evidence of pure laziness? Maybe I should just leave my guitar on a stand on the stage to reflect universal potential, or maybe I should pick it up and start manipulating it to produce sounds/music that reflect my inner pulse beating amidst my immediate environment? I can steer the latter, but I can only be puzzled by the former.
I could never live in an environment of blank canvases -- far better to see the results of dynamic creativity happening day to day than anything that is stagnant (at whatever level). Blankness is the worst possible form of stagnation -- give us something to interact with!
Larry in MD
I guess I have the same thoughts about this that I did when I saw a bunch of art snobs ooing and ahhing at a Mondrian white canvas with one line on it. I could see where he was coming from, and it made sense as a statement, once. But at some point we have to take our art out of our heads, whatever it may be, and actually make it. Remember towards the end of Amadeus when Mozart says he has a whole symphony in his head, and the rest is just “scribbling and bibbling”? His friends reply it’s useless in his head, no matter how good it is. It is indeed fun to superimpose what we dream of onto a blank canvas. But that’s the easy part. The hard part of art is taking something from the fertile fields of our imaginations, putting it into the tangible world of matter and then exposing it to the scornful eye of the public.
you are right leaving it blank.
Everyone is able to see their own perfect painting on a blank canvas.
Each person can become their own perfect painter in their mind and the next hour or day make a new image in their head.
This way you have the perfect picture for everyone hanging in a room because they are unable to fault it because they painted the painting in their mind.
Grtx,
Roadhawk
I love reading your little snippets of thought and such. It really makes me think deeper about things.
You can also think too much, Derek.
just do it like I do my paintings (see my website)
This is exactly how I think. My mum can never understand why there are no pictures on the walls of my home. Back in the days of recording on tape, I used to see the blank reel in the same way; it's hard to feel like that about recording on a hard disc drive.
I agree that there is beauty in the singularity of a blank canvas, though I'd consider its attraction fleeting; to me, a blank canvas represents a thought or emotion never communicated, never shared.
I'd just keep one of them blank to let you think about what's next. The others-- like many things in life-- will come and go as they seem to fit.
I have 2 sitting behind me as I write this but I'm happy to say there are 2 others with about 25 hours of paint on them as well. There will be at least 50 hours of work on each of these before I consider them done. If the process was filmed there would be 100's of these "ideas" you discussed in this post at one time or another literally on the canvasses. For me its a living process which includes creating and deconstruction. And somewhere in the chaos of the creative process -if you are lucky comes inspiration which is most frequently a very lonely place.
I see pink puppies running around shorts to fast workout music. NO, I see them doing treadmill workouts wearing headphones listening to pumping workout songs. NO. I see them in front of their computers working out in pink shorts with an online fitness trainer. NO. I see that they are white puppies wearing white shorts running in a snowstorm. Yea thats it.
Did anyone visiting your apartment realize that they were more creative than they thought???
hang a guitar on the wall, Derek!
I really liked this one Derek. Approaching people and leaving them as a blank canvas, such that the empty spaces are filled up with beautiful conversations and ideas. Awesome stuff
I think I rented that same apartment once, but it had black curtains, and was near the station.
Interesting, Derek. I thought I had some idiosyncrasies.
The inside of my house has vines all over the walls.
Well this has nothing to do with it LOL But I had to share because it was such an incredible thing.
A painter I have never met from another country liked our music so well, he painted us an oil painting of a winding road with a massive electrical storm going on and put our SWW logo on the road sign.
Now there is one b*thcN oil painting
Quantum Physics
Blank canvas, i started writing about this without reading the article,
this is what i came up with.
Very important period after completing a project which can be CD, live
performance ore theatre tour.
For me the blank canvas is a period in wich the 99% transpiration is cooling
down from a 2 ore 3 year project, and a time in which my creative brain can
rest from the focus on a project ( CD ore live performance ).
In that time i focus my mind on other things than music, like photography,
which is another thing i like doing.
During that period there is that blank canvas, wich calls out to me, after
some time the musical feeling is creeping to my fingers, itching, and i just
put on my musical instruments, not to record something but to play something
for fun, after a while some note's come out that can grow to a song. Those
note's i record, and i start to listen to the note's and ask the note's,
what do you want to tell me, what kind of sentence do you want to become,
what kind of sound do you like best.
Than the blank canvas is helping in letting a song grow, first some rough
contours, later the details become more clear and i start to paint the song.
I have also a big white screen at home, it is alway's blank, in between periods that i do not project a film on it. I have many great movie's projected on that white blank wall, its great, i have living paintings to see when i want to see a living painting =( movie )
I live in an old house full of color, wood and knickknacks. I enjoy watching how as the light moves during the day, the whole scene changes and highlights something new. I could never figure out why people wanted to live in a white space, a "blank" canvass. Then I realized that some folks need that to let their brains slow down, to stop the cacaphony of the world around them, to find the still small space within and listen to the voice they find there. That's them. Not me. I've found that's what eyelids are for. Just close them and listen. Not too long though, because it may be an hour later when you open them again. Which isn't necessarily bad.
Butch
this is one of my favorite things you've ever posted! thanks!
Someone here mentioned John Cage and that's the perfect example.
I think it was John Cage or someone very much like him who displayed 3 whitewashed canvasses at the Hayward Gallery (famous for its avant gard exhibits) in London during the early 1970s...the artist called it "Snow Scene In Winter".
I saw people stand there and gaze at it for hours and then add their own presumptous and sometimes pretentious thoughts.
Some may regard it as sterile but the feeling of SPACE that whiteness can be VERY therapeutic..it can cause us to "go within".
Very Zen of you.
Mmmmhhhhhh, I like that!
If you have a girlfriend, she will change it anyway now and than
Blank canvass somehow reminds me of the David Wilcox Song "Leave it like it is" (a paint spill on the floor becomes art). Sort of the other side of the canvas-instead of canvass without art, he offers art without canvas.. Thanks for the creative thinking and writing Derek, it's a pleasure to read and ponder.
It seems a shame to leave a canvas blank. It is like the child who was never born; we wonder about what potential it might have had. Besides, I find "things" more interesting than "nothing". But what if it turned out wrong, child or painting? I would still rather it Be, than Not Be.
This post reminds me Rails, as it proposes to be the exact opposite: a start point to develop a web application with many decisions already made. And as this really works with Rails, I think sometimes is good don't have a blank canvas, specially on repeatable tasks, as building database based web applications.
Additionaly, sometimes a blank canvas can hide the fear of try something, and to compromise with a choice. If all options are always open, maybe it's time to pick one of them. We don't have to be afraid to make bad decisions, specially because almost all decisions can be changed.
But of course, as the story you've told, a blank canvas also leads the imagination to interesting places.
I think the best is to be a blank canvas, in a way you can always erase its content, and start again, if you're unsatisfied with some aspect of your life.
i am an artist that has been exposed to a lot of "rules" that stifle my creativity. i love children's art because they are unfettered by rules. their color choices, use of space and shapes are so interesting. their imagination is endless.
This reminds me on the some works of the composer John Cage. The canvas is not blank. It becomes a mirror of different reactions.
when i was in a squat in berlin, the walls, ceilings and floors were covered with paint, but there was one biggish space that asked me to put my two cents in. i wanted to sum everything up, every message throughout time into just one word. i found it: flow. when you fill the blank canvas, it is true, you have stopped the flow. of the blank canvas. but another flow begins with all the messages received, the thoughts had and ideas conceived as a result of the newly painted canvas. the idea of the blank canvas as a reminder never to put a cap on our potential is a lovely one. i'm glad you share your thoughts. thank you.
Whatever you do, DON'T think about the song "Louie Louie."
Music comes out of silence
There is no rhythm without silences
There is no music without silences
There is no art without space Everything depends on nothing
Nothing can exist without nothing
I am feeling like answer 356: A blank space forever blank is of no use for me. You may want it blank to start with but kept blank forever it gets useless, for nobody is always in the mood to create, sometimes you need to rest your eyes on something...
Bravo. Sociological. You look at things from a sociological point of view. The “blank canvas” idea works well with students at school, or with party-goers at a party. Bravo. From Clayton Wright
*smiling*
I love the concept because I believe the concept itself is an artistic idea, and the blank canvas is the execution of that idea. But it's also important to remember that the fear of making mistakes is one of the great enemies of art. I would say mark the canvas, see what happens, create, maybe even ruin it and learn from the process. And then buy another if you need to. And if you ruin another 20, so be it - make lots of art along the way.
My cast iron pan looked perfect when I bought it, but it's so much more beautiful after being seasoned by the charred remains of hundreds of meals.
all reads good and fine
..... is if you dare to imagine and write, draw or scribble on a blank canvas and not even think of what it is you are doing.... Let the mind takeover and let you hand and the tool do the forming....
Hmmmm....
There's no such thing as a blank canvas. Can't you see that?
Blank Canvas? Turn off the radio! Chart your own path...paint your own picture...tell all your friends hey we're going this way...have no idea where we're going...we're just going. See you somewhere else doing doing something new. Buckwheat Catapillar Musician/Philosopher and a true Tacoma Legend
To my mind the blank canvas represents limitless potential, yes, but an absolute failure to realize it. There's a bravery in that first stroke of the pen or brush, a commitment. I would suggest that too many spend their lives lugging around blank canvases; there's a point where that unrealized potential translates itsef into regret. Display the occasional work-in-progress. (This isn't an argument; this is merely an exhortation for those that might see it ... yes, in metaphor...)Have a great day, Derek! - Chip QNP
You create every time someone starts the conversation. Your canvas isn't blank, it is filled with the promise of each person's idea.
Your canvas is filled with visions that would not have been brought to life for the visioneer if they didn't have that opportunity to dream.
What I create each day is the result of me moving outside of the blankness and molding the day. My blank canvas is discovered lying in bed with my eyes still closed. It's the blank memory card in my camera.
It's the black night sky. The sun is starting to rise and is painting all over it, time to take my camera outside and paint over the memory card.
It's a glorious Saturday - and my canvas has opened. Coming in late to this shared tete-a-tete, gave me an opportunity to read what had already been on the canvas here. Well - to thoughts of brevity: First every individual thought here is valid and it all boils down to the Machiavellian approach to extracting good ideas and challenging/initiating productive and useful shared thoughts. Nevertheless, the greatest inventions to date were built from a point of innovative necessity. They satisfied a social, market, or environmental need. In other words: there had to be an existing "canvas" to build upon, and not necessarily to accept as "as is." From a purely business perspective Warren Buffet's success rate was founded on investing in canvases that already exist and improving them...and so on. This does not diminish or take away from those who see themselves as starting with a "Blank Canvas." The real impetus here - to me at least is; But even with nothing on the wall, or without a spec of paint in the frame, is the canvas really blank?
4minutes 33seconds !!
Remember looking forward to Christmas so much, it was more fun than Christmas itself? This reminds me of that.
The blank canvas is an adventure that is yet to unfold.
Anticipation, day dreaming, excitement about possibilities. those are some fun emotions
If u took that white canvas a placed a black dot in the corner, people would only see that black dot. The remaining white canvas would go unnoticed.
many roadblocks to imagination...
I've always had a compulsion to put eye candy on the walls of any room of mine--but no matter what I use, it eventually ceases to be visible or worse, gets annoying, and needs to be replaced with newer eye candy. I agree--blanks exercise one's imagination--but pretty pictures can be much more soothing during stress.
a white canvas has nothing and everything held within it...it is a reminder of how we are balanced on the edge of a paradox...and most people do not want to be reminded of such, they seek certainty...any certainty...so they prefer their canvases with a 'something' on them...
I love it. Keep them right there on that blank canvas...my imagination. Sometimes its more fun there.
Ah-ha...and oh-ho...not to mention hee-hee. Wilson.
this time i don't agree completely
it's right that a blank canvas is very intriguing, cause it's open to all the possibilities
but when you met a real piece of art, you'll be inspired to do something great too
i.e. your words are very inspiring and i've found that they are better than a white page
Yes, Derek, the blank canvas truly does contain infinite possibilities. But sometimes, those possibilities can be too many - can become daunting. Once we're inspire to create, we have to make choices, to limit and constrain our art or we cannot create. Art becomes a reflection of ourselves and our perspective on life and perhaps teaches us something about each other.
We went to the Perth art gallery at the weekend, to the Guggenheim exhibition and stared for quite some time at the Kandinsky, "Upward". It's amazing how something which looks so simple in art books, looks so much more complex and detailed in 'real life' - so much more textured. It's full of the artist's choices and intentions and all the better for it. Astounding.
A blank canvas is a blank canvas. Nothing else. Nothing to add - nothing to take away.
BTW: If you imagine a stone and let fall him on your foot. Nothing will happen. Try it with a real stone ...
Cool, here's my latest song...wait for it...There! Awesome huh? Gonna submit it today and wait for the blank check to arrive...shit, I hope they don't leave the envelope blank.
Sorry Derek, I got the concept but couldn't resist the humor ;)
...SHARE THE BUSINESS IDEA!@! ...GET THAT PERSONS' NUMBER!! ...do ANYTHING, this is your one chance; LIVE
In 1983, as an art student, I stared at a blank canvas. After a number of hours I just wrote, in pencil, 'here it is, waiting for me to do something and I can't think of anything to do'. My professor thought it was pure genius. Go figure.
Great blog and a great idea. Sometimes it's more fun to imagine something or someone as perfect or as full of possibilities, but on the other hand, you must have had a lot of guests that thought you were really strange lol (not necessarily a bad thing)!
Maybe someone will invent a "delete-able" canvas. That way, we'd truly have infinite possibilities!
Hey Derek I'm an artist as well, dont like blank canvasses or pages, I have to get something down or else it might be lost forever, cheers Michael
I leave right where they are because my imagination is beautiful and better. I can make a blank canvas what ever I want it to be and when ever I choose and I choose to leave it blank.
Come back to me later.
Good one Derek.
Tillie
for the creative mind there are no limits. seems like the blank canvas is like a window to the world. in other words, if your mind is blank then imagination is unlimited.
although for myself I wouldn't hang a blank canvas in my apartment, but I like the thought....
I don't get it, if I don't talk to the person I want and blank canvas what does this mean?
I can daydream about them or accept reality that they have pros and cons and we just have to match ours
Derek,
Like an open mind, sometimes saying the least says the most. Keep up the wonderful thoughts. . .
Either a room full of inspiration, or a room full of imagination. Yours is the last, mine is the first. Maibe I'm ready for a change.
You're a creative nut! Seriously, I get it, so that makes me a nut, too. Keep on rockin'!
Yes, completely. I always enjoying buying a blank notebook rather than having one all filled up. My friends expect me to have tons of them but I tend to keep one for a year or two because I hate messing up the blank pages.
great story! Unlimited potential is both beautiful and a little bit scary at times for me.Fear of commitment!
Socratic method, on blank spaces
Cheers
jo
This is so true
))
I got a big NO when I presented my ideas for change in my company for my boss on the meeting based on an opinion that "this won't work". I saw a commercial a few days before were they say "there is nothing more inspiring then standing in front of an blank piece of paper". So I stead of giving up, I went to his office day after, gave him a blank piece of paper , said the same words from the commercial, and asked to use it to explain "his" ideas for me for what he things would work.
Now I have my own project
This might be why when a musician looks at his instruments, he sees more than anyone else. Or anyone having any skills in anything. Are you stunned by seeing a balalaïka?For them it might be more than a guitar, meaning the common idea of a wooden stick with strings tended on it. An instument is always a link between real world and dreams. Thank you for everything Derek, 10 minutes on your blog and I feel happy.
Thank you Derek.
I love it. I have a fairly minimamilist aesthetic (though not compared to you!) And I've always been asked why I don't have more photos, paintings, color on the walls or decor in general. I don't see the need, simple is more beautiful. I compromise with my husband that we can put all the art he wants up, but I have to have a place to 'rest my eyes' on nothing at all. I love a blank wall.
LOL, I agree with the first comment Derek. You've been in Asia too long haha.