Thursday, June 21, 2018

You Burn What You Got


Zestful Blog Post #269

I picked up a copy of National Geographic magazine a couple of months ago, interested in the cover story on Pablo Picasso. A curator of his work was quoted as saying that Picasso’s greatest talent was “assemblage”—or synthesizing, if you like. From the article: “to sift through layered memories—a conversation with a poet, the haunting expressions in an El Greco painting, the medley of sensations from Malaga, a pot of paint in his studio.”

The curator mentioned the French expression, faire feu de tout bois: to make fire of all wood. In rural Washington state, where Marcia and I lived for seven years, most people heated primarily with wood harvested from their own property. I once commented to a neighbor that I wished we had more madrone on our property, because it was so dense and burned so well. He shrugged and said, “You burn what you got.”

I guess that’s just another way to say, quit wishing things were different and use the brains you have to make the most of the materials at hand.


 [OK, not a Picasso, not a Van Gogh, but the best I could do during an “I can paint!” phase…]

Like a homesteader, Picasso sure did make the most of what he had. Although reportedly he wasn’t such a nice guy to everybody, he was one of the most productive artists who ever lived. I admire that deeply. Lessons? You keep going, you don’t resist change. You throw things together; you stay open to the relationships between people and things. If one well runs dry, you dig another. If you get bored of one crop, you plant another. You’re open. You trust the process blindly.

Go, us.

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6 comments:

  1. Nice painting. The great painters lived to paint and pursue the insights it gave them. That's what many of us can do with writing, especially after retirement. Write a few stories, try a novel, write an article for a magazine. No need to hurry, no obligations, just pursuing the art that we chose for our own expression.

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    1. Thanks, Pat, and yes!! You've got the right attitude.

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  2. Love your thought -- if one well goes dry, dig another. Wonderful.

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  3. Nice painting Elizabeth! My response to this week's blog is this: perseverance pays off.

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