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As I was riding a bus to Fernie, British Columbia, listening
to Tool's album "Lateralus", I pondered life, creation
and similar matters of uncertainty. I pondered the things that
we understand, or think we understand, and the things that we
don't. I questioned whether there was a finite body of knowledge
out there so that one day, the human race, more likely factions
of the human race, would know everything there is to know. I wondered
whether by aggressively working towards "more knowledge"
we were moving in the wrong direction.
We passed a tree alongside the highway and I thought about how
it had come from a seed that was fertilized at some point in the
past. I then tried to think of where the seed that created the
tree had come from and reasoned that it likely came from another
tree. That was the easy answer. I realized that the things we
think we know or understand are created from an imagination so
great we can't begin to understand it.
My friend Jeff owns these really interesting photographs of smoke
rings by an artist named Donald Sultan. I have always found them
visually intriguing and likened the respect I feel for the photographs
to that which I feel for my favorite painting called "Hint"
by a Russian artist named Vladan Ignatovic and to that which I
feel for Mark Rothko's work. Unable to explain the source of that
feeling, I recalled the countless times that I'd heard someone
say "why is that so expensive? I could do that." I recalled
the times that I had said similar things. The easy answer, "would
you have thought of it?"
Then it hit me. Wondering what artists, entrepreneurs and other
creators were thinking when they came up with all of the wonderful
things that society can't live without I realized that the source
of life was imagination and imagination is so great that we can't
begin to understand it.
Hence the painting that you see at the top of this page. Simple,
one sentence, black and white. I thought of doing this because
most people would look at it and say, "I could do that"
or "it's just a sentence", on and on. And I hope that
a few people will understand the meaning of the sentence and the
irony of the portrayal and realize that the painting is very interesting
and a little funny. Would you have thought of it?! If no one feels
the way I do about this painting, it doesn't really matter.
I feel that I've thought of something original and extremely
meaningful and for once that thought materialized into something
I feel is creative and that I am very proud of. I felt a sense
of exhilaration which heightened my spirits for the entire day
and continues to linger today. I realized how healthy and important
it was to sit back once in a while and think about nothing. Because
for now, it seems imagination comes from nothing, at least nothing
we understand, and to create something from nothing causes exhilaration
beyond explanation.
About the Author
Mr. Dan Pichette is a freelance writer from Alberta, Canada.
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