Monday, December 2, 2013

Observation 101

Look around.

Do you see or do you actually observe?

Many years ago there was a clever parody of Sherlock Holmes called Without a Clue. It starred Michael Caine which is enough in itself to make it watch able but it also had a well written plot and a charming twist on the World’s Greatest Consulting Detective. In it Holmes is a fiction created by Dr Watson and when he has to produce the character he hires an out of work actor to play the part. But as with many tales of puppeteering, the creation soon overtakes its creator.

The actor tells his creator that when he looks at a house he not only sees but he also observes.

And like much else in fiction therein lies a nugget of truth for anyone to take home. You not only have to see but you have to observe what you see.

Yes and it isn’t like mastering the sound of one hand clapping. We all see all of the time and that is why we take the simple act of seeing for granted.

Part of what makes a human an artist is that the artist sees what most folks just gloss over. You think that first cave dweller way back in the dark and troubled times before cable decided to paint a bison on the wall of a cave in France because he couldn’t get HBO? No, he was seeing and observing the ritual of survival, the hunt, which meant food on the table and furs for the long winters and fat for making after dinner treats and maybe mixing with some of the soot from the fire and smearing it on the walls so that he could brag about the time when he brought back the biggest buffalo and got the cheerleader.

Well, okay, maybe the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders did come along a few years after that but it does seem like they have been around forever, not as long as the Rockettes which are the first, greatest and best precision dance troop, but almost as long which only goes to prove that a good idea can be repeated a whole bunch of times even with a lot less talented people and still get a spot on the weekend NFL broadcast.

But back to the man cave, the first artist painting that buffalo for lasting fame and fortune and the fickle favors of the head cheerleader used his eyes for more than just spotting the buffalo and finding a vulnerable spot on the buffalo and sticking his spear into that vulnerable spot on that buffalo and bringing home the buffalo long before bringing home the bacon was a regular sort of thing which needed doing so that the little woman could have a split-level, ranch-style house in the valley.

That first artist looked around and observed that there was more going on than just supplying beef for the tail-gate party. He recognized that this was something future generations of men and maybe even women would want to remember and so he created an image which contained not only the record of the hunt but also the spirit which guided the hunt and the higher power which strengthened his arm and sent the spear true so that the giant animal of the plains could be brought down by a man.

And in that single act he made much more of a contribution to the world and history than any other buffalo spearer in all of the world. He was not just a provider he was also an artist.

And that legacy was passed down to all of the artists who followed in his footsteps.

They saw Gods and legends and they made them visible for all of the folks who worked in the fields and scraped at the earth digging and planting and making things grow and herding the animals which descended from the buffalo and now kept the hunter at home instead of out on the hunt and gave him a place where he could store his pots of fat soaked soot so that art could be more than just a sudden inspiration brought on by a belly full of buffalo.

He saw and he observed and in that act he was able to create more than just the thing which he originally saw.

And now it’s your turn, but you have to hone that observing skill.

Are you just walking around seeing or are you actually seeing what wonders abound?

When Howard Carter broke through the final wall and looked into the undisturbed tomb of Tutankhamen for the first time, did he say, Hey lookee here!”, no he said “Wondrous things”. That gave us a preview of what he would slowly uncover and was a product of seeing and observing even if he wasn’t a visual artist.

(Howard Carter was one of the greatest artists in history but don’t get me started.)

So are you like Carter, seeing something for the first time and giving an indelible expression to the world of the majesty and excitement that image had on your “little grey cells” or will you just report what you saw?

Seeing is what you do all of the time, observing is allowing your mind and experience to filter the sight into an incredible and exciting image only you can understand and then taking it and using it to make art for the rest of the world to see.

And you don’t have to be like Carter and find it after two thousand years of being buried in the sands of Egypt. 


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