Piet Mondrian

"The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel."

— Piet Mondrian

Dutch Painter

1872 - 1944

Commentary

Sometimes creative leaders let their egos get in the way of their painting, their writing or their art. They believe they know all and are all powerful. They berate others and often are hostile to the ideas of others. An artist needs to be humble and realize he or she has been given a gift. Pride and ego will ruin the gift. 

Like Piet, many artists and writers talk about simply being a channel for something greater than themselves. Have you ever created something and afterwards wondered where it came from? When we learn to let go of the conscious egotistical self and become a channel for creativity, we will surprise and amaze ourselves with the gift we have been given. Don't seek to understand the source of this gift. Simply accept the gift with humility.

Biography

Piet Mondrian grew up as the second of five children in a Protestant home in Holland.  His father was an amateur artist who gave drawing lessons to his son.  His uncle, an accomplished artist, taught him to paint.  At twenty, he entered the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam.  His education included drawing models, copying old masters and genre painting.

In 1905 Mondrian was introduced to the paintings of the French Post-Impressionists which deeply influenced him and opened up the world of color in a new way.  In 1912, he moved to Paris and was introduced to Cubism, another stop on his way to his mature work of abstraction.  In 1914, he visited his sick father in the Netherlands and was unable to return to France because of World War I.  

While in Holland, Mondrian published a journal, De Stijl (The Style), that presented the ideal of total abstraction as a model for harmony.  He emphasized the need for horizontal and vertical lines.  The movement had a major influence on art, architecture and typography in the 20th century.

Mondrian moved back to Paris after World War I where he continued his work in abstract art.  Prior to World War II, he moved first to London for two years before moving to New York in 1940.  He never married and died of pneumonia at the age of 71.

Frederick Franck

"Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world."

— Frederick Franck

1909 - 2006

Dutch Artist & Writer

Are you rediscovering the world?  Is your art teaching you to see the world in new ways?  Creativity is a tool to help us better understand the world in which we live.  Through our creativity we are able to explore and find new answers to old problems.  Creativity is a discipline that changes the way we see.  Are you practicing the discipline of creativity?

Vincent Van Gogh

Age 13

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing."

— Vincent Van Gogh

Dutch Artist

1853 - 1890

Woman
(1882)

Do you take delight in your work?  Are you having fun?  I pass the time in meetings by doodling.  Some would say that doodling is not drawing and I probably would agree.  But there is something about moving a pencil across a piece of paper that relaxes me.  What do you take delight in?  What do you enjoy doing?  What relaxes you?

Frederick Franck

"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have not really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle."

— Frederick Franck

Dutch Painter, Sculptor, Author

1909 - 2006

What we know of the world we know through our senses.  Yet, we often spend so much time in our head with our thoughts that we don't experience the world around us.  Have you ever walked past a flower, a tree or a stream a hundred times and yet know nothing of the stream, or tree or flower.  What have you missed in the world around you because you are so busy thinking about your life, your problems or your family?  When you begin to see the tree as it is, will you paint it in a different way.  Franck also said, "Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world."  Are you rediscovering the world around you through your drawing?

Do you hear the conversations of your friends and family members or are you so busy thinking about what you are going to say that you fail to listen to them.  A writer of dialogue must listen to the language used by the people around him.  Do you see how the people around you dress?  The way they carry themselves?  How they move about the room?  It is through the behavior we see that we find the clues to who the person is.  And it is through the behavior we describe that our readers know our characters.

Vincent Van Gogh

Self-Portrait
1889

"If you hear a voice within you say, 'You cannot paint,' then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced."

— Vincent van Gogh

Dutch Painter

1853 - 1890

Most of us have a voice inside that plants seeds of doubt in our hearts.  "You can't paint.  You can't write.  You can't draw.  You can't speak.  You can't sing...."  The list goes on and on.  Today we call it self-talk.  One expert says that 75% of what we say to ourselves is negative.   We need to silence that negative voice by proving him wrong.  Don't listen to that negative voice that is determined to make you fail.  Keep writing.  Keep painting.  Keep drawing.

When I teach people how to be better speakers, I talk about that second voice sitting on their shoulders.  When I first started speaking, I heard two voices — the one coming out of my mouth and the one sitting on my shoulder.  The one was positive and upbeat.  The second was nervous and negative.  The more often I spoke, the less vocal the second voice became.  Today I rarely hear that negative voice.  And when I do, I give him a quick kick and he is gone.

And the same is true of my writing.  I used to hear the voice of doubt shouting in my ear.  Today, I can barely hear him mumble.  And when he does appear, he is skin and bones and dressed in rags.  Soon he will be homeless.

The First Steps, After Jean Francis Millet
(January 1890)

I have written two poems in response to this painting, The First Steps, by Van Gogh:  A Father's Dream from the point of view of the father and A Mother's Grief from the point of view of the mother.  Just click on the titles.

Vincent Van Gogh

Self-Portrait
(1887)

"I have a more or less irresistible passion for books and the constant need to improve my mind, to study if you like, just as I have a need to eat bread."

— Vincent Van Gogh

Dutch Painter

1853 - 1890

Do you have a passion for learning?  Have you read a book in the last month?  Or are you, as some people tell me, too busy to find time to read?  If you read one book a month you are in the top one percent of the population.  Van Gogh was a lifelong learner.  If you are interested in seeing some of the 29 books I have read in 2010, check out my list on Goodreads.com.   

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2103162-harley?shelf=read-2010

Learning does not just come from books.  You can learn a lot listening to the people you come in contact with.  In the last couple of airplane flights I have had the privilege to engage in conversation with two interesting people.  One was a minister who has spent 15 years in Japan.  We shared a love of Japanese culture.  The other was a recent college graduate who found a job within a month of graduating which given the state of the economy was an amazing feat.  People from other walks of life can teach you a lot.  Do you limit yourself to communicating only with people you know?  Or do you seek out interesting people and learn from them?

Don't limit yourself to just learning about your field of interest.  Explore new topics.  If you are an artist, you should know everything you can about art, but you should also explore other areas of interest.  Take seminars and workshops.  Listen to audio books.

Here is one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings.  

Potato Eaters
(1885)

In one of his letters, Van Gogh described this painting:  "I have tried to make it clear how those people, eating their potatoes under the lamplight, have dug the earth with those very hands they put in their dish, and so it speaks of manual labor, and how they have honestly earned their food."

Piet Mondrian

Self-portrait, 1900

"The position of the artist is humble.  He is essentially a channel."

— Piet Mondrian

Dutch Painter

1872 - 1944

Sometimes creative leaders let their egos get in the way of their painting, their writing or their art.  They believe they know all and are all powerful.  They berate others and often are hostile to the ideas of others.   An artist needs to be humble and realize he or she has been given a gift.  Pride and ego will ruin the gift.  Like Piet, many artists and writers talk about simply being a channel for something greater than themselves.  Have you ever created something and afterwards wondered where it came from?  When we learn to let go of the conscious egotistical self and become a channel for creativity, we will surprise and amaze ourselves with the gift we have been given.  Don't seek to understand the source of this gift.  Simply accept the gift with humility.

Piet Mondrian

Composition #2 Piet Mondrian

"Everyone knows that even a single line may convey an emotion."

— Piet Mondrian

Dutch Painter

1872 - 1944

The line is one of the smallest elements of a drawing or a painting.  The line is the beginning of what is to be.  And in that beginning the line conveys the emotion to come, the story to be told.  All art begins some where.  For the artist it is the line.  For the writer it is the word.  For the musician it is the note.  And the line becomes the skeleton, the core of what is created.

I recently discovered the drawings of Michael Kirby.  He has the powerful ability to convey emotion with simple lines.  Check out his blog at:

http://redyellowbluemakeyou.blogspot.com/2010/11/some-more-rapid-sketches.html

Vincent van Gogh

"What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?"

— Vincent van Gogh

Dutch Artist

1853 - 1890

What stories do you tell yourself about fear and courage?  We all have times when we are afraid and times when we have the courage to conquer our fears.  Being afraid does not mean we do not have courage.  Failing to act because we are afraid sometimes is in our best interest.      Taking action when we are afraid is sometimes foolish.