A more comprehensive quote

"An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's."
-J.D. Salinger


This is one quote that I believe we can all understand and agree with, to an extent.  I do believe that an artist's true goal should be to create that perfect piece of art, or what they consider perfect.  I know that when I try to write (or at least, my new, current way of writing) I like to revise it and edit it until I feel that it is exactly how it should be, but I do this on my terms.  I don't judge my writing on how I feel others will feel about it, I judge how it feels to me.  I want to be satisfied with my own work before I worry about what others think about it.  Yes, how others will react does come into mind, but I don't attempt to completely design my work over how others will judge or react to it.  I do attempt to follow certain guidelines and styles laid down by those before me, but in doing so I try to make it my own, and I believe that is what is important in art and for an artist.


P.S. I have no idea why my blog suddenly decides to highlight all of my posts and change the font color and everything whenever I copy a quote into my blog. If someone could help me fix this it would be most appreciated.

Interesting quote. Please comment.

“An artist is someone who can hold two opposing viewpoints and still remain fully functional.” 

-F. Scott. Fitzgerald

This is a quote that I am currently trying to mull over in my head, and I was wondering what everyone else thought of it.

For some strange reason I am having a difficult time completely grasping what to make of it.  I do believe I understand what it means, and yet I find myself hitting a brick wall with it.  An artist can be confronted and hold two opposing viewpoints and still remain functional.  So essentially, an artist can be hypocritical and be aware of it, and yet still stand by both claims; or at least that is what I am getting from this.  Does Fitzgerald have a point?  Do artists really do this?  Can artists, or even people in general truly do this?  I feel like most of us to at points, but can we justify it?  I'm not sure, I guess I'll have to mull this over some more.

Could we survive without creativity?

Most certainly, however, we would not be the same human beings we are today.  Creativity is what truly sets us apart from other creatures in the animal kingdom, for no other animal (that I myself am aware of) possesses creativity like we do.  We are a unique species in that sense, for we can create great pieces of art, giant cities, machines, and most of all, one major aspect that sets us apart is the fact that we can lie.  We are able to fabricate a false truth, weave a story, create fiction.  I am most positive that no other animal can do this.

To continue the answer to the question at hand, if we lacked creativity we would simply be like other animals around us, or so I believe.  Creativity is what makes us human, so without it, we would not be different.  We would be like the nomads that we had evolved from many ages ago.  A simple, base people whose sole objective is to survive, nothing else.  We would rely only on our instincts and base natures, with, I'm sure, some reason dabbling here and there at times.  But, I do believe that creativity is a good thing, as do many, and we should continue to be as such.

What is greater: imagination, knowledge, or creativity?

I suppose this is really a sort of trick question (one of my own magnificent design) for I don't believe that any of these can exist without the others.  Creativity obviously cannot exist without imagination or knowledge, for as we determined in class creativity is a product of the two.

In regards to imagination, imagination can only happen by gaining experience, which is essentially knowledge, or more so we gain knowledge from experience, and knowledge can range from seeing the sky is blue to quantum mechanics.

And finally, with knowledge, in order for one to fully grasp a concept of anytime, one needs to be able to imagine it.  For example: if someone tells you that a dog says "woof", do you not imagine a dog barking? Of course you do, for it is only natural for humans to voluntarily and involuntarily imagine certain things, for it is part of how our brain works.

With this information presented, it seems that there is no one concept that stands above the others. While creativity may be a product of the two, that does not make it any less important that the others, for creativity is what sets us apart from other animals.