Life like a great piece of art.
Posted on May 31, 2008
“I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don’t need.”
~ Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917) French sculptor, when asked how he managed to make his remarkable statues
My favourite piece of sculpture from my favourite sculptor, and a great quote to go with it. (Although, to be honest, I’d have difficulty naming more than another one or two well known sculptors without the help of Google).
Sculpture isn’t my art – photography is. Fortunately, it’s very similar, in that a good photo is more often about what you leave out than what you get into the frame. Some of my favourite photos are the simplest ones I’ve taken.
There’s no reason your life can’t be the same. If you remove everything that isn’t part of your life as you want it to be, then you’ll be left with a life worth remembering.
Now, the great thing is that, unlike sculptors, we can probably put things back into our lives if we decide that removing them wasn’t the best move (sculptors probably could too, but I’m given to understand that the user of superglue is somewhat frowned upon).
Like great art, this takes time. You remove something, you take a long hard look at what you’ve done. You remove something else. Repeat, repeat, repeat, hopefully removing smaller pieces each time. Sometimes you just have to stop making changes, and let the current reality settle, then you can come back to it; You can’t rush art.
You can’t rush life either, but you can change it from something that happens to you, into something that is becoming what you want it to be.
Comments
Add New Comment
Thanks. Your comment is awaiting approval by a moderator.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Add New Comment
Trackbacks
(Trackback URL)