Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Chimp is to artist as i am to writer.

(written for my online creative writing class but none the less deemed worthy to share here) question posed? "what keeps a chimpanzee with a paintbrush from being a writer?"
Chimp is to Artist ... As I am to Writer
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Black and Magenta scrape across the empty canvas, in violent and mindless patterns. The chimpanzee sits by chewing on the paint brush and smiling an oblivious magenta grin.

This is not art.Or is it.

A young girl babbles along the keys of her computer trying to make sense of the emotions that run rampant in her mind. She sits in the glow of the screen tears staining her cheeks with a mournful expression.

This is not writing.Or is it.

Author Robert Coles has long pondered the question, "or is it", by questioning the ideal of human actuality. Coles presents the notion that every moment and idea appears differently to different individuals based on experiences and feelings.Subsequently who is to say that what the chimpanzee creates is not art? Who are we to decide what is art in the first place.

In pondering this thought, I asked a friend "what keeps a chimp with a paintbrush from being an artist?" her answer was quick and concise and simple. "he does not know that he is creating art". This posed an entirely new question? How do we know he does not know he is creating art? How do we know what he is thinking or feeling? How do we define art, and is this definition the right one? How do we know what is RIGHT?

Perhaps were we to stop looking so deeply for answers we would see that sometimes its the questions that teach us more. That perhaps that silly chimp chewing on a paintbrush does know more than us. He knows to just accept the color for what it is. To create with out trying to define.
Posted by XO-JK :: 12:21 PM :: 0 Comments:

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