Chapter 4: Poetry from "An Artist's Thought Book"

#45

Reading, Writing, Reflection are the three paths to improving one’s mind. If you want to sharpen your mind you have to rub it against something abrasive.

I find it fascinating that in the great art eras of the past, the artists often would be reading the most up to date philosophy and sometimes physics too! Their art attempted to express visually or poetically the trends in thought. It is like one’s mind, both artistically and intellectually, needs to be sharpened.  And one proven way to do so is to read something difficult.  Not difficult for difficult sake, but for the artist, who is seeking insights and ideas for art work, to use another’s thoughts as a “spark” to get the wheels in one’s mind moving. Moreover, one’s grasping for understanding may not lead to understanding, but it often leads to thought generation in the forms of hypothesis, analogy, and metaphor.