You have to finish it. No gifts needed,just truck on through.

-----Original Message-----
From: Cheerskep <[email protected]>
To: aesthetics-l <[email protected]>
Sent: Tue, Dec 10, 2013 2:37 pm
Subject: Re: comment invited

Michael writes:
"when you encounter a painting or song or
other creation that you cannot imagine creating yourself, you are
looking
at
something that you do not know how to start."

When I was an unknowingly benighted youth, I could ostensibly "start"
works
in a number of genres. For example, I could invent a melodic line for
my
symphony, and a passable first line or two of a poem. But I lacked the
gifts
necessary to the full execution. I could not hear in my ear any complex
orchestration. I could fuzzily picture the attitude and posture of a
figure I
wanted to draw, but I could not, after starting, push beyond the
fuzziness to
specificity, except in a mechanical, imitative way. (I've confessed
here
before that I was the "class artist" in high school -- with just about
zero
visually creative talent.)

I would not protest if you insisted that what I did was not "starting"
at
all, but it felt like starting at the time.

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