{"id":3005,"date":"2015-03-10T21:06:38","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T04:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/?p=3005"},"modified":"2016-02-16T13:51:58","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T21:51:58","slug":"march-10-2015-ideas-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/dev\/my-art-and-process\/march-10-2015-ideas-come\/","title":{"rendered":"March 10, 2015 – Where do ideas come from?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"in<\/a>Listen to this post:<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.lifeinfullcolor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20150310-Post.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

Right now I\u2019m working on a new, big (it’s 40\u201dx40\u201d) painting that is very different from anything else I\u2019ve ever painted.\u00a0 It\u2019s a collage based on an image of me standing in front of one of the clocks inside the Muse\u00e9 d\u2019Orsay in Paris, the beautiful museum in the old train station building which houses the French national collection of Impressionist art.\u00a0 The original photo was nearly black and white \u2013 I took out the white and layered it over the image I used to paint \u201cParis Roses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both of the photos were taken on the same trip to Paris in late spring of 1998.\u00a0 I went with Karen, a friend of my brother Matt\u2019s.\u00a0 We were single ladies who wanted to go to Europe and didn\u2019t have anyone to go with.\u00a0 Matt connected us \u2013 we had dinner and went to a movie in Mill Valley and decided it would work to travel for two weeks together! I speak French and Karen speaks Castillian Spanish. We went to Paris, St. Remy in Provence and Barcelona.\u00a0 It was one of the best two weeks of my life.<\/p>\n

And our last day in Paris was one of the most memorable days. Karen is a tennis player and fan of the sport.\u00a0 Roland Garros (the French Open) was just starting. We went out to see if we could get tickets and ended up with center court seats to see Martina Hingis and Pete Sampras play matches our last day in Paris. It was fun for me to experience the big-time tennis world and it was a thrill for Karen to watch these greats play. \u00a0Afterwards, we returned to Paris and ended up in a place called something like \u201cLe Bar American\u201d on rue Keller in the 11th<\/sup>. \u00a0Frank Sinatra had recently died and they were playing his music all evening. Karen is trained opera singer with a beautiful voice and grew up in New Jersey singing all the old standards. \u00a0She sang along as we drank pretty colored drinks in lovely stemmed glasses.\u00a0 I think we had charmed the bartenders – they didn\u2019t want us to leave, so they went to the brasserie across the street to get menus and then shuttled our food over to us!<\/p>\n

We left there – pretty looped – and made our way to the Gare de Lyon to take the night train to the south.\u00a0 We shared our 4-couchette\u00a0 compartment with just one other person – a sweet, young French guy. As we got underway, Karen decided to treat us by singing \u201cO mio bambino caro\u201d<\/a> a very popular Puccini aria – it’s one I’m a sucker for!\u00a0 She sang at full volume \u2013 I was transfixed with that I-can\u2019t-believe this-is-actually-happening-to-me-feeling \u2013 a private opera, on a train leaving Paris.\u00a0 The magic of this memory will live in me forever. Every time I recall the story, I feel it all over again.<\/p>\n

I think the enchantment of this trip and that day is in this painting I\u2019m now working on.\u00a0 It\u2019s remarkable for me to think that the silhouette in this photo Karen took of this clock is actually me.<\/em> \u00a0She seems so elegant and feminine \u2013 timeless even.\u00a0 I love how you can see my fingers hanging down from the railing.<\/p>\n

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As I\u2019ve shown the resulting image and the painting on its way, I\u2019ve been asked several times:\u00a0 \u201cwhere did you get this idea?\u201d\u00a0 I answer, I don\u2019t know, it just came to me.\u00a0 So, where do we get ideas?\u00a0 We get inspiration, notions, nigglings, aha\u2019s \u2013 but from where? Being the good search geek that I am, I went online last night and put the question \u201cwhere do ideas come from?\u201d into Google. What came out was a \u201cplaylist\u201d of TED talks<\/a> centered on just that question. Then I listened to them as I worked on the painting.\u00a0 I heard some interesting thoughts on ideas and creativity. \u00a0These are the three talks I found the most compelling:<\/p>\n

Steven Johnson talked about how the first coffee house in Oxford, England was the beginning of the Enlightenment \u2013 as before that people drank alcohol all day and were too drunk to think! He says it\u2019s the free sharing of thoughts among groups of people that spawns great ideas. His talk also has a fun story about how the world got GPS technology.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Gilbert shared how she\u2019s faced with the fact that her greatest work may very well be behind her in having written a mega-bestseller \u201cEat Pray Love\u201d and how in ancient times creativity was attributed to daemons and muses, freeing us from the responsibility (and credit) for our success or failure \u2013 it\u2019s not up to each of us \u2013 yay!<\/p>\n

Matt Ridley\u2019s really upbeat talk is about how diversification and specialization is an integral part of human evolution and how ideas come along because we communicate and cooperate and each do what we are best at.\u00a0 If we aren\u2019t consumed with doing everything necessary to survive, we can live easier and better lives. Love this!<\/p>\n

What I heard had me see that the idea for this painting came about as a progression:<\/p>\n