Blood, Sweat, Art

Accomplishments and acquisitions never cease to be attained without a degree of blood, sweat, and sometimes tears, a principle that especially holds true to the arts. Music, the visual arts, even writing are understood by their creators as unfolding from a deep thought process with experimentation, motivated by a spark of inspiration. There is, however, the occasional lightning strike of inspiration whereby the artistic vision is realized in a blast and its rendering captured overnight.

Watching Akira Kurosawa’s late film Dreams recently, I was reminded of this principle. A series of vignettes, Crows illustrates an aspiring painter in a museum looking at an exhibition of Van Gogh. As if in a dream, he steps inside one of the paintings and, wandering through the Holland countryside, meets the maestro, breathtakingly set to Chopin’s “Raindrop” Prelude Op. 28, No.15. In conversation, Van Gogh reflects on the subtle Kodak moments nature is always providing, if one looks closely enough. When the aspiring painter asks, “…then, what do you do?” Van Gogh replies: “I work! I slave! I drive myself like a locomotive!”

In an interview with George Lucas the director recalls working with the late Kurosawa in the early 80’s. Even at the age of 70 Kurosawa, after a long day of shooting scenes, would spend the night cutting film, a tireless labor of love demonstrating a master at his craft behind the scenes.

Biographers of Beethoven have cited the composer spending approximately 10 years singing the melody to the Ode to Joy before composing the 9th Symphony. Like a sculptor chiseling stone or Andy Dufresne’s epic prison escape through 20 years of fortress wall chiseling, the greater the vision/ambition, the more the sweat.