As a writer and designer, I crave opportunities to spend time in unfettered creative exploration. Let my mind wander just to see where it goes. What new avenues will I explore? What old haunts and memories will drift into consciousness, perhaps catching me off-guard?
In the rush-rush of Western modernity, it’s difficult to prioritize such quality creative time. Yet when I am lucky enough to do so, I find myself confronted by that wonder that has lured and panicked men and women since humanity first explored creative expression: the blank canvas.
For me, the empty page is pristine. So clean. Perfect in so many ways. Yet … yet, it clearly invites more. Color me here. Write on me there. Refine my perfection with something new. Something that did not previously exist. Something that stems from you.
That invitation at times is both wonderfully alluring and daunting. I’d love to create something beautiful and meaningful, even if I am the only audience that page will ever see. What if I get it wrong? What if all I can produce is “eh”. Who am I to disturb the simple uniformity of the white space that is the empty spread?
The blank page. Ultimate potential, a pure beauty that the most beautiful work of art when started will only taint. Pure beauty that by itself cannot be expressed. The minimalists nihilistic end. It defies expression, and finds meaning only in the eyes of ponderer. The blank page is everything, every shape, every series of strokes of pens and brushes, every idea combined into one empty space.
Ultimately it is worthless. What is art without expression? It is all of the possibilities in one’s own head that one finds so alluring about the blank page.
Defile it!
The blank page or the empty canvas is very much a piece of art in and of itself. The craftsmanship, love and care that went into making the notebook, or into stretching the canvas, is a form of art.
Art is everywhere. All we need to do is look for it.
Yes but hang it in the Guggenheim and people will riot.
The rioters will be they who do not understand art.