The sadness of a page left unwritten.

 

Facing an empty page

I have read of writers worst fears. The fears of settling down in front of an empty page. The page doesn’t beckon nor ever shows signs of life no matter how keen the aspiring writer casts his eyes on the empty sheet. A nightmare to behold. It is much the same with the painter facing an empty canvas. At least with canvas one could give it another coat of primer. The writer might in the same manner change the sheet of paper or turn it over. Some say it is best to have an idea, others would urge to make a start anyway, the idea might come along later. Write a single word or smear some paint. It is better than nothing. Get rid of the whiteness, the blankness. Anything to make a start.

It is the same with the composer. He gets up, has his or her coffee, saunters over to the desk and needs to write his first note or strike the first chord. Will it be a boring middle C?  What key ? He desperately needs the first few notes, a tune or phrase, anything to make a start. The sculptor,  facing a cold unyielding block of stone or marble. Where shall he make his first blow, start hewing away? It is not easy to be an artist (or dentist, bricklayer, statistician  for that matter.

The irony is that some of the best works get created when the artist hardly knows what he is doing. You can read this in auto-biographies. And listening to Mozart one gets the impression he would not ponder too much about what to compose next. He just could not, would not have had the time. Without hesitation he just jacked on producing voluminous beautiful  music, almost in disregard of the outcome.  He just did.

When I was teaching adults wanting to create something from nothing I used to urge them to just make a start, do a doodle. Kids have no trouble doing that. What happened to you growing up into adults? Where are you now? Remember you used to draw a house with a smoking chimney at a crazy angle to the roof? Your mum put it up on the wall to be admired by everyone. Some adults would often start by saying “I can’t do it, I was never any good.”

Where did that come from?  Who told you  can’t do something. Go on, overcome your fear. Push the charcoal on the paper and draw a line for starters, it won’t kill you.  Nothing becomes art on its own accord.

Just be a Mozart,  a Rembrandt, Sibelius, Henri Moore or a J.Verne and do it.

 

Tags: Composers, MiddleC, Mozart, Painters, Sculptors, Writers