“Only the madman is absolutely sure.” — Robert Anton Wilson
Many things fail to launch in our lives. As we grow older, we realise just how long that list is. Even the things we think we know quite well, might just be a small subset of all there is to know on the subject. I can tell you how to take some cheap ingredients and make something tasty out of them, but I can tell you virtually nothing about ‘fine dining’.
We learned the things we needed to know along the journey of our lives, or the things that sparked our interest; and our skills are built (or not) on the basis of learning. Each one of us will have a different skillset, and different areas where we are severely lacking in skills. For example, I can use my hands reasonably well to touch-type, but they are like two left feet when it comes to DIY.
Our experiences let us know what subjects we might wish to dig deeper on, and those which are best left alone. This is even true for variations within individual subjects, such as having a preference to write nonfiction, rather than poetry, or writing flash fiction rather than a novel. Some of our experiences began in school, and how we were taught, but it can also be about the extent to which we choose to dig deeper and deeper in individual subjects, or to learn a little about a lot, like the difference between a master carpenter and a general builder.
Out of these experiences, we know what we would prefer to avoid. I am always interested in learning about new music, but I have no interest in learning musical theory.
I am similarly interested in viewing art, and can appreciate the beauty of it, or the skill which has gone into producing it, at least on a basic level, without having a desire to either learn art appreciation as a formal subject, or to engage in the production of it. Some of that stems from how I was (not) taught art in school, and the thought of sticking my hands in clay fills me with revulsion.
Thus, when I am presented with a painting, such as that above from Yago Hortal, I can see some beauty in that for a brief period, but I can’t (or don’t want to) comment on light and dark, foreground and background or any other aspect of the range of shapes, colours or colour-mixes available to analyse, as that is a distraction from the things I do wish to learn more about. I may therefore disappoint when it comes to the expectations of others, but remain true to myself, regardless of possibly being ‘misguided’.
After all, “only the madman is absolutely sure”, and I fit that definition more than any other.
Fraser
August 2023