Saw this post by kottke.org on Hokusai’s Great Wave, and I was really inspired and amused by this quote:
From the age of six I had a penchant for copying the form of things, and from about fifty, my pictures were frequently published; but until the age of seventy, nothing that I drew was worthy of notice. At seventy-three years, I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees, and the structure of birds, animals, insects, and fish. Thus, when I reach eighty years, I hope to have made increasing progress, and at ninety to see further into the underlying principles of things, so that at one hundred years I will have achieved a divine state in my art, and at one hundred and ten, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive. Those of you who live long enough, bear witness that these words of mine prove not false.
– Hokusai, source
Imagine an artist like Hokusai thinking that even at a ripe old age of 70, nothing he did till then was worthy. This sentiment can either be very inspiring or depressing, depending on one’s perspective.
I personally find it inspiring: that it often feels like we’re ageing and getting nowhere, but some things require the fermentation that comes with time. He saw 70 years of age as a mid-point instead of the end, retaining the optimism that he still had many years of practicing art ahead of him. So many people in their 30s believe they are done, much less 70 or 110. I think it is important to feel that at any point in life we can still have a student’s mindset while paradoxically balancing ourselves with the possible grief of impermanence.
Obviously we’re not Hokusai, but who knows how our own paths can unfold?
In the same day I chanced upon this quote by Rick Rubin:
Not all projects take time, but they do take a lifetime. In calligraphy, the work is created in one movement of the brush. All the intention is in that single concentrated movement. The line is a reflection of the energy transfer from the artist’s being, including the entire history of their experiences, thoughts, and apprehensions, into the hand. The creative energy exists in the journey to the making, not in the act of constructing.
The aliveness of the art is achieved through the aliveness of the artist’s soul. If we are lucky, it is with ageing and time that we gain a sort of spiritual aliveness. What is life other than the accumulation of experiences? The more experiences we gain the richer our soul becomes, and that shows up in the work we do. It is sad that in modern society we see ageing as a process of dying instead of the growing container it can become. Hokusai knows this: that the body and mind can be an amazing vehicle to practice and experiment with, should we possess the capacity to do so.
I have the capacity to think and write this, but I’m nowhere near to living this. I am just so tired all the time. But I sense this in my writing and in my fitness – the effects of what time and experience can accumulate.