A post shared by Christo and Jeanne-Claude a few years ago caught my eye. I’ve known of his work, as do most artistically-inclined people, for decades,
I realize that the late Christo and his equally late wife, Jeanne-Claude, and I have something in common. We both wanted to show people something new in the ordinary. My reviews are, mostly all, about that. Ordinary products, ordinary words. I avoid review-speak, and try to take a different angle at items which are well-trod in our lives.
Christo was not known as a painter nor sculptor using techniques used by everyone from the masters to the plebeians. His originally was more so than Jackson Pollock, who merely attacked an ordinary media with an ordinary paint, but with an extraordinary approach.
Instead, Christo rethought the entire process. My writing cannot be anything like this since, to communicate, I must use a known vocabulary and sentence structures familiar to most readers.
In my case, I want to show what already exists, or could exist, in the ordinary. In Christo’s artistic view, he looked to discover what has never been within the the ordinary.
Christo, though, I am not. He does things like wrap islands in plastic. He needs a crew to get his work done, and does not control the final look. He cannot. He only can imagine a vision and plan for its execution. He revels in the unique largeness of what he does, and that is part of his fame. Rather than the art itself, the pretense is in its news-worthiness. Instead of pure art, he creates a spectacle.
My writing needs to be understood to work. Christo’s art does not. In fact, he needs mystery. I need wonder.
There’s a difference.
See his work and think.
http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/
Let me help you be extraordinary.