I never subscribed to cable television. With the limited amount of time my wife and I watched TV, it never seemed like a useful expenditure of money. For that reason, I’ve never watched CNN and have never been exposed to Fareed Zakaria. In support of his new book, “Age of Revolution: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present,” he appeared on a podcast to which I do listen. It was an engaging exchange of ideas and he is certainly a delightful pundit and political commentator. I hope to spend more time in the future digesting some of his ideas, but I took one point away from his podcast appearance, a point I have heard in the past, but it nonetheless struck me. While talking about success, he said talent was important, but luck played no small part. If you arrive at the “lucky point” in your life without the talent, success in not a guarantee. You must have both.
While we don’t watch much TV, my wife and I enjoy movies and the theater. We often attend lectures on a wide variety of topics and it is difficult to keep us out of a museum. I read a fair amount (I am unfortunately a slow reader, so I’d love to say I read many books, but that is impossible.) I listen to a wide variety of music and have always appreciated the work of anyone who creates unique sounds. I think my interaction with the arts is pretty typical across the United States today. As we have become a more educated society, if compared with the 1950s for example, it has allowed us time for more enjoyment of the arts and it has educated us to more fully appreciate them.
This elevation of the appreciation of the arts has also convinced more people to pursue careers in arts related fields. So many young people want to be actors, singers, artists, performers and join creative commercial fields such as designers and architects that they cannot be absorbed. There are more people than job openings. That is where the “luck” part comes into play.
I remember a conversation with a HR executive years ago. He was telling me that he hated when the Graphics Department needed a new Graphics Designer. For jobs in Accounting, Purchasing and Engineering, he’d receive a handful of applications and sorting through them was an easy task. For the graphics’ position, literally hundreds of applications would arrive. To add to the difficulty, he couldn’t offer as generous a salary. The law of supply and demand meant the pay was lower, even for seasoned veterans it could only rise to unexciting levels. When everyone is talented, only the lucky can rise above.
Does that mean, there are too many designers? Are we overrun with unemployed actors and singers? After twenty years of “The Voice” and “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent” and “America’s Next Top Model” how many singers, models and jugglers do you really remember? Two? Five? Honestly, those are not great odds. If you cannot name more than a handful of people who have won these nationally televised competitions, where does that put talented architects and designers?
So what do you do with your creative talent? Busker downtown? Write novels (or blog posts!) that no one will read except your mother? Paint in your garage? Act in your local amateur theater troupe? Cook gourmet food for an audience of your family only? Yes! Sure! Why not?
I think sometimes, the creative need is the most important aspect of the process. I make art and when too much accumulates, I am forced to destroy it. During my recent move, a series of sculpted paper pieces (photo at top of this post) were destroyed by a heavy box. I had plenty of pictures, so out they went. I left a few welded pieces in the backyard of the old house as well. Did I really need them here? I write letters to the editor and never submit them. Some blog posts are half-baked ideas that unlike Benjamin Braddock’s, never get “fully-baked.” All of this is okay. The process, is what is important. Much more so than the outcome. I was satiated by the work.
I attended a lecture in Cleveland with architect, Frank Ghery and Insurance executive and art patron, Peter B Lewis. It was around the time Lewis commissioned Ghery to build the wonderful Peter B Lewis building on the campus of Case Westerner Reserve University a couple of miles from my home. Within the freewheeling banter, an abandoned home for Lewis was discussed. Over a number of years, Ghery worked on a home design for Lewis. Lewis spent countless dollars and Ghery went through reams of paper. Then they stopped. An audience member asked, “Why?”
Both the architect and the client agreed they had gotten all they could out of the process. Ghery had created a satisfying design and Lewis felt his residential needs were met with the results. There was no real need to have it built. Each man was fulfilled. That conversation allowed me to walk away more easily from some of my work. As long as I did my best and I was happy with the results, I was in a good place. I could let go.
As I reread this post, I realize, I have not brought the topic back to lighting. (The whole reason you are reading this!) That means, unless I am up against a deadline, I probably won’t use it. If you got this far, know that I had nothing else to say this week about lighting, so why not my philosophy? Also know, I got the idea out of my head and into a MS Word document. For me, that was the good part.
Lighting by Jeffrey 