“Art is a lie that tells the truth.” — Picasso
We all tell lies.
Hopefully over the course of time small ones. We convince ourselves that the lies we tell are good ones in a good cause. When not, we live with the guilt over the not-so-good ones. And then we hide from the shame of other lies.
But we all lie. It is part of the human construct.
Only saints do not lie, and saints of course are not human. They have those halos around their heads. You can see them as they float down the street.
Part of achieving a balanced and happy life is coming to terms with what it means being an actual human person, being balanced. For example, not lying about the fact that people lie and that you are, in the end, one of those people.
Many of us consider ourselves one way or another artists or attempting to be artists or on some sort of creative path. This is a good thing. Not only good for us but good for everyone else. But we have to come to terms with what creativity entails. Because art is by it very essence artifice and artifice is a lie.
Artifice requires a distinction from fact by its very nature and everything that is distinct from fact is by definition a lie.
If we look at the history of human creativity, we see that it is all based in some way upon something either dishonest or destructive even when not intentional. Something noble may be achieved, some truth may be revealed. It is still a lie.
As human beings, particularly as creative human beings, we have to come to terms with these realities. We have to move forward with an understanding of this knowledge without denying it. We cannot deny the reality of our human situation.
We always take steps forward and steps backward. It is a delicate balance and something of a dance when we create. And that perhaps we need to understand this dance is something we do not do alone. We must all work together, not only in the present, but across the ages in some type of partnership, to create something better.
A fried of mine who writes and deserves a great deal of credit for what he has done; who has given an opportunity to many dozens of people to freely express themselves—an opportunity that others would quickly deny—suffers mightily on occasion from self-doubt and self-criticism when it comes to his own work.
He expressed this doubt in public the other day precisely on this subject of being a creative and having to “embellish” his work. In other words, having to “lie.”
People responded over and over, saying that they “never lie” and they were “always honest” when they wrote.
What nonsense. What lies. And how they were taking this poor man (who in many instances had given them the opportunity to express themselves) now in pain on the ground, and kicking him in the face. With their lies.
This is not a fruitful way forward. Not a way to join hands and look for the peace and cooperative state we creatives should be seeking. We need to admit our human frailties in order not only to help each other but to help ourselves and to move forward.
Because all of art, all of creativity is artifice and all of artifice is a lie. And when we doubt ourselves, we need to join hands over our doubts about what we are doing.
As I said to my comrade then, ask Jackson Pollock or Mark Rothko if they are lying. Ask the great poets or comedians if they are lying. Ask those whose memories fail them if they are lying. Are we to lose the stories they tell as well?
No, I’m sorry, saying someone is named “Shelly” instead of “Kenny” is not a lie. It is an insignificant fact. Because we are not in a court of law. Saying we went to a bar on “Oak Street” instead of “Maple Street” is not going to cause society to crumble. The world does not spin on an axis we have created.
He worried specifically in regard to this matter of writing about himself, as many people do. When we write about ourselves, we are doing a service for others. If we are not doing a service for others, we keep what we write to ourselves. Yes, we may have a circle of friends among whom we share stories of our lives. It can be a healthy thing, a therapeutic thing.
But when we do this, particularly for exposure or money, and make claims about “honesty,” and beat our brows about it in public — perhaps also for exposure or money — then we are lying.
But we are doing a service. We are creating art.
Artists work hard studying themselves in private, making self-portraits. Then they work hard studying other objects, working on other things that have nothing to do with themselves, developing habits of observation.
And in this study, they develop habits of observation, means to a language that allows them to communicate, even as they return to self-portraits, through which they can communicate to their audience, their readers, a means of conveying the ideas they are speaking OF and ABOUT their audience and their world and not merely to them about themselves.
So that what they say can never be a lie, because what they are communicating is an idea and a truth, and the facts hardly ever matter at all…in the end, like the colors or shapes on a canvas hardly matter at all in the end.
What matters is what they communicate and what YOU see and feel.
Because they are not writing a business prospectus or a legal draft. And unless they are writing yet another “how-to” manual… And you are expecting some facts about how to live your life step-by-step, perhaps you are expecting more than you should.