Recharging the Subconscious

I got out of the house this weekend...a lot. My friend Surya made an interesting comment while we were at the de Young museum. While I'm paraphrasing, the idea is his: "It's good to get out, experience, recharge the subconscious so that we can return to the writing with full minds."

Every experience we have wreaks some level of havoc on our brains. I saw some fascinating, thought-provoking pieces this weekend and I'm sure somewhere, sometime down the line, they will raise questions within me that need further exploring, that need explicating through one of the only mediums I know; writing. In the past, I had used writing as a weapon as opposed to an idea mover or problem-solver. These days, I make a very conscious effort to eliminate any of my own personal history from my work, but the subconscious is funny in the way it allows things to bubble up into our writing, even when we fight to keep it out.

Here are just a few of the many thought-provoking pieces we saw at the de Young.

Cornelia Parker - "Anti-Mass"

Stephen de Staebler - "Wall X Orange Scar"

Thomas Hart Benton - "Susanna and the Elders"

Chiura Obata - "Mother Earth"

Ralph Eugene Meatyard - "Untitled," "Untitled," "Untitled"

Claes Oldenburg - "Profile Airflow"

(6,073)