Quirk & Spirit

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.
– Leonardo da Vinci

A few centuries ago no one had heard of a blood moon. Between April of this year and April of next year the full moon will turn coppery red four times as sunlight and sunsets bleed through the atmosphere when the earth spins between the sun and the moon. As a lover of the moon fascinated by all its phases, I wonder about this quirky happening. Chance arrangement, apocalyptic, a scientific phenomenon, or spirits shifting?

Many view my quirky nocturnal behavior as bizarre, perplexing, or a form of moon madness. For me, the spirits of creativity roam at night – when I commune with them.

Quirk appears in many guises, but the quirky details of characters, events, or situations imprint on our minds and linger. Of unknown origin, the early 16th century sense of the word means unexpected twist. 

We often associate quirk with genius, creativity or intellectual giftedness, frequently equated with incomprehensible habits deemed eccentric. Charles Dickens paced while he dictated his work, and combed his hair hundred of times a day. Edgar Allen Poe wrote on continuous strips of paper held together with sealing wax, while Honore de Balzac downed 50 cups of coffee a day as he penned his novels. Jack Kerouac sought spiritual insights with alcohol and T.S. Eliot donned green-tinted face powder and lipstick. Truman Capote preferred lying down to write In Cold Blood, while Vladamir Nabokov composed Lolita on index cards standing up. James Joyce claimed a good day’s writing when he completed 3 sentences! Romantic era poet, printmaker and painter William Blake considered strange for his compelling imagery labeled twisted, died in poverty and obscurity.

Einstein ‘s rejection of authority, sense of wonder and curiosity led him to discover the theory of relativity. His chauffeur reported that one day he picked up a grasshopper and ate it! When Thomas Edison interviewed potential research associates he offered them a bowl of soup. If the candidate seasoned the soup (added salt) before testing it, Edison rejected him – too many assumptions.

Picasso’s quirky vision, passion, and experimentation led to the establishment of the Cubist Movement and a radical shift in the art world.

The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.
– Pablo Picasso

The eccentric behavior of Salvador Dali included an exorcism. The self-portraits of Frida Kahlo depict her pain with images of monkeys, a necklace of thorns, and a pole jammed through her spine. The drips and spills of Jackson Pollock’s paintings helped to define the Abstract Expressionist Movement, while Marcel Duchamp’s readymades include The Urinal, the piece that shocked the critics. Andy Warhol extended this use of ordinary objects to create the Pop Art Movement.

Other noteworthy purveyors of quirk include Joan of Arc who wore men’s clothes and Lady Gaga dressed as a nun in mourning for the launch of the Polaroid grey label. Not to be overlooked for distinctive quirk are legends Steve Jobs, playwright Samuel Beckett and actor Johnny Depp – and influential musicians Bob Dylan, Black Sabbath, Kiss, Nirvana, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles.

How, when or where you summon up the spirit of creativity, doesn’t matter. The true origin of art lies in your passion. You have to care. You have to care deeply. You have to have a burning desire to answer your most difficult questions. We often sit down to write, or paint, or sculpt, or compose what we know – but in the end, we write, or paint or sculpt, or compose what we don’t know. We express to invent, to discover, to live or love more fully. Whatever your quirk(s), summon up the spirits of creativity, listen to their rustlings – see what happens!