A masterpiece is an artistic vacuum of a world that does not exist in reality and that first takes place in the creative mind of an artist. To produce such a specific work that reflects a piece of one’s self and that touches the public, an artist has to (a) consciously reflect on the noblest method to use, and (b) to convey a specific message.

 

a) The Method

A genius reaches perfection in his/her art with the secret mix of gift and technique. Gift is what you have inside, what God has filled your soul with to achieve a purpose-driven life; technique is your part of the job that you have to work really hard at to make the best use of your gift.

The artistic love happens like love-at-first -sight, -touch, -listening. It happens through a specific material as well as on a psychological level. The material is the channel over which the message is sent and the feeling is the medium by which it is sent. Both work together and cannot be isolated from one another.

In my early writings, when I attempted to reach the pathos without mastering the method, I was set for disappointment, which was characterized in an everlasting frustration that no one could understand. Time helped me realize that technique and the correct use of the material are the cornerstones of storytelling.

I should know a thing about technique when it comes to writing as in France from an early age we are initiated to the art of la dissertation. This writing process in Literature, History, Philosophy or Human Sciences, is the art of getting the gist of knowledge without missing to give a counter point-of-view and examples for each ideas being introduced. This is an excellent exercise for the brain that helps pondering the value of each thesis. In that sense, I always believed that French students had an absolute advantage over their peers in other countries.

When I talk about mastering the material I mean that the receiver gets the message the artist wants to send. Every artist likes to live dangerously and try a new method – which is in essence how an artist should act, leaving the traditional and the comfortable zone to create a piece of art that goes further than what the eye can perceive.

I have recently started to use a different writing technique on how I could best depict the message I want to send. As mentioned above, I wanted to get rid of the frustration of mixing my writing desire – which was somehow egoistic- with a scholarly exercise that I was being asked to do and that could only fail.

The method prevails over the artistic flaw because it serves to best send out a message and the genius should naturally imbricate itself to the method

 

b) The Message

It was very courageous that some writers, painters or musicians in the past have tried to dissect their art and bring it to the most genuine form. A first look perceives a childish work or a lack of required rigor. This is missing out on the idea the author intended to express.

This artistic illiteracy is rather judgmental. Most people would be amazed if they knew that these geniuses purposely hindered their artistic savoir-faire. Every painter knows how to draw a tree, a face, a lake as the eye perceives them, but not every painter courageously and with genius can depict danger, ugliness, war, tragedy in a non-real cruel form, for the reality is too shocking. Some artists, though, simply reject the true world and create romanticism to block any sort of trauma.

In that sense, History has played a fatalist role, especially when artists lived in a time of war. They left behind the beauty and methodologically destroyed the material to impact the psychology of the receiver to tell: “Something broke in me and this is the source of my art“. I, myself, started to integrate life as it is, as I experienced it, nonetheless not making comprise with my own ethical standard that includes heavenly justice.

Most artists want to live in their own bubble – however secretly hoping their genius will be recognized during their lifetime, some prefer simply depicting the world with their distinctive faculty of perception, while others skip the message part and focus on a methodical plan that is meant for success. To me, there is no compromise that can be reached between myself and what is expected – I abhor any sort of mass-marketing, especially when well packaged in a fraudulent artistic demagogy. No economic theory of supply and demand should prevail for the sake of fame or money, the message is way too important to be denigrated in such a way.

We always question the reason for brokenness, but when we come to realize the necessity of it for our own good – and even greatness – we are thankful we actually survived the storm and that we are stronger, wiser and fearless: we now have something to tell. This also gives the courage to share these stories to bring of hope, grace and love to the public.

I had my own world broken and not without the horrifying vision that it was destroyed, but what we called damages is actually the foundation to build a new better and stronger self. It is quite an illusion when we talk about restauration for what was once cannot be the same anymore – the concept of time itself suffices to explain this.

 

The artistic work is not just reverie and metaphysic but it also takes place in a real world, and it is up to each creator to choose the way to popularize an experience and/or a particular story to bring hope in the future.