Cause and Effect

One of my favorite artists is a guy named Robert Irwin.  I won't go into much about his artwork right now- we'll save that for a future post.  But lately I've been thinking about mimicking something he did. He once took about a year off from producing any artwork (okay, I'm not going to do that part) to focus on understanding some things.  He was reading a book by the philosopher/aesthetician named Hegel. He wrote down each statement that Hegel wrote in one color.  Then took another color and wrote his responses.  That was all he did for a year.

I think I want to do that, too.  While thinking about it I was struck by something.  No doubt my responses would be different from Robert Irwin's.  I would be drawing from different experiences and be approaching it from a different place, a different mindset.  However, much of my experience and mindset come from the influence of Robert Irwin's artwork and thinking.  So that thought very much intrigued me.

In responding to and digesting Hegel's work, Robert Irwin helped create a philosophical/intellectual situation that would influence me, which in turn would cause me to respond to Hegel's work in a different way from Robert Irwin...