Ed Ruscha has always been known for his creativity. He had an ability that most people didn’t, and it was the ability to see the beauty in ordinary things. He traveled a lot, and in Ed Ruscha: Buildings and Words, he mentions that gasoline stations were the one thing that he noticed the most. He began taking pictures of them during his journey from Los Angeles to Oklahoma, created a book, and later began selling them for three dollars. Simple, right?
Well, although it was simple, no one before him ever did anything like that. Most people take pictures during their journey, however, we only take pictures of ourselves or of pretty views, never of passersby or fallen leaves. The pictures Ed took looked like “anyone could’ve done that, if they had their eyes open”. But unfortunately, we don’t all have our eyes open.
He haven been controlled by small screens, and spend our entire days staring at them, when once, we used to spend our days analyzing book pages. Even began to resent the night, because it meant we had to leave our phones. How sad. It’s at night when a human’s mind is at its most creative, but we are being deprived of that beautiful ability due to how much we have devolved. Our eyes only open to screens, and never nature or books. The first thing we look at in the morning is a screen, and the last thing we go to bed looking at is also a screen. A shame, really.
When was the last time we slept with a book on our chest instead of our phones? When was the last time we stopped in our tracks just to look at the leaves change color instead of crushing them underneath our feet?
The beauty in Ed’s pictures laid in their simplicity, in the fact that anybody could have taken them, and that’s the part that fascinates me the most. Most people think that to be an artist of any kind you have to be naturally gifted or have to make a complex piece of art, but in reality, anything can become art, you just have to look deep enough. Ed, unlike most people, I’m sure, didn’t simply pass by the gasoline stations, he noticed them and photographed them. The pictures he took and the books he made became his diaries. He used anything and everything to leave his mark. He explored different mediums to paint with, at one point he started using food, too. He showed that he didn’t have limits and that anything can be art if only we noticed them.
That’s the level of uniqueness I aspire to be. I want to be limitless, and know no limits. I want to be the person that notices how the constellations in the southern hemisphere are different from those in the northern hemisphere. I want to be the kind of person that notices the different colors the stars hold. Think of how beautiful this would be if each of us held a book and recited and memorized poetry instead of hurtful words. Or held a camera and took photos of simple things we noticed, instead of having our head bent and eyes glued to our phone screens.
Look around you and above you, instead of below you; or you’ll trip and fall. Keep your eyes full of curiosity and light and wonder. Don’t dim the lights in your eyes, because it blinds you from the beauty around you. Stay up all night, and watch the sunrise; stay up all day, and watch the sunset. Notice the different colors. Notice all that’s around you.
*revised
Ed Ruscha has always been known for his creativity. He had an ability that most people didn’t, and it was the ability to see the beauty in ordinary things. He traveled a lot, and in Ed Ruscha: Buildings and Words, he mentions that gasoline stations were the one thing that he noticed the most. He began taking pictures of them during his journey from Los Angeles to Oklahoma, created a book, and later began selling them for three dollars.
The beauty in his pictures lied in the fact that anybody could have taken them, and that’s the part that fascinates me the most. Most people think that to be an artist of any kind you have to be naturally gifted or have to make a complex piece of art, but in reality, anything can become art, you just have to look deep enough. Ed, unlike most people I’m sure, didn’t simply pass by the gasoline stations, he noticed them and photographed them. The pictures he took and the books he made became his diary. He used anything and everything to leave his mark. He explored different mediums to paint with, at one point he started using food, too. He showed that he didn’t have limits and that anything can be art if only we noticed them.
*original
