An artist needs three things

On this day in 1930, William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying was published. Faulkner said that of all his books, he liked As I Lay Dying the best. He also said, "A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others."

My email from The Writer's Almanac supplied that quote. I'm always teaching kids about these three things, things remembered, things seen, and things imagined. We play with different combinations of the three in all our creations. The elementary art class that has been the most involved in creating our treehouse installation made sketches of that installation today. They were making drawings of what they saw, which was something they had imagined and brainstormed and created. By sketching the treehouse they were enhancing their memory of the creative process and of the creative product. I sincerely hope they were envisioning future creations!

Do you remember learning to braid? The writer or artist is braiding experience, observation, and imagination at all times. Did Neanderthals know how to braid? When did Homo Sapiens learn? Learning to braid is a braid! What leap in thinking led a person to cross the reeds or hair just so to make a braid? Did that person already have a spoken language? How did that person visualize this advance? Did the next generation imagine how to make rope? Did the next imagine spinning wool? Knitting? Crochet? Good grief. Did a Neanderthal macrame a plant hanger for her apartment/cave? Did her mate observe spiderwebs before creating the first fishing net or hammock?

What about the storytellers? When did they begin to braid the retelling of the day's mammoth hunt with comparisons to other remembered hunts,or embellish it with remembered sounds and inflections, and imagined powerful nature spirits?