‘scientia potestas est’ was my old high school motto and probably the only thing I really remember from that school to be fair. It means ‘knowledge is power’. Albert Einstein said ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited while imagination enriches the world’.
There are many artists that I’ve been enchanted with since childhood, who inspired me to seek mastery in my craft of Presenting, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Charlie Chaplin to name a few. However, none more than Vincent van Gogh.
In 2018 I traveled to the small French village, Auvers-suro-Oise, where he spent the last months of his life painting.
I like Vincent’s paintings but that’s not what I fell in love with. It was his dedication to his craft, the ability to choose to paint every day, even during times when dealing with deteriorating mental health that would have stopped most others.
He appeared to be aware that it was only when he was working when his intention was to paint, that he gave himself the opportunity to share moments with god (Dramatic I know, but I love the idea). The more he painted the more he experienced these moments. For me these shared moments are the holy grail for an artist, where time seems to stand still, ideas, colors or words flow from a place beyond our flesh and bone. It works through us as Presenters, a new word, sentence, or idea that’s not from our conscious mind but born, instead, from a place where we still seek to understand.
Just as Vincent’s state of mind was reflected in his frantic brush strokes as his mind grew ill, you can also see the essence of a Presenter in their work when they’ve dedicated themselves, set aside time to practice, repeated a skill until it’s automatic. The more a skill becomes automatic or bone-deep, the easier it is for us to express ourselves on top. That is how you ‘Just Be You’…its earned.
Knowledge is the finite learnings we’ve noted and can repeat. Imagination is the unknown, the greatest version of ourselves, perhaps, painting our future one frantic brushstroke at a time.
