Print: Red Ejection / Musings on my magpie mind

Red Ejection, RTomens, 2019

This piece is comprised of two images culled from the internet and another cut from a book. Various print techniques were then used to create the finished image.

Now...

I believe I have a 'magpie mind', although looking for precise definitions I could find none. So perhaps I'm on the wrong track. Those who can stay on one track for a long time, study something, made me envious, once upon a time. I wanted to be an expert in something, anything.  

It's not that my mind wanders or is continually lead from page-to-page on the internet, thank god, for what kind of hell must that be? I've seen tips for artists and writers on how to avoid that syndrome. Usually they involve simply turning the computer off or learning discipline etc.

No, I'm simply interested in a variety of things and have never chosen one to study. Since junior school I had trouble studying. I had trouble with school full-stop. Every teacher's efforts to impart knowledge fell on these deaf ears like so much snow on a wet road; dates, facts, historical figures, science etc all dissolving on contact. I was looking out the window, my mind 'miles away'.

Leaving secondary school qualified to do nothing much I spent subsequent decades doing just that with my brain. The longer that continued the more I began to envy those who had studied. Still, all knowledge is relative, isn't it? I wrote a book about Jazz. Compared to the average person in that, at least, I'm an 'expert'. Except that I'm not, which is why I wrote as myself rather than a conveyor of facts. That said, many a book on Jazz has revealed it's author's preferences through omissions, bias, etc.

I don't buy the 'jack of all trades, master of none' idea as a slight. Tell it to Picasso or Paolozzi. OK, they were exceptional. I mix and match styles, subjects and influences. My magpie mind collects things from film, literature, music and art to fill my creative 'nest. I'm not unique in that sense, I know. Still, I wonder, when seeing an artist work in one style repeatedly, whether they're as mono-minded about culture as they are creating images.

How our minds develop from the start is a mystery. Are we born with a type of mind? I really should study to find out, shouldn't I? Something in me set a course long ago that would never run straight regarding interests. Was I 'programmed' to be this way? Pulp fiction, philosophy, Jazz, Dub, Film Noir, Westerns, Concrete Poetry, Pop Art...I could go on...all in the mix. I can't help myself. It doesn't win me points when coming up against experts, but I thank them all the same for providing answers when I Google something. Thank god they studied. Meanwhile, finally, I'm content with how I am in this respect. It means I can name three Sartre novels and Kool And The Gang tracks. My life has not been wasted.