The Day I Saw Salvador Dali Eat Paper-How to Think Outside the Box?

"Circus" 36x48 oil on canvas by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

How to think outside the box? Well here is one idea.. lol! A few months before Salvador Dali died I was at a gallery in San Francisco, who featured him. They had a video playing continually of him, rolling paper up in a ball and eating it. True. I was for whatever reason intrigued by that. Questions in my mind mounted about him. It seemed desperate as far as art expression goes to find value in eating rolled up paper wads. Was he going mad or had he always been mad or was I somehow being short sighted and missing some extraordinary expression of artistic courage? Was I 'not hip', not in the inner circle of knowing what makes real art? I did not know much about Dali then and I confess I thought it odd and actually kinda coo coo?

Salvador Dali died a short time later and I could only think of him eating paper with that crazy mustache of his.

Since then I have acquired several books about him to add to my art library. He was sure a strange and dare I say, twisted in many ways, guy. I have to ask myself what it takes to stand out in the art world. Does it take a bit of outrageous thinking to create provocative art? To a certain extent I think so... yup, I do! I guess I have to say, "Viva la twist", sometimes, because what came forth from his artistic soul, gave us visuals that are not only memorable, but quite thought provoking. An artist's goal is always to create a new avenue of thought which Dali did indeed accomplish.

Not to worry, I am not going to suggest as a prerequisite to understanding art we must all start eating paper. But, I do think by that crazy gesture of Dali's, that outside of the box thinking, might just be whatever comes to mind at the time. I may be over thinking it all, and yet it is fun to think about doing something outrageous, to perform nonsense that feels fun. Maybe go to a restaurant in a wild (to you) outfit and pretending to be someone completely different from who you or I are. I would not think that paper would digest all that well (lol), so stay away from being that far over the top, OK? Think outrage though, think farther and let the stars in.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
copyright 2009

Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
http://www.kathysart.com
Represented by:
Monkdogz Urban Art, New York
http://www.monkdogz.com