Day with Simone Piccioni: The Australian Effect

A visit to a friend's art studio and exhibition for his Australian A/effect oil canvas paintings reminded me how we don't need to understand everything. The information age conditions us to want to have an answer to everything and anything. It could be a query as innately biological such as 'why we blink' to deep existential questioning such as what happened in our childhood to influence us to crave comforting pasta on certain nights.

Simone and his dedication towards artwork helped me understand the extent of effort exerted towards creation. From a blank white canvas to a large exhibition scale painting which is hyper-realistic could not be done in seconds. In contrast, much of other 'creations' of knowledge in our day to day lives occur in seconds. Unlocking your phone, going to a browser and searching, to produce results in seconds. Rapid A.I. advancements go beyond this to create 'art' within seconds. Of course we can appreciate how much technology has come but it also boldly reveals the dangers to anyone who gives it a bit of thought, how much are we as humans, going to lose out of this?

As a martial artist, I can appreciate the dedication and compound interest of effort over time. It's within this process, growth occurs. It's within this process, where one can begin to express themselves creatively. As martial arts quotes affirm, 'ShuHaRi': creativity only occurs after mastery of the absolute basics through sheer repetition. Most people don't want to get past this stage. Within this age of instant gratification, we want it now. The unfortunate irony is that we all understand this to a large degree. We just lack the discipline, the precedence, the hunger, the clarity... All of which can be unlearnt, learnt and strengthened through a commitment to one thing. Mastery of one, not a jack of all trades. It can be just one thing, anything!

Simone reminded me about gifting and giving within the world. We don't own anything. Even the art that he has beautifully created, he does not truly own it. The knowledge and the inspiration he received as a young apprentice many years ago, was imparted to him by someone. A mentor. This mentor would also have been imparted this by someone else. We don't own anything if we remove the lens of a materialistic, capitalistic society. We only choose to focus our lens on this because our day to day life demands this: bills, food, 'survivability' etc. We need to be able to adjust our lens and again, this happens through a commitment and relentless dedication towards one's craft. Simone reminded me here that in the beginning stages, we must 'become to be'. I interpreted this as we need to take on the role even if there is discomfort and unfamiliarity, in order to become who/where we want to be. Ultimately, there is no one who is more thorough about you, than yourself (this can be contested for young children but maybe not to an extent too?).

The experience also reminded me about impermanence, a concept I was exploring last week with my yoga teacher about Vipassana. Simone was explaining how he was never 100% happy after an artwork after its creation as he always sees certain things he wish he did differently. I'm reminded of Frost's 'Road not taken here', that human begins are inherently going to regret invested choices. I'm also reminded about the dangers of the capabilities of A.I., as A.I. can make the changes one wants to make, whereas a human alone, would have to restart or edit: a time taking and rather frustrating process. Dissonance is a beautiful paradox, but it is its own creator. The beautiful manifestation of dissonance within Simone, was his artwork. Belief is doubt?

It was comforting, to be reminded that I don't need to understand everything. As I get older, I feel an increasing self-obligation I must make sense of things, whether it be through physical intuition (body), knowledge (mind) or soulfully (spiritual). Thanks, Simone. At this sentiment, I'm reminded of a wholesome little quote by some new friends, "we are all just walking each other home."