Steve Jobs and Creativity: The Legacy Lives On

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.” ~ Steve Jobs

The world is grieving the loss of Steve Jobs. His legacy–of creativity, risk, and play are hallmarks of this life well lived. Not only did he give the world innovative technologies, he attracted energy around these projects. Meeting the world in a black shirt and jeans, he was a quiet rock star and the whole world listened.

Steve became synonymous with his creations.  Apple products are always fresh. Crisp. Simple and elegant, they invoke loyalty and passion. People love their macs. Love their iPhones.

They’d rather lose their wallet than to leave  their iPad on a plane. All of this seems gushing, but it’s true.

And yet his beginnings were dicey. He was adopted and raised in of all places, Silicon Valley. He dropped of college in the mid 70s and “invented Apple in his parent’s garage.

 He slept at friend’s apartments and walked across town to the Hare Krishna temple for free meals. This “drop out” period gave him time to take a calligraphy class, which later would be used in the first Mac’s typography aesthetics.

“If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do,” he said in the commencement speech at Stanford.

It wasn’t smooth from there on out–he was dumped by Apple, the company he and Steve Wozniak started–and didn’t come back for fifteen years. But he wasn’t off in some corner pouting–he started Pixar. Not a shabby side job.

And all that creative juice just marinated.

Simplicity and focus became his mantra.

When he stepped back into Apple in 1997 he brought a new surge of ideas and revitalized a saggy company. iPod followed by iTunes followed by iPhone followed by iPad. How’s that for a string of home runs?

We may not have Steve with us, but cancer didn’t win, not really. We have his spirit and example, and that has now become a part of our collective conscience. His DNA is in the stars above us and the dust around us, and I for one invite his lessons–his dare-devil do what you love and you better be passionate about it–into my life.

Each of us leave a creative legacy and Steve’s life is a North Star.

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
— BusinessWeek interview, May 1998

Who Will Inherit Elizabeth Taylor’s Van Gogh? Art as Legacy for Writers, Artists and Musicians

Art is not only a legacy for the person who created it, it’s a legacy for all those who own it, and in many ways, art is a legacy for us all. For writers, artists, and musicians, what we create carries our artistic DNA forward. What we do matters–far beyond what we sell or publish. Art is bigger than that. At least, it can be.

Did you know that Elizabeth Taylor owned a Van Gogh? She even had to go to court to keep it.

Taylor’s Van Gogh,  a painting titled, Vue de l’Asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Rémy, (View of   Asylum and Church at St. Remy) was painted by Van Gogh in 1889. Ths painting is of the asylum Vincent stayed during his recovery after his ear incident and where the diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy first mentioned. It was a sanctuary of sorts–where he painted two masterpieces, Starry Night, and Irises.

Vincent signed himself into St. Paul de Mausole, (the asylum) writing: “I can no longer live independently.” He painted the entire time he stayed there. He painted the building, the gardens, the nearby city and countryside of St. Remy. He painted before and after seizures. H painted all hours of the day and night. He took hydrotherapy baths (the big treatment at the time) and went back to painting. And yes, he attempted suicide a few times by ingesting paints and turpentine, and then he painted some more.

Rather appropro for such a dame as Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor herself had a few stints in rehab. She’d understand Vincent’s intensity, issues with women, propensity for absinthe. She befriended others with “issues,” those society loved and at times, abhorred–Rock Hudson who was gay and contracted AIDS, and Michael Jackson, a creative yet controversial genius with more than his fair share of scandals. Perhaps Vincent wouldn’t have minded one of his paintings hanging out with Taylor for a few decades. He certainly wouldn’t have minded getting paid a decent amount for his work–something that eluded him in his lifetime.

Now that she’s passed, I wonder who will inherit this impressive work of art. One of her four children? Perhaps she has bequeathed it to a museum? It seems odd that art can be owned–but it also seems odd to think we own the land we build our homes on. Ownership is one of those concepts (like sex and religion) that gets more complex (and bizarre) upon closer examination. Art means legacy. The legacy of art isn’t just for the “owner.” Vincent Van Gogh’s art is a gift left to the world.

Elizabeth Taylor was more than a woman with eight wedding rings. She was Angelina Jolie before Angelina Jolie. A woman of staggering beauty, decent acting talent, a man magnet and true humanitarian. Her father (an art dealer) purchased the Van Gogh–back in 1963. By then, Taylor had enough money to buy it herself, but hey, what do you give a girl who has everything? A Van Gogh.

View of   Asylum and Church at St. Remy, 1889, Vincent Van Gogh

The painting in question was originally owned by  Margarete Mauthner. She sold it to Alfred Wolf, a Jewish businessman who fled Germany in the 1930s.In 2003, four of Ms. Mauthner’s great-grandchildren wrote Ms. Taylor asserting that while the painting had not been confiscated by the Nazis, Ms. Mauthner had disposed of it under duress and they were entitled to its return under laws to deal with Holocaust-era restitution claims. So it wasn’t even the last owner (before Taylor) who brough the suit.

Ms. Taylor refused, and the heirs sued the next year in Federal District Court in Los Angeles. The Holocaust Victims Redress Act noted that it did not authorize private lawsuits.  Also, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal stating that of a ruling that their lawsuit against the actress was filed too late. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/arts/30arts-ELIZABETHTAY_BRF.html

As an artist, writer, or musician, it’s important to realize that what we created as lasting value and our art might outlive us. I remember being in a sculpture class and the teacher reminding all of us to slow down,”A bronze sculpture can outlive by a thousand years–or more.”

That statement hit me hard. Art endures. What else could I create, buy, or build that might be here in the year 3,000? It caused me to take what I do with reverence.

I do find it interesting, what the courts said about Van Gogh:

“Vincent van Gogh is said to have reflected that ‘paintings have a life of
their own that are derived from the painter’s soul,’ 

Their words capture something about the artist–and about legacy,

“The confused and perhaps turbulent past of his painting . . . may prove the
truth of his observation.”