Picasso and Community

[TomatoEddie]

salut, Almighty All,

 

says the legend that, sometime after the end of WWII, Picasso and some friends were sitting outside "Le Deux Magots" (or another café at Saint-Germain-des-Prés) when the café owner approached their table and asked if the artist could draw a new logo for the place.
Picasso smiled, took a piece of paper and some coloured pencils out of his beaten leather pack, spent a minute or two thinking, then portrayed a rooster or a flamingo or another bird of the sort — something simple but powerful. minutes later the artist handled the café owner his piece; the proprietor (in between sobs and tears?) began to complement the painter and his creation effusively.
"— Master Picasso, this is priceless! Priceless! oh! my; oh! my! genius; you are a genius, sir!” and began to walk back toward the main room of his café holding the piece.
"— it's twenty-thousand Francs," said Picasso.
"— what?!?" asked the owner.
"— the piece; it will cost you twenty-thousand Francs."
"— but master Picasso, we never made arrangements for a price; besides, it took you no more than ten minutes to draw this piece…"
to which Picasso replied, 
"— the price i'm setting now; besides, it took me a lifetime and ten minutes to draw it." and took his piece back.

 

* * * * * * *

 

i don't know about the factuality of this anecdote; it is known, however, that Picasso was a materialistic — if not money oriented — artist. yet, he was spot on: every piece created is the result of its artist’s time on Earth; her/his empirical experiences, inner understanding, etc. so it is a Lifetime and 10 minutes.

 

as a classical music composer in need to survive, i double in several areas of audio, such as film scoring, audio restoration, translation and production of game localization, as well as the development of highly-oriented database solutions for the audio restoration projects i join.
solely as a classical composer, i'm often asked to write pieces for small ensembles (duos, trios, quartets, sinfonietta, et al) and solo performers. even though i'm an experienced and erudite creator, these pieces take quite a long while to be written — somewhere between three to eighteen months, depending on its length — for they are produced alongside other jobs and projects.

i don’t really know how to price these creations, so i let the performers try them first; if they like it, then we talk about its value.

it’s never an easy conversation; people’s purchase power has been thinning since 2007, meaning we composers have had to conform the value of our creations to a new and often negative reality.

 

when i got here, Lovers’ Lab, in the beginning of last year, i was looking for animations for the Awesome Woohoo Mod i had recently downloaded from another forum.
LL, for its seriousness toward a rather obscure yet prolific subject (Adult Modding), truly impressed me. also, this was one of the few forums i actually perceived a strong sense of Community.
i then downloaded some CC and animations, read most articles, till i realized two simple yet utterly important things:

 

• this is a Modding Community (i know i'm repeating myself);
• if i'm taking, i have to give back (otherwise i'm nothing short of a freeloader).

 

so i decided to give back on the same level, and began to learn about Sims 3 modding (that's the game i mostly play). nonetheless, i have the wrong computer (an old i5 iMac), the wrong platform (OS X, even though i have Windows 7 installed as a virtual OS), and the wrong 3D application (4D, for i never got the grasp of Blender).
so, in conclusion: i'm totally wrong for this business.

hence i decided to help with my little knowledge on Macintoshes (got my first when i was 9/10 yo — a Mac 512 KB), as well as producing background music for Mods.

but i want to do more; if and when i have some money to spare, i will more than gladly help support the Forum as well as some of its modders.

 

* * * * * *

 

finally.
as i insisted above, Lovers' Lab is a Modding Community. the Oxford Dictionary defines this word as;

 

• a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals: the sense of community that organized religion can provide;
• a similarity or identity: writers who shared a community of interests;
• joint ownership or liability: a commitment to the community of goods.

 

but here it goes even deeper.
when a creator offers her/his Mods or CC or Animations to our Community, s/he shows an immense respect for all of us.
it’s an act of sheer love: s/he gives her/his time, knowledge, creativeness, etc. the least i can do is to give the same respect in return.

my deepest gratitude to all modders and creators.

 

wish you all the very best,

 

 

E.