If you know me or followed this blog, then you know that I’ve been painting The Beatles since a trip to Monet’s Gardens in Giverny more than a decade ago and that I am a huge fan of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Well, 50 years ago, the album hit music stores (yes, there were actually stores devoted to selling singles, albums and sheet music). And the world was never the same.
I have no interest in reviewing the album or commenting on how The Beatles changed the course of pop music then and forever more. My take-aways are more fundamental. What John, Paul, George and Ringo did with Sgt. Pepper was demonstrate unequivocally the links between
Risk and creativity
Thinking out of the box and creativity
Working unconventionally and creativity.
In other words, creativity is not 9-to-5. It’s not doing things according to some pre-ordained formula or recipe. It’s not about perfecting what someone else pioneered, but rather pioneering a new approach or a new way of viewing life and the world all around us. And that’s the way I approach art and life, in general, each and every day.
And I challenge you to do the same. Your life can and should be a work of art, which means that you should shake things up, think outside the norm, and be one of the crazy ones that I’ve blogged about in the past.
So happy anniversary to Sgt. Pepper and his Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Fifty years! Where has the time gone?
