ON IDEAS
Reading edition
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By Heyworth Campbell
Thackeray resigned the editorship of a British periodical only because he could not endure the ordeal of rejecting the thousands of submitted manuscripts. This is a distressing phase of an Art Director's duties and to my mind his most sacred obligation. No matter how hardened by experience, a conscientious editor cannot fail to suffer for and with the unhappy authors and artists whose work goes back with the proverbial pink rejection slip. Why are drawings and photographs rejected? What is wrong with the great mass of rejected material? My observation is that they suffer more from a lack of clear thinking and careful execution than from a paucity of ideas.
The weird conceptions and grotesque ideas in back of most of the unsolicited material submitted would make one easily believe that the artists are inmates, or perfectly qualified to be inmates of asylums. I am seldom inclined or required to urge an artist to seek originality of idea. My constant plea, and what to my mind is a prerequisite, is an optimistic point of view, a sound, intelligent thought rendered with, may I say, reverence.
Struggling young artists are constantly advised to cultivate their imagination. What is imagination? Arthur Brisbane defined this in the most compact, tangible statement: “Imagination is nothing more than the power to see and realize what others fail to see and realize.” The illusive idea that we are searching for is nothing hidden or mystic but right before our very eyes. We have only to “see and realize.”
It is conceded, I am sure, that the idea is the prime requisite of a political cartoon. A prominent cartoonist was once asked where he got his ideas. In reply he asked “what ideas?” Men of ideas have brains that function exactly as those of other normal well-ordered citizens. They are not gifted by strange kinks in their brain cells. When the prominent cartoonist is contemplating the banal act of shaving or putting in a new furnace, his thoughts are no more or less exalted or lofty than when creating a cartoon idea intended to sway public opinion. Strange, isn't it, that considering the thousands of earnest thinking [pg 14] diligent-working young students, that there are so few artists whose work reflects real genius? Strange that the standard of the Graphic Arts is as discouragingly low as it is considering this army of talent. But even more strange that this contradiction to the law of averages is also applicable to the field of sports—to a field so practical, tangible and therefore measurable. Every healthy-minded youngster born, has two early ambitions: one to be a great baseball player, another to become President. And yet the scouts and managers for the Big Leagues have difficulty in discovering talent above the average.
In the field of Pictorial Photography, the average is exceedingly high. This volume is a demonstration. To be sure, if one seeks, one can quickly discover atrocities in the galleries and on the printed page; but my conviction is that the progress from the purely aesthetic standpoint has kept pace with the mechanical and scientific strides made in Photography.
Quotations are generally sneered at, but they make excellent conclusions. Some one once said: “All one's life is music if one touched the notes rightly and in tune.” A very happy thought and true. But finding the right note is infinitely more difficult than the striking in tune. Ideas, to be sure, you must seek. But orderly thought, patience and fine craftsmanship in carrying out your idea frequently count for more than the originality or brilliance of the idea itself. Owing to the restlessness of the world situation—wars and rumors of wars, strikes and overtendency towards jazz and slang—there is already, especially in the work of youngsters, too evident an urge to be different; different merely for the sake of being different.
A thought possibly worthy of the deliberation of every artist is that Distinction is a result, never the object, of a great mind.
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A DECORATIVE PANEL By Thos. O. Sheckell, Salt Lake City, Utah
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IN A DANCER'S STUDIO By Wayne Albee, Seattle, Washington
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HOUSE-BOATS By Ernest M. Pratt, Los Angeles, Calif.
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MAY I COME IN? By Robert R. McGeorge, Buffalo, N. Y.
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THE DISTANT SAIL By William Gordon Shields, New York City
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GATEWAY, DINAN By Dr. Chas. H. Jaeger, New York City
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SILHOUETTES—EGYPT By Julia Marshall, Duluth, Minn.
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MOUNT EVERETT By Robert B. Montgomery, Brooklyn, N. Y.
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THE BACK FENCE By C. R. Herzler, New York City
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ON DECK OF THE METAGAMA By Johan Hagemeyer, San Francisco, Calif.
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TIDEWATER By Amelia H. McLean, Bronxville, N. Y.
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STREET VENDORS—ROME, ITALY By H. A. Latimer, Boston, Mass.
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SUMMERTIME By Paul Wierum, Chicago, Ill.
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TORSO OF A DANCER By Arnold Genthe, New York City
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A MAINE FISHING VILLAGE By Eugene P. Henry, Brooklyn, N. Y.
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SMOKE EATERS By W. H. Zerbe, Richmond Hill, N. Y.
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PUEBLO DWELLING By Ernest Williams, Los Angeles, Calif.
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IN THE BERKSHIRES By William Elbert Macnaughton, New York City
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BEPPY By Helen W. Drew, Montclair, N. J.
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EMPTIES By K. B. Lambert, Glen Ridge, N. J.
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THE WOODCHOPPER'S WOMAN By Harry C. Phipps, Chicago, Ill.
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THE DES PLAINES TRAIL By E. E. Gray, Chicago, Ill.
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MOTHER AND CHILD By Clarence H. White, New York City
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YE OLD BARN By Olive Garrison, Yonkers, N. Y.
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INTERIOR By Jane Reece, Dayton, Ohio
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PENNSYLVANIA STATION By Dr. D. J. Ruzicka, New York City
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CLOUDS OF MORNING By Francis O. Libby, F.R.P.S., Portland, Me.
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THE CANYON By Jerry D. Drew, Montclair, N. J.
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THE EAST RIVER By John Paul Edwards, San Francisco, Calif.
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THE TRAIN SHED—PITTSBURGH By W. W. Zieg, Pittsburgh, Pa.
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ODD MOMENTS IN BRITTANY By George Henry High, Chicago, Ill.
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UZERCHES: "IL FAIT UN BON SOLEIL" By Dr. A. D. Chaffee, New York City
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A MISTY MORNING By N. S. Wooldridge, Pittsburgh, Pa.
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PTARMIGAN IN WINTER By Clark Blickensderfer, Denver, Colo.
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MARJORIE By Sophie L. Lauffer, New York City
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THE PATTERNED WALL By Mildred Ruth Wilson, Montclair, N. J.
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THE SUNNY WINDOW By Mary F. Boyd, Chambersburg, Pa.
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AT CLARENCE WHITE'S, CANAAN, CONN. By Florence Burton Livingston, Mohegan Lake, N. Y.
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STUDY OF A YOUNG GIRL By charles H. Brown, Santa Barbara, Calif.
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IVY AND OLD GLASS By Clara E. Sipprell, New York City
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ROSE DANCE By J. Anthony Bull, Cincinnati, Ohio
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A CONCERT IN THE NURSERY By Frank R. Nivison, Fall River, Mass.
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GREY ATTIC By Edward Weston, Glendale, Calif.
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MUD-PIES By Cornelia F. White, New York City
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CARVED WITH THE TOOLS OF TIME, THE SCULPTOR By Edith R. Wilson, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.
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MORNING GLORY By Otis Williams, Los Angeles, Calif.
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THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN By Thomas R. Hartley, Pittsburgh, Pa.
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SEAR AUTUMN By Anson Herrick, San Francisco, Cal.
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THE BAZAR By Margaret D. M. Brown, Arlington, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
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WANDERERS FROM HOME By P. Douglas Anderson, San Francisco, Calif.
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DECORATIVE STUDY By Henry A. Hussey, Berkeley, Calif.
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THE WAY UP By Folsom Rich, Chicago, Ill.
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COLONEL MARSH By E. L. Mix, New York City
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SHADOW DESIGN By G. W. Harting, New York City
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AT GUINGAMP By Mrs. Antoinette B. Hervey, New York City
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KISSING THE PADRE'S HAND By Myers R. Jones, Brooklyn, N. Y.
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UNDER BROOKLYN BRIDGE By A. E. Schaaf, Cleveland, Ohio
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THE BRIDGES By Henry Hoyt Moore, Brooklyn, N. Y.
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WHIRLPOOL RAPIDS, NIAGARA By William A. Alcock, New York City
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STUDY By A. Ralph Steiner, New York City
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DOMESTIC SYMPHONY By Margaret Watkins, New York City
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MORNING SUNLIGHT By Ira W. Martin, New York City
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L'ESPRIT DE MANDALAY By J. Ludger Rainville, Portland, Me.
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THE GORGE BELOW THE WHIRLPOOL, NIAGARA By W. H. Porterfield, Buffalo, N. Y.
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PORTRAIT—GIRL IN BLACK By Rabinovitch, New York City
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THE TOILERS By Edward Ostrom, Jr., Brooklyn, N. Y.
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FROM MY WINDOW By Betty Gresh, Norristown, Penn.
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YOUNG AMERICAN By Louis Fleckenstein, Long Beach, Calif.
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MESA DEL MAR By G. H. S. Harding, Berkeley, Calif.
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SEINE BOATS By William B. Imlach, New York City
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THE MOON OF THE RED GODS By Laura Gilpin, Colorado Springs, Colo.
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HIGH SEAS By Joseph Petrocelli, New York City
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SIXTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY By Ben J. Lubschez, New York City
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HILLSIDE SHADOWS By Charles K. Archer, Pittsburgh, Pa.
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MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST By Herbert B. Turner, Boston, Mass.
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THE SCHOOL YARD By Vernon E. Duroe, Brooklyn, N. Y.
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