Each flitch, each board, each plank can have only one ideal use. The woodworker, applying a thousand skills, must find that ideal use and then shape the wood to realize its true potential.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the importance of recognizing and fulfilling the unique potential of materials, particularly in woodworking.
George Nakashima suggests that each piece of wood has a specific purpose that reflects its best qualities. The woodworker's role is to skillfully identify and craft that purpose, transforming the raw material into something beautiful and functional, thereby honoring the wood's inherent potential.
In practice
In a speech about creativity in art, one might refer to this quote to emphasize the importance of understanding materials.
It was only after a while, after photographing mines and clear-cutting of forests in Maine, that I realized I was looking at the components of photography itself. Photography uses paper made from trees, water, metals, and chemistry. In a way, I was looking at all these things that feed into photography.
Try to distill the character of your subject. Understand how he moves, thinks, acts. It's difficult to put into words. Consider each drawing as a problem that did not exist before, and then try to solve that problem to the best of your ability. That i what caricature is all about
Bikes and planes aren’t about going fast or having fun; they’re toys, but serious ones.
Writing is the geometry of the soul.
In the late '70s I started to search for the perfect sound - whatever that might be, before that I was mainly interested in drugs, insanity and the rock'n'roll lifestyle.
There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.
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