Creative Impulse: Readings -The White Bird

Readings: “The White Bird” – John Berger

   In John Berger’s essay he talks about the fact that we just take things from nature and recreate them in a different form and present it as art. He says in his essay “art does not imitate nature, it imitates a creation, sometimes to propose an alternative world, sometimes simplify to amplify, to confirm, to make social the brief hope offered by nature” and I agree with this because art is used as a way to convey new ideas or perceptions of different things. Berger also talks about aesthetic appeal and how it differs with different people and I agree because different people have differing tastes. The places we inhabit and the lives we live and everything around us all has an impact on the way we view things, and art helps us decide what we like and what we don’t like.

   He also talks about the process of making the white bird and how the bird itself does not live up to the same standard of art as a Van Gogh but defends the bird by saying that the process of making the bird is very masterful and worthy of being called an art but the finished product is not actually a work of art. He also mentions the fact that the tradition of the white bird has been spread to different countries and has sort of lost its authenticity and charm, which I feel happens with a lot of things when they are so overproduced.