by Lynda Pogue

What is it about “the cute one”?He’s influenced billions of people through his music as well as his art, interviews, films, and his magnanimous philanthropy.People listening to the man speak find that he is completely compelling.
It’s not a frantic energy but maybe frenetic… rather wild and uninhibited. And there’s a quiet depth in those famous big brown eyes as he looks intensely into the face of his interviewer. He’s an ‘active listener’… listening with his whole body, he reacts physically and throws out an instant, rapid-fire quip to any question or comment coming his way… his synapses seem to be like snapping fingers, clicking every second to some internal rhythm.
We need him. We need people just like him. We need to find ways to emulate that raw energy… or… just find a similar tap in our body/mind/heart and turn it on… Open the door and let 'em in.

This article explores Sir Paul McCartney’s versatile talent… most especially how he gets inspired,  and what it is that keeps him moving and reinventing while continuing to hold onto what’s most important to him from the past… Some days my inspiration is a musical one and other days it has just got to be painting. (LA Weekly, 2009) The focus in this piece is upon his lyrics as well as his art and how they are entwined. This synergy provides an exemplary path to follow whether one is in the art world or not. All the words in italics are his.

Consider the meaning of the phrase ‘Renaissance Man’: a present-day person who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field. This is McCartney. Is it you? It’s within each of us to release and follow our passions rather than remain the same the same the same all our lives. Artists are continually challenged to both ‘stay the course’ and create only what others dictate… or… to find the grit to go where their heart and character tells them to go.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

McCartney says that Blackbird is one of his favorite songs and the longing in these emblematic lyrics is clear: You were only waiting for this moment to be free. Total freedom is something Sir Paul will never experience in his lifetime… consider the billions of photos that have been and continue to be taken of him or the millions of articles/opinion pieces written about him. In spite of this (or perhaps because of it) his paintings have evolved into something highly distinctive and free… he has fostered and maintained his own unique style as a painter. This is his and his alone. His personal freedom comes when he is alone with his brushes, paint and that sometimes overwhelming blank canvas.

He has said that his own painting impulses come from Willem de Kooning's brushstrokes. He uses a big brush and he goes whoomp! And I fell in love with his strokes because if you try to paint very accurately… paintings lose that wild spontaneity that is very attractive... I want to go whoomp; sword-fencing at it with my brush. Talking to Chrissie Wilson, she said, 'That's great, that's called "killing the canvas". http://www.wingspan.ru/ 

So, as Sir Paul became more and more serious and assured about his painting, rather than become overwhelmed by a white raw canvas, he embraced the challenge presented to him by simply taking a gutsy, exuberant and determined first step… he’s seducing the canvas by stepping up to it and instantly releasing ideas/passions. He’s firing out his inner pressures by splashing paint on the canvas and giving himself permission to carry on as he is directed by hidden instinct. That’s an act of personal courage. To control and yet not control. There is a seriously important message here for any artist/active person/doer.

Hey Jude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
…
And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain,
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.
For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder.
…
So let it out and let it in, hey Jude, begin,
You're waiting for someone to perform with.
And don't you know that it's just you, hey Jude,
you'll do,
The movement you need is on your shoulder.

Is it a blank page? Blank journal? Blank screen? Blank canvas that’s burdening you?
What unexpressed images are impeding your own personal freedom? For many of us, we simply don’t let it out and let it in and cannot see that… The movement you need is on your shoulder. Stop waiting for someone to perform with; seduce, beguile, entice your own private canvas by embracing and encouraging that screamingly passionate inner voice of yours to remain silent no longer. Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.

Maybe I’m amazed at the level of self-trust and buoyancy that he exudes. It’s the combination of these qualities that allows artists (or entrepreneurs) to have a kind of conviction and confidence in what they do as they travel along their creative pathways. Don’t worry… something will happen is a credo that McCartney has lived by since his early Beatle days. Inherent in this phrase is a kind of belief or faith in humanity and its surroundings. It takes the whole concept of worrying about the future off the map. Fretting disappears. This epitomizes the over-used phrase ‘in the moment’ and makes it real. Trust the moment you’re in right now. Self assurance is attractive. It sells.

When he was interviewed by David Frost (BBC, 1964) a very young McCartney was asked about his own need for power as a result of the mind-boggling international success of the music and films of The Beatles. He acknowledged the truth that he and his mates were experiencing the need for power: There IS a desire to get power. It’s to use it for good. No harm in that, is there? From that day until now, it would seem that during all his life Paul has been compelled to…Take a sad song and make it better…

Ah, look at all the lonely people.

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding was been,
Lives in a dream.
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door,
Who is it for ?

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?
All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

At the Brit Awards (he won Outstanding Contribution to Music, London, 2008) Sir Paul was asked what inspires him today and he replied: Situations… Words I hear… Something on the radio… Something that charges me to think to myself that I can do that and I’ll think I’ll have a go. When listening to his music, you can hear the common ‘everydayness’ of people talking on radio or television… and when you look at his paintings, you’ll see the faces of those who uttered these words… and  you’ll sense the implied meaning of McCartney’s interpretation of what he heard.

The challenge for each of us is to acknowledge and truly listen to our personal sources of motivation, stimulation and revelation. The supply is infinite. It could come from a friend at a dinner party…

While having dinner together, it was Dustin Hoffman who inspired Paul to write “Picasso’s Last Words (Drink To Me)”. Hoffman asked McCartney how he came up with ideas for writing songs and Paul replied that you just sort of do it, kind of pick them out of the air. Dustin challenged him to “write one now.” Paul agreed and Hoffman grabbed a copy of Time magazine that had an article about the recent death of Pablo Picasso. He read Paul the story about Picasso’s death and his famous last words, “Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore.” McCartney had one of his guitars with him and much to Dustin’s astonishment; he composed the song on the spot.

The grand old painter died last night
His paintings on the wall
Before he went he bade us well
And said goodnight to us all.
Drink to me, drink to my health
You know I can't drink any more

Sir Paul McCartney is listed in the Guinness World Record Book as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history. He has taken The long and winding road that leads to your door and his presence will be felt forever… his words, music and paintings Will never disappear

There are almost 13 million websites about Paul McCartney.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Lyrics used in this article were penned by Sir Paul (some were in collaboration with John Lennon): Blackbird, Eleanor Rigby, Hey Jude, Let ‘Em In, Maybe I’m Amazed, Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me), The Long and Winding Road.

Thanks to Ray Kerr for his insightful suggestions.

Lynda Pogue is an award-winning Canadian artist and writer who lives near Toronto, Ontario.
She is represented by Agora Gallery in New York and Covent Garden Fine Art Gallery in Canada and she invites you to visit her website at lyndapogue.com.

www.lyndapogue.com

www.coventgarden.ca/lynda/lynda.htm

http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/lynda_pogue.aspx