Creativity

Isamu Noguchi stands out as one of the most prominent artists of the abstract art movement, as a result of his creativeness. He didn’t play by a rulebook, he didn’t build his art structure based off of other artists. All his work, all his efforts, were original, raw experiences, sculpted by a master craftsman, designed to give us a sort of rebirth on our view of the world; through play. And that’s the thing; he was original, and the pinnacle of creativity. A pinnacle isn’t just the best; a pinnacle serves to inspire and lead through example. While everyone else was constructing boring, one-use playgrounds, he opened our eyes to thousands of interpretations, and endless possibilities. In this way, he inspires us to not have a rulebook. To play the game of life as if there are no rules beyond the ones that society sets for us. We can’t steal physical things, but we can steal ideas and turn them into something new. We can’t commit tax fraud, but we can write off or outright dodge taxes using businesses. My interpretation of Isamu Noguchi is that there is no interpretation of life. What he tries to teach us is to be creative, to stand out. By living ambiguous, successful lives, we are one of the few that leave our mark on history. Where everyone else has one interpretation of life, a predestined path that is seemingly impossible to escape, live life off the beaten path. The successful are the minority, not because they are lucky, but because they went off the road that everyone else travels. They take risks, use their creativity, and open up forks in the road that lead to success. The only way to succeed in life is to change your interpretation and understanding of it; if life is a prison of debt and 60 hour workweeks for the next 40 years, then that’s exactly what it is. If life is a playground for experimentation, new business ideas, and unlimited creativity, then that’s what it is. 

Determination

Another thing that I love about Isamu Noguchi was the fact that he didn’t comply with Society’s standards. Obvious right? He didn’t listen when people told him no, he built his dream regardless of what others thought of him and his projects. He never once doubted that he would be a great artist, and guess where that led him to. Undying determination is one of the only things that kept Noguchi going, the fact that he never gave up or lost sight of his dream. Despite coming from a worse-off background than the rest of us, leaving his mother and father in Japan to go study at a High School in America, he had a dream, he had a plan, and he worked his whole life to achieve it. That spirit of never giving up, of going onward when other didn’t, led him to explore new things, encounter new experiences, and essentially, be a pioneer of play who would go on to affect millions of people. Most people would give up after the Poston Internment Camp Fiasco, but he didn’t. Why was a broke Japanese boy who lived in the age of internment more successful than millions of others who had a head start? He had a rare determination, he had tenacity. But most of all, he affected and touched the lives of millions of others. Just like pioneers like Christopher Columbus, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, etc. his work had a life-changing effect on millions of people that would immortalize him as the father of the abstract art movement in America. And not a single one of these people are remembered for being broke. But they didn’t start any better than you and I, did they?

Potential

He had so much potential, and only so much time and energy as a single person. Had he expanded the abstract art movement into something larger, hiring construction workers, and other artists, America would have enjoyed the luxuries of the infinite interpretations of Noguchi’s mind. While he was too creative for this world, he was too small-minded to know that he needed others to achieve his dreams. Noguchi had infinite potential, and his loss was one of the greatest tragedies in art; however, he had the ability to do so much more with his life. He is a lesson of the soul, of how to live without a rulebook, of how to create and explore like never before. He is also an example of someone who hasn’t learned a very fundamental lesson; in order to achieve your dreams, you must use others. By learning, growing, teaching, and working with others, his art would’ve had a much greater impact on the world, and perhaps had world-changing effects. Regardless, Isamu Noguchi is the pinnacle of creativity, but he is also the pinnacle of wasted potential. He was like if Nikola Tesla became one of the most famous artists of all time. We can take from him, learn from him, learn from his mistakes, and have as big of an impact as he did.