We passed a tree alongside the highway and I thought about how it had come from a seed that was fertilized at some point in the past. I then tried to think of where the seed that created the tree had come from and reasoned that it likely came from another tree. That was the easy answer. I realized that the things we think we know or understand are created from an imagination so great we can't begin to understand it.

My friend Jeff owns these really interesting photographs of smoke rings by an artist named Donald Sultan. I have always found them visually intriguing and likened the respect I feel for the photographs to that which I feel for my favorite painting called "Hint" by a Russian artist named Vladan Ignatovic and to that which I feel for Mark Rothko's work. Unable to explain the source of that feeling, I recalled the countless times that I'd heard someone say "why is that so expensive? I could do that." I recalled the times that I had said similar things. The easy answer, "would you have thought of it?"

Then it hit me. Wondering what artists, entrepreneurs and other creators were thinking when they came up with all of the wonderful things that society can't live without I realized that the source of life was imagination and imagination is so great that we can't begin to understand it.

Hence the painting that you see at the top of this page. Simple, one sentence, black and white. I thought of doing this because most people would look at it and say, "I could do that" or "it's just a sentence", on and on. And I hope that a few people will understand the meaning of the sentence and the irony of the portrayal and realize that the painting is very interesting and a little funny. Would you have thought of it?! If no one feels the way I do about this painting, it doesn't really matter.

I feel that I've thought of something original and extremely meaningful and for once that thought materialized into something I feel is creative and that I am very proud of. I felt a sense of exhilaration which heightened my spirits for the entire day and continues to linger today. I realized how healthy and important it was to sit back once in a while and think about nothing. Because for now, it seems imagination comes from nothing, at least nothing we understand, and to create something from nothing causes exhilaration beyond explanation.

About the Author
Mr. Dan Pichette is a freelance writer from Alberta, Canada.