Starting from the beginning
“You’re old June!”
This is true chronologically but also in that I continue to make painting that reflects my emotional/poetic/intangible response to something concrete and physical, usually in response to something in the natural world, currently a response to the various patterns and permutations of water. My painting is not conceptually based nor is it a reflection of technology or politics. It’s private, internal and intimate. And, apparently it is out of step with current thought on what is considered relevant.
In the world of poetry, is work that is conceptual also considered what is relevant? Are observations on the mundane no longer considered worth reading or listening to? Should I ask Billy Collins?
Is paint no longer the most effective conduit? How many times can you say the same thing? Is there ever anything really new, or is it just how and what materials are used to say some of the same things?
September 1st, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Is it (painting) relevant to you? Are you turned too much to the outside world?
Try going inside for answers.
“At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled
after a night of rain.
I dip my cupped hands. I drink
a long time. It tastes
like stone, leaves, fire. It falls cold
into my body, waking the bones. I hear them
deep inside me, whispering
oh what is that beautiful thing
that just happened?”
Mary Oliver
September 1st, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Once again Bill, you are right. This posting came after a conversation that I had with a friend of mine about how art is perceived in the LA area, and that how what I do (and to some extent what she does) is not specifically conceptually based and that what is showing in the LA area pretty much demands a conceptually based backbone. I wrote the blog entrance in response to this conversation not because I am unhappy with how I go about making my work, but because I know that my own art making is much more intuitive/organic/physical than intellectually-conceptually based. I would have to credit Marcel Duchamp as having been the initial instigater of the concept based mode of art making.
September 4th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Fuck Duchamp!
His smug indulgence in “concept” has become a virus on art.
Dostoevsky was right, “To think too much is a disease.”
I agree with Noguchi who said,
“I don’t think that art comes from art. A lot of artists apparently think so. I think it comes from the awakening person…. Everything tends towards awakening…”
shanti, shanti, shanti
Bill