The War of Art

Since Christmas I've being reading my way through the mega-bundle I bought from Black Irish Books. In the War of Art, Steven Pressfield talks about the challenges of being an artist, of sitting down to do the work. "Resistance feeds on fear. We experience Resistance as fear. But fear of what? FEAR THAT WE WILL SUCCEED. That we become the person we sense in our hearts we truly are." Knowing that this is the lived experience of an author, who has successfully published many books, is heartening. To know that even when we taste success it still feels risky to pursue a creative life. I feel this resistance rising up inside me constantly, my best defence is my routine. By having a strict regimen (and letting housework slide), I can apply myself to doing the work. Each week begins with targets for each project I am working on and I get a little tingle each time one of the listed items is accomplished.

It can be difficult being your own motivator, beavering away on your own, but it's encouraging to remember Pressfield's advice "Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it".

Intentions

I know it's February already, but for me that's when I can properly focus on my own intentions after the long summer school holiday break. The kids are back at school, daily routines are re-established and my time becomes my own again.

So in 2016, I'd like to continue to make art, exhibit and explore fabric printing. The art I have been making lately tend to be a combination of ink, pen and watercolour on paper. Patterns continue to emerge, like the image on the left, which is a simplified version of lily pads on the Enoggera reservoir.

I am also devoting time to two other art related projects, Lines in the Sand on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) and Mindsettle.

Seattle Art Museum 2

SAM has rooms full of fabulous First Nations art. One display by Jack Daws - INCONVENIENT TRUTHS - had the American flag bottled up in a jar and an edifying declaration from Chief Seattle in 1971.

"If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that these rivers are our brothers and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give to any brother.

The white man does not understand. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a wanderer who comes in the night and borrows from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has won the struggle, he moves on. He leaves his father's grave behind and does not care. He kidnaps the earth from his children. And he does not care. The father's grave and the children's birthright are forgotten by the white man, who treats his mother the earth and his brother the sky as things to be bought, plundered, and sold, like sheep, like bread, or bright beads. In this way, the dogs of appetite will devour the rich earth and leave only a desert."

Seattle Art Museum 1

SAM was showing an impressionists exhibition called "Intimate Impressionism", which was a catalogue of masters from the 1800s. Many of these works are so known to me they are almost cliched, but it was something else again to see the originals. The PORTRAIT OF MADAME HENRIOT by Pierre Auguste Renoir was a joyful image filled with bright light. BEHIND THE SCENES by Jean Louis Forain though vaguely creepy, with a tuxedoed old guy standing behind a lush young performer backstage, was beautifully composed with the left side light and the right dark. I drank in the various compositions, like that of THE TOWPATH by Johan Barthold-Jongkind with its diminishing row of trees to the vanishing point and his clever use of a limited pallete of green, tan, blue and white. Another standout was Eugene Boudin's CONCERT AT THE CASINO OF DEAUVILLE, I loved the lumpy iron work around the bandstand and the luminosity of his painted frocks.

I have no aspirations (or sufficient talent) to paint in this style, but I'm happy to learn more about art by wandering through the halls of art museums and galleries. It also puts me in mind of some wise words from Howard Hodgkin,

"Your talent stays the same, your critical eye gets better. "

Chihuly Garden and Glass

A spectacular site specific permanent exhibition of Dale Chihuly's glass art, including a glasshouse and gardens. I liked how much randomness played a part in the work. Clearly skilled in the process of blowing and shaping glass, when he was collaborating or leading teams he allowed happenstance to inform his artistic vision. It was a great reminder of the power of repetition, how a lot of something is really impressive, it looks like a lot of work because it is. The Persian Ceiling on display contains over 1400 individual pieces.

He has collaborated all over the world working with various glass or crystal makers, such as Waterford in Cork, Ireland. Chihuly has made site specific installations in Finland and Venice - floating glass objects down rivers, hanging them from bridges or trees, placing them in forests or seal-like on rocks. He uses mesh to tie the objects into their larger forms of organic shapes that sit in the landscape naturally.

Patronage

Visiting the Vancouver Art Gallery I read about the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), established to build a railway line down the West Coast. The chief of the CPR was an advocate of arts and culture, so offered free rail travel to artists exploring the country opened up by the CPR. The art form these explorations was exhibited at events organised by the CPR - they were used astourist promotions of this age in the 1800s, used to entice settlers and tourists alike.

This led to a vibrant art scene with some artists spending months with indigenous tribes, consequently being influenced by each others artistic practices. I fell in love with Lawren Harris and his ability to craft what look to me to be very contemporary lines and colours in the 1920s. Emily Carr's work was similarly attractive, she and her sister ventured to Canada in 1907, remaining part of the creative establishment. Her paintings and writings explore the exotic mystery of Canada.

Also in the gallery are fabulous ancient and contemporary indigenous works. I was fascinated to notice that the pigment in the masks from the 1800s were as vibrant as those of the modern carvers. It seems there is a relatedness between Pacific nations, I can't help but notice stylistic similarities between Canada, Hawaii and New Zealand. A fantastic use of colours, patterns, symbols and totems.

Summertime

And according to Porgy and Bess "the living is easy". Early morning floating out the back of the waves prepares me for the holidays filled with children, extended family and organising the next meal.

Moving your neck to the cries of "Watch this!" having an answer ready for "What's for dinner?", soothing the innui of "I'm bored, there's nothing to do" and rallying to the demands of "I'm hungry", finding answers for the hard questions like "Why do I have to wear sunscreen?", then at bedtime listening to creative protests "My eyes don't know how to close, there's something wrong with them" and "I just came out to give you a huggle".

"Fish are jumpin' an' the cotton is high". This never ending cycle from generation to generation, it is fascinating that the human race continues round the same circle. May you move easily from one dot to the next these holidays.

Reminiscence

Went through the exhibition Remininscence at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts. It celebrates 100 years of Australian visionary Judith Wright. She actively advocated for naturebeing instrumental in saving the Great Barrier Reef from oil drilling and Fraser Island from sand mining. Wrights other motivating force was concern for the lot of indigenous Australians - she had a long friendship with Minjerribah poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal and fought for land rights with Nugget Coombs.

"Are you and I a once-loved land peopled by tribes and trees; doomed by traders and stock-exchanges bought by faceless strangers."

excerpt from TWO DREAMTIMES (1973)

The exhibition shows work by artists Fiona Rafferty and Frances Smith that has been inspired by the writings of Judith Wright. It was fabulous to finally know something about Judith Wright and why we might name an arts centre after her - I am now curious to seek out the writings of this maverick.

Kedron Brook

End of semester at the Brisbane Institute of Art for 2015. Today I hung this mixed media work of Kedron Brook, along with the nine pieces of ink on rag paper. The Kedron Brook piece is a large canvas with the brook and background painted on overlaid with smaller bits of paintings I have done inspired by my regular walks along Kedron Brook. In my mind nature looms large while development has a smaller place, though in reality with Lutwyche now being deemed as a conurbation the opposite is true.

This pithy observation by Bill Vaughan sometimes rings true:

"Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them."

Fishing for ideas

Re-watched one of my favourite art films today about Ian Fairweather. It beautifully interweaves scenes of nature with images of his work, so that you imagine the connections between the two and maybe get some insight into his unique way of looking. After his nearly disastrous raft adventure in his early sixties, Fairweather found his home on Bribie Island. At the age of 62 he developed a new painting style that swept critics swooning in its vortex. The comment that struck me today was to do with his lack of interest in the finished work "his path to heaven was in the doing", Betty Churcher said "he painted in a trance-like state".

I was talking about this with a friend recently, about how I am so happy with the satisfaction I gain in the doing, that the result doesn't matter to me. Don't we love it when we discover an echo of ourselves in someone else. I sometimes think that's all we are on the lookout for in life - confirmation of our outlook. So I'm heartened by Fairweather's boldness and late blooming discovery of a winning style. Just a few more years.........