FLASHBACK artwork Copyright 2009 Jean Burman
Sheesh… and I thought I was pushing stuff uphill at the end of 2007! (((chuckles)))
I’m off to Brisbane today to pick up some art supplies. I boxed up much of it when I was home a week or so ago and posted the boxes down to myself here on the Coast… but somehow left behind my large portfolio with a whole (unopened) bag of new paper in it. I had excess baggage anyway… so maybe leaving it behind was a good thing. And I can always get it next time.
Meantime though… I’m chaffing at the bit to get paint to paper. Hence the trip to Brisbane. I can’t wait to browse the aisles of Eckersleys to see what I will find. I love art supply shops. They all have the same smell no matter where in the world you go! It’s a peculiar combination of paint paper clay glue… I don’t know what… but it never fails to spark the flame of inspiration in me.
I knew a guy once who (along with his beautiful wife) owned an art shop. He ran classes occassionally in the loft above the store. He was a big man with a beard and a somewhat gruff personality (if you didn’t know him better). He scared the begeezes out of me for a long time… but then as time went on and I visited the shop and took a few classes… I seemed to catch his drift.
He was passionate about art. Moreover he was passionate about his materials. I remember his thunderous voice on one such occasion loudly booming…
“you’ve got to be in LOVE with your materials”
He punctuated the statement with a ferocious wave of his fist at the back wall where art hung as a glorious exemplary metaphor. I thought he was nuts.
At the time I was only in love with the wafty idea of the subject floating vicariously around in my head… so I didn’t really get it. I thought the paint and the paper or canvas… the clay… or whatever… was just a means to an end.
But no… after all these years… and now that big John has gone to that big art studio in the sky… I do finally get it. I love the stuff that makes it happen!
I do I do I do!
I love the brushes for the varying marks they make… each with their own unique personality. I love the paper which, depending on brand, shape or size gives me a totally different mood and feel. I love the paint as it flows across the paper and settles into crevices along it’s path… creating new and unexpected nuances I could never have ever imagined in the first place.
I love the feel of it. The “doing” of it.
Yes… I love my “stuff”. And I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
After that… maybe a leisurely lunch somewhere… and then on to the Queensland Art Gallery to see what’s new on the exhibition circuit. You might remember my report on Picasso back in August last year which ignited so much new found passion for Modigliani!
Well… watch out here I go again. And depending on whose work is showing… this time they may have to tie me down… (or not!) We’ll see.
Cartoon Pen & Watercolour
Copyright 2008 Jean Burman
Okay… so we’re ALL STILL HERE!
So far… no black holes… no implosions of the planet… no end of the world… no swallowing of the earth into the infinite black void. So far. But it’s early days yet. And if the hackers have their way… as they did on Friday… who knows what the final outcome might be?
But getting back to the issue of boys and their toys (oops… I meant physics)
As the world turned last Wednesday night… physicists from around the globe (some of them in their pyjamas – others sipping champagne) waited and watched as the world’s largest particle accelerator… the Large Hadron Collider (LHC for short)… was switched on for the very first time.
The atmosphere of expectation could have been measured against humankind’s long awaited first steps on the moon back in 1969. And this ambitious experiment may eventually prove to be even more significant and impactful than that.
It will be anywhere between a week and several months before the first protons collide somewhere along the LHC’s 27 kilometre length. And then… apparently… all will be revealed.
Questions like:
1. Where did we really come from… and why?
2. What really happened in the moments after the Big Bang?
3. Are there more dimensions than the three we have grown somewhat accustomed to?
(Let’s face it… as a visual artist with a vested interest in the two dimensional… I simply must know what challenges lie ahead for we artists living and working in the parallel world! chuckles)
Hey… come to think of it… these physicists could have saved themselves a truckload of time and money by looking to the art world for an answer to this one. Picasso for one… lived and worked in the parallel world… as did Jackson Pollock… and Salvador Dali to name but a few. Each had a unique and individual perspective on the world. All lived in the parallel world and reported back (pretty accurately) what they saw! Pretty scarey really.
4. Do black holes exist… and how can we manufacture one?
The experts need look no further than the literary world for the skinny on this one. Way back in 1854 Henry David Thoreau wrote… “the MASS of men lead lives of quiet desperation” Now there’s a guy who knew a MASSive black hole when he saw one!
5. Will the elusive God particle be found… explaining once and for all “how matter has mass”? (Something I’m sure most of us have been wondering about for much of our lives… grin)
The question of whether matter has mass… or mass has matter… or whether it matters at all if mass has matter… or matter has mass… (or whatever – sheesh)… is now something for physicists and their financial backers to ponder over and agonise about in the years to come.
What horrors this new technology might unleash are as yet unknown… although we have been given “many and varied relatively vague assurances that the experiment is ENTIRELY safe”. It was rather concerning then… when leading physicist in charge of the project Dr Lyn Evans (Evans the Atom to his friends) in all the confusion on the control room floor didn’t quite know (and had to ask his equally confused team)… “who’s going to remove the TDI” (the TDI? What TDI? Um – what in the heck is a TDI?) to allow the beam to flow through into the LHC.
Okay that’s about as clear as mud… so watch the video here and see for yourself.
NB. Scroll through until around about the middle if you’re not the type who enjoys watching grass grow.
Testing Testing 1 2 3
For the man/woman in the street… truth is… it doesn’t matter. The matter of mass is all done and dusted. The Large Hadron Collider is here to stay… along with genetic engineering of crops and destruction of the food chain… in vitro genetic pre-selection of people… and the indiscriminate dissemination of nuclear warheads by irresponsible, morally corrupt despots. Like it or lump it… (one lump or two?)… it’s a BRAVE … if somewhat stupid… NEW WORLD.
“But”… you might exclaim… “no-one consulted me!”
So what’s new? Information is released on a need to know basis. You didn’t need to know. Did you?
It’s all mind over matter anyway.
They don’t mind and… quite frankly… you don’t “matter”
Sorry… (big cheesey grin)
On Friday we drove up to Brisbane to visit Picasso & His Collection at the Gallery of Modern Art. As it turned out Picasso himself wasn’t able to attend due to his being largely indisposed (chuckles)… but nonetheless we enjoyed High Tea without him in the Gallery Cafe before viewing the show.
High Tea!
This was an exhibition of Picasso’s personal collection “on tour” from the Musee National Picasso in Paris. It included not only Picasso’s own works but many important pieces acquired throughout his life from artist friends and colleagues… and included paintings, drawings and prints by artists such as Chardin, Matisse, Renoir, Cézanne, Rousseau, Miró, Modigliani (just one) and Braque as well as a selection of Oceanic and African works.
Gallery Cafe @ GOMA Brisbane
Although exceptionally well put together I initially found it difficult to get excited about much of the art. However… as this was Picasso’s personal collection I tried my best to understand what might have compelled this man to collect these particular works.
The conclusion I came to was that the collection comprised works that had “meaning” for him… works by friends and colleagues who had shared the same time and place in history… and a common experience of life in early 20th century Paris. Once I reconciled this… I found a new appreciation.
I admire Picasso’s work but none of it has ever really moved me. Perhaps this could be perceived as some grave failure on my part… but I do know what I like! So for me… only one painting in the whole collection truly resonated. Interestingly… it was the only Modigliani in the collection.
Poorly reproduced here – this image bears little resemblance to the original
Modigliani’s “Seated Dark Haired Girl” (painted in 1918 two years before his untimely death and acquired by Picasso two years after it) literally sucked me in from across the room and held me spellbound.
So simply executed… so profoundly beautiful… so “achingly” human.
I have long admired Modigliani’s work… the big shapes… the deceptively simple execution… but never before had I so completely “got it”. The emotional content was palpable. Tears welled in my eyes. Odd that they did… for Modigliani wasn’t given to painting eyes! But in this painting there was something about them…
The story goes that when Jeanne Hebuterne (Modigliani’s beautiful companion and muse) asked him why he never painted her eyes… Modigliani enigmatically replied
“I will paint your eyes when I know your soul”
I wonder though if this really explains it. Why would a painter choose not to paint his sitter’s eyes? (especially when his earlier work proved him more than capable of doing so.
To me… there seems to have been a creeping cynicism in the artwork from around this time. And this exhibition showed it was not isolated to Modigliani’s work either.
For Modigliani… a potent combination of illness poverty and substance abuse had created a pervasive atmosphere of despair and competitive rivalry with his peers (in particular Picasso). He was reportedly burned out by this time in his career… and through the haze of substance abuse (perhaps) he grew tired and cynical… too tired to look his subjects in the eye… let alone look deeply into their souls!
I believe this is what makes this particular painting all the more extraordinary. It’s as though the artist dug “especially deep” to produce it. How amazing that a stranger might stand before it all these years later and feel the impact of that struggle!
I cast my eyes around the room searching the walls of perfectly rendered images that said… virtually nothing to me… and never before had I been so acutely aware that it matters not what subject the painter paints… nor how technically correct the rendering might be… nor how zealously or slavishly he or she pursues literal perfection, detail or correctness.
What matters most of all is that the work captures the soul of the subject and the spirit of the artist [within it]. When those two forces meet the earth moves and the heavens open up!
To me… that is what is essential. And in the end it’s the only thing that matters… and the only thing worth striving for.
Only rose petals left… (grin)
I should have liked it if Picasso and Modigliani could have joined us for tea (or perhaps in their case something just a tad stronger)… but nonetheless we ate all the sandwiches and cakes… drank copious quantities of coffee and tea and toasted those raucous heady days in the cafes of Montparnasse and the times that defined them all!
