Tuesday, May 13, 2014

internal signals

It seems to me that as painters get older they tend to ignore the internal signals that have guided their earlier work.   It is as if each new work is a blow up of a very small part of an earlier work.


Now of course this may or may not be true.  We just need to find an MFA in Art History and ask them.  They can tell us.  I think of Picasso's small bird of peace that he did in the fifties that became hugely reproduced in the sixties and seventies.  But of course this is not true...for as many painters there are in this world there are as many paths.


There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it. -Christopher Morley


Oops, I made a mistake here. While I was rambling around writing this, I accidentally stumbled over to my friend Thige's blog. Thibault Germain. As soon as I do that I find myself lost in his beautiful work. I forget what I was thinking about and I care nothing for finishing this. I just think, well if I could, I will just go and make beautiful work, just exactly like his, and live my life in spiritual peace. Peaceful colors, subtle hues, carefully chosen materials...so amazing. And it is all in French, a language which seems like a warm bath.




As I sit now and imagine how to spend my imaginary billions, I think of building a huge medical building, as nice as the Guggenheim, and I will fill it with his work.  Everyone who comes in will meet the best doctors and dentists, all free, they will be surrounded and healed by this work, just as I was as a child, when I walked through the Mark Tobey's on my way to the dentist.



2 comments:

  1. Bonjour Douglas, je viens ici souvent sans rien écrire restant muet devant cette connivence picturale; je ne vous remercie pas... pour vos mots qui me touchent, :-)) et qui m'ont fait verser une larme, ( il va falloir que je la remplace par un verre de rouge ! ; et je suis en admiration devant votre inventivité.

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    1. well. I tried to imitate them. But I cannot. Your work is too beautiful. too pure.

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