{Tuesday, December 02, 2003 . The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars}
"The first thing I notice is form. I don't think it's just me, either. I mean, I'm not the only one who ever looks at clouds, am I? A lot of people do that, even if there isn't any rain threatening. When you look up at the sky, are you thinking about water vapors and air masses? If you are, maybe I am weird.
But I look at the shape, just to see if it's especially interesting or pretty. Most of the time there's nothing worth seeing, but I look anyway. I don't think that makes me strange.
We all notice shapes. You recognize a friend by the shape of his face. You know your car by its shape and color. The hard part is to get past those shapes. It's fine for me to enjoy looking at clouds, but if I were a meteorologist I'd have to know what they meant. If I were a shrink I'd have to get inside the guy's head. If I were a mechanic, just seeing the shape of the car wouldn't be enough.
With painting, appearance is all you have to work with; but it you stop there, well, I don't think you're doing as much as you could. I know the Impressionists did some great work that way, but that's only what they said they were doing; and if you've ever listened to Robert talking about his pen and ink work, you'd know enough to ignore most of what an artist says about what he's doing. I suppose that includes me, too, but let's not get into that.
No, the real questions are: What do those forms mean? And, aside from that, what do they say?
So I let the forms emerge as the ywill, but I'm thinking about what they mean how they go about their buisness. I can't force a meaning on them like Hunt or Rossetti did, but I can work for an effect in tone and color and know that I'm putting myself into the painting. I once asked Dan why he'd never done a self-portrait, and he said everything he did was a self-portrait, and I think I know what he means.
Sometimes I'm afraid I can only paint myself ugly
Bones?" - Passage from the book The Sun, the Moon and the Stars. Chapter 2 Section 6 Christ Walks on the Waters
I figured I should share that passage with you. That made so much sense to me. And I'd like to add that it doesn't just apply to paintings but poetry and other forms of art like dance and such.
I also have another question that came from the book. Do you consider photography a form of art?
Also, after reading the passage, Anthony Abbey told me something interesting he said something like this to me:
"Wow thats deep. I totally understand too, about the whole shapes and forms idea. Like people look at triangles and say 'Oh yea, thats a triangle'. But it took geniuses to look at a triangle and say 'Oh a triangle, that's A²+B²=C²'"
