04/15/2008 18:09:53

Hi Robin,

thanks for your comments on my new paintings...I just wnet through you r gallery and you have added some beautiful new paintings since I last looked...

 

Kara

04/15/2008 16:07:38

Two tickets, eh?  I guess we know who is the real "bad" one.

I think it is a message that you should buy two tickets for you and your daughter to visit China. (Or maybe that other troublemaker Jane.)

Religion, Nudity and Politics are what my painting teacher said are the three NO-NO's for juried shows.  Of course I decided to test that one....Should blog the responses some time.  Let me know how the Tibet show turns out.  Seems like we all like to root for the oppressed.

 

G 

04/14/2008 22:56:53

Thought of you when I read it...weren't you who linked me to these letters?

Greg 

The tyranny of reality



April 15, 2008



Dear Gregory,



Those of us who sometimes mentor and instruct students are

familiar with trying to get people to really look at things.

Recently, after a few days walking around in a subject-rich

environment, I was agog with new possibilities. Burdened with

reference, I returned to the studio and proceeded to paint the

worst thing I've done in some time. It was one of those

paintings that has you considering a career in accountancy.

During the fiasco I began to better understand a syndrome I've

had all my life. It's what I call "the tyranny of reality."



Let me explain. When we are overloaded with subject matter, we

have an automatic tendency to neglect title and imagination.

Subject matter is no match for spirit. Too much observation can

change the creative event from one of spirit to one of

rendering. Surprise, chance, illusion, personality, audacity,

confidence and desire are the most affected. Abandonment and

even desertion may have to be contemplated.



Sad to say, but glorious nature stomps on creativity. The

artist becomes not a master, but a slave. On the other hand,

reflecting in tranquility, uncluttered by overabundance and the

need to get reality right, one is free to pass to another

level. "Reality," said Joyce Cary, "is a narrow little house

which becomes a prison for those who can't get out."



In 1970, the distinguished critic and social theorist Roland

Barthes wrote, "Painting can feign reality without having seen

it." When I first read that statement a door opened. Time and

again I've seen the idea make timid artists brave. Those who

dare to "feign reality" are in the agreeable business of

surprising themselves. Believe me, it's anticipated surprise

that keeps us at our easels. I hardly know of an evolved artist

in any field who doesn't understand this. "The job of art,"

said Francoise Sagan, "is to take reality by surprise."



Bogging down in detail will spoil the fun every time. I can't

think how many times I've failed to break down that door. Clive

Bell, another critic lashing out in the age of hyperrealism,

noted, "Detail is the fatty degeneration of art." He has a

point. Fat is tyranny. Reduce.



Best regards,



Robert



PS: "The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance

of things, but their inward significance, and this, and not the

external manner and detail, is true reality." (Aristotle)

04/14/2008 21:06:17

Robin, thanks for the comment on my blog. :)  I was feeling pretty crummy when you peeked in - it was very sweet of you to encourage me!  Thanks for being a ray of sunshine with a good dose of reality!

 ~Jeni

 

04/14/2008 19:06:30

Hey Robin, I am sending you good energy so that your solo show generates LOTS of sales and reinforces you...don't get that parttime job yet.  I know you can make this work. /// I waited till I early-retired to make art fulltime, and wish I had started sooner but i needed the money that I'm living on right now. BUt I have friends who do make a living as artists...keep at it! YOur work will sell.  Jane

04/14/2008 10:27:45

HI Robin, I just wrote a blog about being extremely discouraged (called "the Black hole") and I went to Greg's site to cheer me up, and there you were, questioning your art and being disgusted with the poor sales, making a living, all of that. I feel for all of us who have to go through this, and some of us ALMOST give up,,,but wejust can't. We have to keep each other going.  Take care. Jane

04/09/2008 19:44:15

Do I know about funks?! I am the Funkmaster. I was in one for nearly a year last year! I couldn't bring myself to focus on anything at all because I was busy trying to figure out what my title was supposed to be. Finally I said "screw that" and now I just do whatever feels good at the moment. 

I'm heading out for a guys golf getaway on Friday and when I get back next week I need to finish getting my yard cleaned up. Spring clean up is brutal when you're property is canopied by three giant oak trees so I won't be painting for a week or so as well.

Happy travels!

04/09/2008 01:17:44

Hey Robin,  your welcome,  glad it worked for ya.

Anne