Throwback Thursday: Someday Is a Dangerous Word

Making Room for Making Art

"We are tricked by a phenomenon of time: Hours and days pass slowly, but years pass quickly. A life passes quickly, but we always think we have plenty of time. Too often we get so consumed with how we spend our days that we lose track of how we are spending our lives."
--Sally Warner 

These are the opening lines of Sally Warner's Making Room for Making Art. I like the title of the book. It's not about art appreciation, but about getting the fire stoked to follow your creative urge.

All too many people who were once in touch with their creative selves have lost touch with that drive. Whether being creative with words, music, paint, sculpture, clay, pencils, or folded paper, there is something deeply stirring in the creative process.

 

You only live once. There is power in creative expression. It feels good for the artist, almost magical when things come together. And it can be enriching to others.

Paul Klee in 1920 said, "Art is a simile of the Creation." In that sense, every act of making, no matter how small, echoes something fundamental about being alive. 

And life, as Warner reminds us, moves faster than we think.

Years pass. Opportunities narrow. The assumption that “there will be time later” quietly fades into “why didn’t I?”

If you once had a love for the creative process, and that fire has grown cold, maybe it's time to stir the flames again. You only live once. Make a space in your life once more to follow your creative impulses.

A variation of this was published here in 2008

Throwback Thursday: My 2011 Interview with Artist Paul Klee

THROWBACK THURSDAY

I have always enjoyed interviewing people as a means of sharing their stories. This is one of several imaginary interviews I have done with people such as Honore de Balzac or John S. Hall, the blind poet of Ritchie County. 

* * * *

Swiss-born artist Paul Klee (1879-1940) was a significant influence in my early art. What excited me about his work was the incredible variety. He seemed like an artist who defied categorization. Modern? Yes, but only in the sense that his work was liberated from everything before it. He worked using a variety of media and a seemingly endless variety of styles. He worked on paper, cloth, canvas, burlap, or what appears to be anything he could find. Like Dylan today, he seems to have been constantly re-inventing himself. 

I caught up with him recently to discuss his life and work, somewhat eager to learn his impressions of mine. 

 
Ennyman: Tell me about your early influences?

Klee: My earliest influence was music. I was raised in a very musical family. My father was a music teacher and my mother a trained singer. I began playing violin at age seven. But my grandmother once gave me a box of sidewalk chalk and it was clear I had a good hand for drawing. As a teen my drawings showed a considerable level of skill and my parents, reluctantly, allowed me to pursue art school at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

Ennyman: My grandmother was an influence, too, in my art development. After college, then what?

Red Balloon. Oil on muslin. Guggenheim Collection

Klee: I went back home and lived with my parents. It was a rueful time, and my work travelled down two paths. My black and white pieces were dark, and so color came to mean something special to me, even began to possess me. I was also doing a lot of experimentation at the time, doing one series of 57 pictures drawing on a blackened pain of glass with a needle.

Ennyman: Interesting technique.

Klee: I still kept up my music and played violin in the orchestra and was writing concert and theater reviews.

Ennyman: Yes, you were also a writer.

Klee: I'd begun a diary very young and never quit that. It's a good way to learn how to capture abstract ideas in words and to develop an understanding of how you observe.

Ennyman: How did you come to be a recognized figure in the European art scene?

Klee: I was doing illustrations for Voltaire's Candide and met Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and other avant garde artists, who became known as The Blue Rider group. Wassily has a keen mind and had been developing theories and ideas about color, as I had. Art does not reproduce the visible, rather it makes visible. We both went on to teach at the Bauhaus school of art.

Ennyman: Mr. Kandinsky wrote a number of books as well as opening modern painting to new spaces. I enjoyed his Concerning the Spiritual in Art. You wrote as well, did you not?

Klee: I published my diary in 1918 and also some other writings later.

Ennyman: You once stated that even drawing has changed for you.

Klee: In the final analysis, a drawing simply is no longer a drawing, no matter how self-sufficient its execution may be. It is a symbol, and the more profoundly the imaginary lines of projection meet higher dimensions, the better.

Ennyman: Are there any common threads in your world view with other disciplines?

Klee: The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions.

Ennyman: Any last thoughts?

Klee: Some will not recognize the truthfulness of my mirror. Let them remember that I am not here to reflect the surface... but must penetrate inside. My mirror probes down to the heart. I write words on the forehead and around the corners of the mouth. My human faces are truer than the real ones. Also, when looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed.

Ennyman: Thank you for your time.

 This interview is a work of fiction. The information is not fiction, taken from Klee's actual quotes and the entry about his life and work in Wikipedia.

Local Art Seen: UWS Faculty Show at the Kruk

ON FINDING ONE'S SELF
"The main thing now is not to paint precociously but to be, or at least become, an individual. The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions."--Paul Klee

"Journey" -- Gloria Eslinger

""Journey" (detail)

Yesterday I was able to make my way to the Kruk Gallery at UWS. It is one of the easiest things to do because there are three parking slots outside the entrance there on Catlin. Except during a major event inside you will always find parking there. It's a small gallery so you can easily finish your rumination in the 20 minutes allotted.

The current exhibition is a Faculty Show. It's a small showcase of treasures. Here is a representative collection of images. If you have never been I would encourage you to visit, if only to learn where it is so you don't miss the next opening there because you didn't know where to go.

* * * *

"The Rituals of Unexpected Death: When Your Heart Stopped."--Shannon Cousino

* * * *

"The Rituals of Unexpected Death: The New Normal" (series of woodcuts)

* * * *

"The Rituals of Unexpected Death: What Doesn't Kill You"

* * * *

Detail from Mike Maguire's "Untitled Tryptich"

* * * *

"Bubble Landscape"--Gloria Eslinger

* * * *

"Rite"--Tim Cleary

* * * *

"Vase"--Mike Maguire

* * * *

"When we're overthrown
values illuminated
please etake directions"
Natalie Salminen Rude

* * * *

Slow Living and Quotes About Art (A Baker's Dozen)

It's kind of funny how the most disorganized people seem to be the ones who buy the most books about dealing with clutter and getting organized. I've bought a few myself, and even when we are told what to do it's not always so easy.

In the same way the "Slow Living" movement seems to be attracting increasing numbers of adherents reading increasing numbers of books on this theme. Why? Because we're all too conscious of the wearisomeness created by our increasingly fast-paced lives. 

So it is that I began listening to the audio book Slow Living this week. In the intro our author shared several stories about his own excessively manic life, and the "aha!" moment that awakened him to his need for a life change. 

All good so far. But then, he went too far. He stated that one of the bad things fast-living people do is adopt lifestyles of multi-tasking. He said we should listen to this audiobook not while driving our car, but while doing nothing else. Naturally I was driving my car when he said this, as I am eating breakfast while I write this. Multi-tasking is a way of life. Tonight I will balance the checkbook while watching a movie. And a minute after he said that I ejected the tape and began listening to Grover Gardner narrating The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume Two. I'll slow down some day. I promise.

* * * *

A Dozen Quotes On Art

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” ― Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island

 “I dream my painting and I paint my dream.” ― Vincent van Gogh

“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” ― Pablo Picasso

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Creativity takes courage. ” ― Henri Matisse

“One eye sees, the other feels.” ― Paul Klee

“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.” ― Alice Walker

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” ― Pablo Picasso

“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” ― Banksy

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” ― Émile Zola

“Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.” ― Pope John Paul II

“In the haunted house of life, art is the only stair that doesn't creak.” ― Tom Robbins

“Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.” ― George Bernard Shaw

Do you have a favorite quote about art? I'd like to hear it.

Art Books and Larry Rivers

One of my favorite diversions when I was an art student at Ohio University was going to Alden Library and looking at the art books. I have always loved libraries anyways, and this seven story campus building seemed to contain more than a universe. When I walked the aisles of their art books I felt I'd hit the mother lode.

I'd not yet had any art history, so I'd pull books off the shelves and riff through the pages. The names were nearly all new except those that reached the popular culture due to their fame... Rembrandt, Picasso, Dali. So I would pull books, flip through pages, and if attracted would make a pile to carry back to my dorm, Scott Quad. One of the artists I discovered in this manner was Larry Rivers.

I'd never heard of Rivers before. A Bronx-born artist, I was attracted to the boldness of his paintings as well as the mish-mash of styles. Mid-century modern art had achieved liberation from the rules and artists, like Rivers and Rauschenberg made their own rules. At the time these artists were way outside the boundaries, but if you look at their work and then read any sophisticated magazine that has illustrations, you will see Rivers' influence. What was off the beam and out of bounds is now simply useful technique. Loose portraits with incomplete expressionistic or abstract backgrounds.

I had not thought much about him over the past forty years, but his work must have made an impression on me. I was showing someone this page of Rivers's images from Google and this person said, "I see where your work comes from." I won't protest. I must have internalized a bit of Rivers to some extent. He, like myself, did a lot of portraits, in his own way. I, too, am drawn to faces.

All this to say that art books are a great way to become acquainted with new artists.

On those occasions when I visit an artist's studio, I am drawn nearly as much to their books as to their work. The same occurs when I go to art museums. When you reach the end of the MOMA there's the gallery store, filled with plunder for the hepped up connoisseur. When I visit the Tweed Museum here on the UMD campus. I see the collection of art books on the second floor (in the room where they conduct their Tweevenings talks) and I covet.

Just looking at the names on the bindings brings back memories. I see the set of Motherwell books and am transported to an enormous wall in the Museum of Modern Art where his black and white canvases were hung. I see Vermeer's name and am transported to Washington DC where I saw his Girl with a Pearl Earring.

You don't have to own them to experience them. Libraries are great places for grazing. And you can't beat the price.

So, here are some photos from the Tweed and my recent visit to Karen Nease's studio. I noticed her book on Paul Klee, another of my early influences. And Diebenkorn, another early influence.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Make it part of your life.

Follow me on Twitter @ennyman3

Summing Up: 2011 Arts Interviews

I really enjoy interviewing people. Being a writer gives you the often rare opportunity to gently probe beneath the surface to see what makes a person tick. I've been interviewing for more than 25 years so it's no surprise to find that my blog is occasionally peppered with interviews of artists and other creative people.

My initial aim with the artist interviews had been to help other artists discover the varieties of ways their creativity could be expressed. As I reviewed this past year I found that I produced and shared more than thirty interviews and thought it would be useful to assemble them here in one place.
To each of you who participated and contributed, a very earnest thank you.

Five Minutes with Bluewater Illustrator Todd Tennant

Ten Minutes with Artist Nancy Eckles

Five Minutes with Painter Marcia Baldwin

Five Minutes with Duluth Painter Dale Lucas

Ten Minutes with Artist Nancy Miller

Five Minutes with Eris Vafias and Art Kamakaze III

Karin Kraemer Talks About Pottery

Local Artists Talk About Painting Live

Ten Minutes with Artist Laurie Frick

Six Minutes with Artist Elizabeth Papenfuss

Five Minutes with Award Winning Narrator Grover Gardner

Twelve Minutes with Painter Olivia Villanueva

Five Minutes with Artist Paul Klee

Ten Minutes with Painter Juan Farias

Ten Minutes with the Young Creative Rob Kaiser-Schatzlein

Come back tomorrow for sixteen more.... and drive safely tonight if you're out on the roads. Happy New Year!

My seed thought for you in 2012: Life is a gift. Don't force it. Embrace it fully and let it happen.


Photo: Jeredt Runions, live painting at the Clyde. By Andrew Perfetti.

Making Room For Art

"We are tricked by a phenomenon of time: Hours and days pass slowly, but years pass quickly. A life passes quickly, but we always think we have plenty of time. Too often we get so consumed with how we spend our days that we lose track of how we are spending our lives." ~Sally Warner

These are the opening lines of Sally Warner's Making Room for Making Art. I like the title of the book. It is not about art appreciation, but about getting the fire stoked to follow your creative urge.

All too many people who were once in touch with their creative selves have lost touch with that drive. Whether being creative with words, music, paint, sculpture, clay, pencils, or folded paper, there is something deeply stirring in the creative process.

You only live once. There is power in creative expression. It feels good for the artist, almost magical when things come together. And it can be enriching to others.

Paul Klee in 1920 said, "Art is a simile of the Creation. Each work of art is an example, just as the terrestial is an example of the cosmic."

If you once had a love for the creative process, and that fire has grown cold, maybe it's time to stir the flames again. You only live once. Make a space in your life once more to follow your creative impulses.

Strike a match. Light the fuse. I want to see fireworks.

Five Minutes with Artist Paul Klee

Swiss-born artist Paul Klee (1879-1940) was a significant influence in my early art. What excited me about his work was the incredible variety. He seemed like an artist who defied categorization. Modern? Yes, but only in the sense that his work was liberated from everything before it. He worked using a variety of media and a seemingly endless variety of styles. He worked on paper, cloth, canvas, burlap, or what appears to be anything he could find. Like Dylan today, he seems to have been constantly re-inventing himself.

I caught up with him recently to discuss his life and work, somewhat eager to learn his impressions of mine.

Ennyman: Tell me about your early influences?
Klee: My earliest influence was music. I was raised in a very musical family. My father was a music teacher and my mother a trained singer. I began playing violin at age seven. But my grandmother once gave me a box of sidewalk chalk and it was clear I had a good hand for drawing. As a teen my drawings showed a considerable level of skill and my parents, reluctantly, allowed me to pursue art school at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

Ennyman: My grandmother was an influence, too, in my art development. After college, then what?
Klee: I went back home and lived with my parents. It was a rueful time, and my work travelled down two paths. My black and white pieces were dark, and so color came to mean something special to me, even began to possess me. I was also doing a lot of experimentation at the time, doing one series of 57 pictures drawing on a blackened pain of glass with a needle.

Ennyman: Interesting technique.
Klee: I still kept up my music and played violin in the orchestra and was writing concert and theater reviews.

Ennyman: Yes, you were also a writer.
Klee: I'd begun a diary very young and never quit that. It's a good way to learn how to capture abstract ideas in words and to develop an understanding of how you observe.

Ennyman: How did you come to be a recognized figure in the European art scene?
Klee: I was doing illustrations for Voltaire's Candide and met Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and other avant garde artists, who became known as The Blue Rider group. Wassily has a keen mind and had been developing theories and ideas about color, as I had. Art does not reproduce the visible, rather it makes visible. We both went on to teach at the Bauhaus school of art.

Ennyman: Mr. Kandinsky wrote a number of books as well as opening modern painting to new spaces. I enjoyed his Concerning the Spiritual in Art. You wrote as well, did you not?
Klee: I published my diary in 1918 and also some other writings later.

Ennyman: You once stated that even drawing has changed for you.
Klee: In the final analysis, a drawing simply is no longer a drawing, no matter how self-sufficient its execution may be. It is a symbol, and the more profoundly the imaginary lines of projection meet higher dimensions, the better.

Ennyman: Are there any common threads in your world view with other disciplines:
Klee: The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions.

Ennyman: Any last thoughts?
Klee: Some will not recognize the truthfulness of my mirror. Let them remember that I am not here to reflect the surface... but must penetrate inside. My mirror probes down to the heart. I write words on the forehead and around the corners of the mouth. My human faces are truer than the real ones. Also, when looking at any significant work of art, remember that a more significant one probably has had to be sacrificed.

Ennyman: Thank you for your time.

This interview is a work of fiction. The information is not fiction, taken from Klee's actual quotes and the entry about his life and work in Wikipedia.