“Now listen! Can’t you see that when the language was new—as it was with Chaucer and Homer—the poet could use the name of a thing and it would really be there? He could say, ‘O moon,’ ‘O sea,’ ‘O love,’ and the moon and the sea and love were really there…”— Gertrude Stein
“Now and then, wandering through the streets, suddenly one comes awake, perceives with a strange exultation that he is moving through an absolutely fresh slice of reality. As if the eye itself had been freshened, the most commonplace things are seen as if for the first time…”—Henry Miller on seeing the work of the French photographer, Brassai
works & conversations is built around interviews and portfolios. Like doors one passes by all the time, the possibility exists—you will have to admit—that some doors are worth opening. It is possible that entering a house, one will be suddenly enchanted, or reminded of something forgotten. It's the perennial hope, and we share it.
By opening the pages of our inaugural issue and taking a little time to adjust your eyes, you’ll soon get a sense of how the light falls in here and begin to get a sense of the place. You’ll discover something like a floor plan, an intent to approach the ineffable experience at the heart of art making. Whatever that is, it is always fresh. The painter Agnes Martin simply calls this experience “a moment of perfection.”
For the ancients such moments were connected to the realm of the Gods and were represented by the Muses. In a moment when a Muse moves close, everything changes. Don't we both know and constantly forget such moments in the rush of life?
And there’s the question of beauty. It's a difficult subject and has been set aside somehow. It's as Gertrude Stein wrote, "When the language was new, the poet could say, 'Oh, moon.' and the moon would be there." Today, most likely, we would see an advertisement. Yet real beauty is as necessary now as it ever was. Turning to Agnes Martin again, she writes: “All art work is about beauty. All positive work represents it and celebrates it. All negative art protests the lack of beauty in our lives.”
And whatever exists at the heart of art making, there’s also the essential fact that the artist exists in his or her own time and culture. The artist’s struggle to come to terms with this larger fact opens fundamental questions of meaning. What is the value or importance of my experience? Can I assume that because making art fully engages me that therefore it’s of value to someone else? Is social recognition, or the size of a price tag on a piece of art, a real measure of meaning?
It’s said we live in a postmodern period, and we look out on a horizon where anything goes. So are we facing freedom, or is it more like evaporation? And does the artist have a significant role here? The questions are difficult and in our conversations with artists and others of a deeply creative bent, we’ll try to explore such questions.
It could be said that irony is a natural response to our postmodern situation with its beguiling surfaces and profound inner dislocations. And we realize that, at its best, humor and irony can be as inspired as any other work of art. Who can resist it? Not us. But irony exists as a marker for what is missing. It's something to think about. Can art be a doorway into the places we long for without even knowing it? We think so.
Our inaugual interviews:
Judy Pfaff - Hands On
Squeak Carnwath - Advocate of the Unwatched Life
Richard Berger - Interview with an Elusive Genius
Additional features:
Mark Bulwinkle - What Drives Us?
Phil Chan - Art and Ethics
Others are not posted online.
Share Your Comments and Reflections on this Conversation:
On Aug 27, 2023 Phil Chan wrote:
Richard,Thanks for publishing it. I have not read it for a long time and did not remember how deep it was. If interested you might check out my website: philchanart.com
Phil Chan
On Feb 11, 2016 Annie Schliffer wrote:
Wonderful! So true.As a potter there are those very special moments when something real appears, as if another current slipped through the iron chains of personality.
This is beauty?