Why, today, do we continue to insist that they remain separated?

In our supposedly advanced civilization can we not have a recognition of a visual artist who does it all?

I vividly remember, a few years after I was in France, a encounter with a woman. I was on a stroll with my camera. This woman wanted to know if I was not the painter. Upon acknowledgement that I was she verbally attacked me for taking photographs. Duh. I mention France, but this mode of thinking had already been presented to me in the U.S. Yet, today, we are being led into an appreciation of photo-realistic painting. To me, this is a banal form of painting that sacrifices the visual presentation of light as we see it. Not photographically. As we SEE it. Not as a mechanical analogue/digital tool record it. And here is where we fail to appreciate the difference. It is not particularly subtle.

Photography and painting are two sides of the same coin. Bottom line, they are both direct links to understanding perception.

On a lighter note, we are experiencing change at an unprecedented speed. All roads lead to Rome. And of course, the Greeks. As we evolve as a social group, human beings are perched on the edge of their next stage of evolution. Bring it on.

French version: Être peintre et photographe

I am of the opinion that today art is the point where our most pressing issues and questions converge. This suggests something other than business as usual. Needless to say, not only are a large number of painters, photographers, graphic artists and so on struggling and suffering. This is also the case with a large number of fellow human beings on the planet.

We all come to our work with a mind that has been formed over millennia. That this mind is leading us in a dangerous direction is now beyond dispute. We have a glitch in the software. You are certainly entitled to think otherwise. And if the case I can only suggest that you open your mind to that possibility. What follows is speculation as to how a mind freed from the shackles of the past would approach creative work.

This is complicated by what Wyndham Lewis termed “The Demon of Progress in the Arts” published in 1955. Wyndham Lewis may be a bit strident for some. However, if you can manage to find a copy it is an interesting take by a person who was in the thick of the art world for more than half of a century.

I’ve read much of what Wyndham wrote during his long prolific life. Having been in the trenches of World War I he was passionately concerned with humanity. For those of you familiar with Saul Bellow, he was a staunch follower of Lewis.

In any case here is the thing, it seems logical to read what the experts have had to say. And some of it is interesting to read. There are a lot of good ideas to be found. At the end of the day, however, they remain just that — ideas. A long time ago it occurred to me that if ideas and good intentions could lead to the solutions for our problems we would already have arrived. The same scenario has been going on for hundreds of thousands of years. It seems that we took a wrong turn early on in our evolution. It seems neither economically feasible nor rational to continue in our same old rut.

I was a member of the Beat Generation of the 5O’s. Watching and participating in the flowering of the ideas of Peace and Love which followed left me following a personal path. The hope of communicating insights gleaned has sustained me since. It deeply saddens me to think about the world we are leaving to our young. All with the best of intentions, right? Those of us who have had the good fortune to avoid the 8 to 5 grind and engage our minds freely and fully have a special obligation. To remain fixed in old fixed patterns is not an option. Many of us are intelligent, well educated, well read, and clever enough to have stepped outside of the zeitgeist. It hasn’t been enough. We only moved slightly, maybe a few feet. All of our old solutions have not worked. They are all based on a mind that at its core can only generate thoughts, ideas, and so on based on the dead past and an imagined future. If we stop doing that something miraculous happens. It is really quite simple but far from easy. Most would say it is not possible. Well, I for one say that it is. Think about this, if it were not possible then Life on planet Earth is a very cruel joke.

What has all this to do with painting and photography you ask? Well, what I’m hinting at is closely connected with perception. I am an old bird and if I can profoundly change my health and my mind I am sure others are doing the same.

Published in french as Peinture et photographie : Deuxième partie

Published in french as Peinture à l’huile et santé

Rex Brandt said: “We do not paint things, we paint relationships.” True as far as it goes. If only it were so simple. Statements like this seem to entrench in the mind and we can easily lose the context. Rex was very much concerned with his medium of watercolor paint. I point this out as an example of how easily the message is compromised with a sign such expressed in blunt terms.

Delacroix said something that addresses what I’m trying to get at. He said the problem with many painters was they used coloration rather than color. He implies that they are not completely devoted to color and their medium.

If we say we do not paint things, we paint relationship in terms of a colored medium I believe we get closer to the crux of our problem as artists. I might add that to paint relationships we must become deeply involved in the initial experience. That very first impression which strikes strongly and ignites the process needs much nurturing. Carrying this around in our heads for a good period of time the muse may visit as we paint. That is the primary relationship.

Published in french as L’ordre caché en peinture

What to say? First and foremost, my heart goes out to the Japanese people. Words in this regard are totally inadequate. I’ve experienced some deeply moving moments in reflection. The following touches some of the highlights. Bear in mind these are verbal thoughts which miss the essence of the experience. They are, however, perhaps valuable on their own merit.

Everything to follow is based on a biased view towards human life quite outside the norm. Having said that, I need add that at my age I no longer feel any sense of judgment towards the society in which I live. Quite the contrary. I’ve written elsewhere about my opinion that our evolution is not done in a progressive linear manner. This has been well documented in the case of prehistoric cave paintings. But we do progress. It may be that over a given 100 year period we progress in humanistic manner 100 steps. Perhaps in the next few year we digress 99 steps. Well, that is still a net advance of 1 step. Has not our value of the human life progressed in this manner? Ever so slowly has the dignity and quality of the individual human life improved.

This model held true until the last 150 years. The photographic image has both directly and indirectly transformed our artistic/esthetic sensibilities. We have yet to begin understanding its significance. A, short, few decades later industrialization was in full swing. And given the choice between a horseless carriage and its alternative we started down the slippery road of mass consumption.

This abbreviated digression was necessary to preface what I wanted to say about my special experience. I felt a deep sense of identity with the Japanese people. This could not have been possible the day before yesterday. Many; if not most of us now can have the feeling of being in the same boat together.

My hope is that this catastrophic event may trigger steps in a different direction. Perhaps an understanding that a world devoid of artistic and esthetic sensibilities is a world that stepped into a deep precipice. If we do not come to our senses someday we will believe when looking back at the fruit of Western Civilization … “well, you can’t get back there from here.” Humanity will have become blind to the importance artistic sensibilities hold for society at large.

Here it is in a nutshell; If the big questions become muted, then the important question of, “how man should live”, becomes as important or unimportant as how ants should live.

Published in french as La mécanisation de l’homme et de l’art

The truth, where is it? The truth what is it ?
Large question indeed.
Is not the truth subjective ?
Physically, it depends upon the point of view.
For exemple, Is a photography a true representation of reality? It is rather the vision of it that the photographer has wanted to give by not putting into it the garbage which is just outside the shot. The notion of in the field of vision / outside the field is already an interpretation witting or unwitting of the “Truth”.
Psychologically, the truth is even more subjective ?
Two persons will live a given situation in two very different ways. And however this experience is one (in the meaning unique) and therefore it has a priori only one truth. This makes me think about factual truth. After all a fact is a fact, unquestionable, confirmed.
But though, in history, the historical thought based upon real facts is in constant evolution. In science, the verity of to day will not be the truth of to morrow.! The discovery of a new “scientifical truth” will shake the truth.
I think we need to ask ourselves the question of the truth that we accept: our own truth, the one of our family, of our kin, of our colleague, of our culture, of our time. And for art, with my poor knowledge in this area, I think that the essential is that the artist respects hi truth, his own truth in the instant he is creating ( so “be true towards yourself”).
I agree with Corot about the truth of the first impression.
We finally come back most of the time to our first impression about people, about the landscape, about the content of our plate (here visual), about our future housing, about our work, about the work what we are looking at.

Denis responds :

Thank you Anne for your thoughtful remarks.

Here is the bottom line for me, I believe that what we see and what we think about that experience is important. We arrive at an understanding of what the words we use to describe and explain things represent. When they arrive at the point of becoming abstractions we can then get those words into perspective. In this context, it is not the things we know that create problems for us … it is the things we know that are not so. A poor grasp of abstract thought or abstract words compounds those problems. (I’ll write more about this probblem in a future article.) Art is largely about a good grasp of the tradition of painting and problem solving, not the pursuit of abstractions such as our common understanding of the word truth.

As you see, Anne, I am short on answers, long on questions. I trust that my studies and intuition lead me to good ones. This, I believe is the path of a painter.

Ciao, Denis,

Published in french as Commentaire et réponse sur “La vérité du peintre”

In the middle of the 19^th century, Sainte Beuve summed up the current state of affairs thus: “The beautiful, the true, the good is a fine slogan and yet it is specious. If I had a slogan it would be the true, the true alone. And not the beautiful and the good get along as well as they can.” He was, I believe, speaking to the importance beginning to be placed on scientific and artistic truth. He was close to the painters. Corot was to talk about the importance of the first impression, truth and accuracy. Odd, considering he was so adept at fitting his impressions to classical notions of composition and design.

Truth. Exactly what is it? Does it have a connection with “to thine own self be true”? Is it enough to follow the current opinions flavored with the latest ideas as to the meaning of truth? How is a painter to know what to paint? Is it really as simple as truth or fiction?

Questions.

Most painters blindly follow the zietgeist. “You must be free and unique like no others.” This is not freedom. If you are not free you would not know the truth if it bit you on the arse. Freedom is a precondition for the painter or any creative individual.

Published in french as La vérité du peintre

Since I moved to France in 1994 much has changed for me. For one thing before my wife became sick I was spending a good deal of time in the US. She was diagnosed with a rare fast growing cancer which we were told was terminal by the specialists we saw in France. Thank God for the internet. I learned that a research institute in the US, Sloan-Kettering Institute, was actively working on a experimental protocol. What’s more they were collaborating with The Institut Curie in Paris. So, immediately on the phone to Curie; luckily a quick appointment and we had a protocol. It was not easy getting treatment because Doctors don’t like being told what to do. But having said that, the treatment was first rate. Françoise is a survivor. I am a survivor. It has been 9 years now. It is unimaginable how hard this all was and how it has affected and changed our lives. These days we don’t put up with much shit. Life is much too dear to spend time dealing with the petty stuff. And for this reason, we found ourselves moving from the home from which we thought we would never leave. We are happy with our new home. But it was a time consuming project. It took a two year chunk of precious time.
For those of you whose lives have been touched by cancer our deepest sympathies. And the 3 out of 5 of us that have not been touched? Please count your blessings and think beyond thee current TV comedies on the “Big C”. They just touch the tip of the iceberg. For anyone wanting to understand more about the impact on lives and the need for more public awareness this is a must read http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/sep/19/the-big-c-cancer-tv

This blog began in April, 2006 as www.webb-blog.fr written in French with a translation in English. It, along with my site www.deniswebb.fr did very well. That was all fine, but traffic to my English sites: www.deniswebb.com and this blog remained quite low. Easy to understood why: it was essentially a copy of the translations in the French blog. Aside from the fact that these are two quite different publics it appears in the blog that the articles where written over a period of a couple of months when in fact it was over a two year period.

I’ve been on a artistic path from a young age and I feel I’ve been fortunate. In my opinion, fame and notoriety are traps for the unwise. Autonomy, integrety, and direct contact with a smaller circle brings balance and perspective. For many years this has worked for me. Many, much more talented than I, have attempted to make big changes or pursue that chimaera called success only to be subdued by an unrestained ego. (Here is an interesting, if not brilliant, video by Elizabeth Gilbert about nurturing creativity → http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html)

For a long time humanity has struggled to break the chains of history. Creativity and the historical view are the antagonists. My heart is warmed when I see a young person like Elizabeth Gilbert thinking and speaking clearly.

Remember, we paint who we are so keep your brushes wet.

In art,
denis

My earlier article about thinking outside the box stopped short of talking about the rebuilding of a new box. And here we get into the nitty gritty of it. The rebellion side of the coin is easy. The rebuilding of a new ethic, set of values, a new mode of politics, ect. is a horse of a different color. So easy to become nihilistic at this stage. If all the values, gods, religions, current modes of thinking, and so one go out the window what’s next?

Humanity, it seems to me, is in the process of coming to grips with the problem. If we do not succeed collectively we are in big doo doo. The understanding neccessary is left up to the creative minds working on the edge asking hard questions.

These are just some thoughts flying around in my head. Remembering that answers do, in fact, come before questions does not help a lot. The questions seem so huge. Is there nothing else to do but patiently watch things unfold in slow motion?

So, here I am, contemplating the reentrance to my artistic path. It sseems that I’ve been off-track for some time now. As much as I’ve been a student of tradition, I likewise have been quite sensitive to world happenings,ect.

My move resulting in a new mode of life and a new atelier:

I’ll keep you posted about my first steps back on the path.

In art & love,
denis

Published in french as Retour sur le chemin

It has been well more than one year since the necessity of moving became apparent. A frustrating difficult decision ! Sixteen years earlier I swore I was through moving. And after years in the same place it seemed an impossible task. Enough said. Now, the move is completed, much work organizing, tearing out walls, floors, ect. It feels good to be decompressing a bit. Still not really back to work but it is just around the corner.

My bright new shining atelier and storage room will certainly not look like this once I begin working. I have never, in my life, been organized like this. I’ve never been a particularly messy painter but this is way over the edge for me. My workshop is also well organized as well as a large garage. Needless to say the house likewise. The photo of the salon shows our new Norvegian stove plugged into the fireplace. An ample supply of firewood is stacked in the garage which is well ventilated. I guess I’m a bit proud of all this hard work. I’m getting to be an old guy and it is good to know I can still get with the program.

“Unbelievable Organization” This atelier will not look like this for long. But starting from this it should not get too bad I hope. (Canon S90)

“Stove & Salon” We splurged on a nice Norvegian wood stove. Hope that it keeps the atelier toasty. It is directly above. (Canon S90)

“Our House in February” This was the second time we had looked at the house. A few days later, we made an offer. (Leica DLX-4)

“The roses in Bloom” This was taken few days ago. The fence has to go. (Canon G10)

Happy Camper! If you do not know where you’ve been you may not like where you end up. That’s how you get here from there.

Published in french as Pour arriver à destination