The Only One Who Knows
"Wherever we go, we are friends" -Sloth and Manatee
Sloth and Manatee
There is only one person in all of creation, ever, who knows or knew what it was like to paint Van Gogh’s sunflowers, and that was Mr. Vincent Van Gogh.
There is only one person who knows what it is like to play Bach’s cello suites as Yo Yo Ma plays them. There is only one person who knows what it is like to have had the experience, start to finish, of painting Guernica.
There is only one person who knows or knew the experience of writing, and rewriting, and re-rewriting, Slaughterhouse Five.
The first letters pressed into the typing paper. The first brushstrokes, the underpainting. The sketch. The scraping away. The repainting. The mixing of the colors. The choice of brush, or knife. Stretching the canvas. Deciding the size of the stretcher bars. Salvaging the piece of plywood. Slathering on the gesso. Running out of a particular favorite pigment, and going to find some more. Picking out just the right fabric (or piece of steel, or urinal, or what-have-you) to paint on.
Hearing an encouraging word from a friend about the novel draft you’ve written and shelved. Having your wife fish out your story from the trash, and her telling you to submit it, this story entitled Carrie.
Imagine looking out from those eyes. Applying paint to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Finding Mary in the marble of the Pietà. Scraping and scraping and adding and subtracting until you’ve got a Giacometti. Because you are Giacometti.
There is only one person in all of creation who will ever know the experience of making a work of art, and that is the artist. There is only one person in all of creation who knows or will know what it is like to do what you do, and that is you.
This is why we make: to put our insides out, to show ourselves, what it is, what it is like. So someone can stop short in front of a painting of sunflowers and have the brushstrokes speak straight into their mind.
It is why we are fascinated by process, and the making of, and the drafts, and the stories of how we got the stories. This is why we art. The result of all this pulls down and captures that experience into a form that we can share. This is the purpose of art materials and typewriters and cameras and such, to witness.
No one can take this truth from you. Not today, not tomorrow, not hundreds of years from now, not ever.
Brainwaves
Best of Brainwaves Volume One: The Fountain of Stuff
Best of Brainwaves Volume Two: Mom, Dad, I'm a Cat
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Art!
BunnyFrogCatSnake
This week I am teaching a cartooning class for youth at the Richmond Art Center and this is pretty much what it is like:
Things Of The Week
I recently had the opportunity to see this piece by Sam Gilliam, which made me go back and watch this interview with him, I love him so much
If you are into guided meditations or dharma talks, the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA provides gobs of free material, updated daily, at Audio Dharma. So much goodness.
Here is the site for the museum in Rochester, NY where I got to encounter Sam Gilliam. Check out the whole collection! It’s extensive and marvelous.
Okay! That's enough nonsense for now.
May you see what you see that no one else sees, may you see what someone else sees ‘cause they shared it with you, won't you be my neighbor? - Betsy
HELLO AND THANKS FOR READING!!
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