Every once in a while an affinity for a person wholly unreachable springs up and we get to admire and "interact" from afar. That's what happened to Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. Till he married her. Anyway, John Howe has been a favorite illustrator of mine for years, and the brilliant part is that he's still alive. He keeps a rambling and random blog which is always well-written, witty, profound (and long), coupling his love of all things art with his love for history, anthropology, mythology and the written word. The result is constantly surprising, enlightening, and, to me, extremely endearing. What this man write half a world away continually comes out looking like what is already in my head. Oddly, this is far more true of his words than his paintings, most of the latter of which I love dearly.
Earlier this month he wrote a blog about talking about art. It delighted me, so I'm sharing it with you. It's not long (for once) and I think those of you who enjoy a phrase well-turned will enjoy it very much.
3 comments:
Jessie thanks for the link. The article is both beautiful and thought provoking even if, in the end, I almost entirely disagree. Perhaps not being one myself there is something about the artistic mindset that escapes me. Can you help? For example he writes:
> Would you do exactly the same picture many times? Then why would you repeat the same words?
My thoughts would have run something along the lines of, "If words do not bear repeating then perhaps they ought not to have been said at all"! Obviously they can also be used as a means to an end - a development tool (discussion) if you will - but in the end must they not leave us with something concrete?
The analogy of not painting the same picture more than once makes no sense to me. Of course any respectable creative artist doesn't keep drawing the same thing over and over, but if a piece of work is good don't they make copies of it in various forms? And doesn't the finished work stand as a monument to be looked back at (in essence being repeated) again and again?
This thought too irks me:
> A thought truly forms only as it is said.
I understand that one often discovers new thoughts by re-assembling old ones and that the exercise of communicating something often serves to solidify that something in ones own mind -- yet at the very least if this is statement is true one ought to be very careful in which company one expresses new thoughts. Friends that can sift and discard are very valuable indeed.
> It makes for a rambling discourse, with parentheses opening and closing like so many verandah doors on a windy day, (and it may be hard to follow...
Also I'd like to hear somebody make a defense for speaking that way out of verses from Proverbs. Any takers? Where do the many warnings about the weight of words fit in?
> Painting and public speaking have a lot in common.
Perhaps the utter lack of talent in the former explains why I struggle so much making the latter a palatable reality. Also if public speaking is in a way like painting, what does public speaking in a second language compare to?
There I think I've thrown enough wood on the fire for tonight :) Again let me say it was a well crafted article and I enjoyed the read.
I'll write you later. ☺
FYI: I am fully aware that I was being contrary and probably "get it" more than I chose to reveal; but I do feel like a point was being pried out of the imagery at the expense of valuing words for their truth.
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