Episode 096 - Origin Stories

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Art Chat Podcast

Arts


Recorded: 19 August, 2013Participants: Steve Harlow, Emory Holmes II, Jim "Jimmy The Peach" Aaron, Ruth Parson, Allan Ludwig.AudioDownload Mp3 Steve says he doesn't want to, "hog all the fun," of moderating the podcast. Artistically, he says he admires the directoral style of Andy Warhol, "turn on the camera.""And take a nap," Emory completes.Steve says he likes the awkward pauses and people fumbling for words, "that's the best part."Allan says he's in mid-coast Maine. Emory asks if he's been fishing? Allan says he's been photographing circles. He likes perfect circles, he thinks imperfect circles are grotesque.Jim suggests a theme of touchstones or starting points for this episode. What caused you to be a creative person? What Is your "pole star," your guide?Emory says he relies on the Blues. When he started reading Nietzsche. He was impressed by the wit, savagery, and generousity of his thinking. He thinks the Blues is comparable. Funny, tragic, violent, and full of shifting moods. He says every story he's written has drawn from that fountain of expectations."Our lives are tragic and we have the ability to bring some light, some texture to our time living here," Emory says. He relies on the Blues to inform him and give him a field of play.Jim asks if it is the "call and response" of Blues that Emory connects to.Emory says no, but when he gives a reading of his work, it is always fun to hear the audience give response. When he was on a press junket to Fort Smith, Arkansas, for the movie, "A Soldier's Story." reading a piece, he had written on one of the stars, Howard Rollins, who has in the audience punctuating Emory's lines with, "ah hums" and "well ahhs" like it was a church sermon. The call and response there was appropriate, but a surprise. Emory thinks the concision, the emotion, the storytelling of the Blues is his touchstone.Ruth says her beginnings as a writer was a story she wrote she was eight years of age. At that time, she was writing to, "hear what I was thinking and it hasn't changed, that's still why I write." Her interest in sculpture started with seeing Rodin's work at Stanford University. She was on her knees hearing the "Les Bourgeois de Calais" whisper.Les Bourgeois de Calais Musee RodinJim says he enjoyed Les Bourgeois de Calais at The Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture GardenBalzac at MOMA by dominotic, on FlickrRuth also learned from Rodin's waxes in San Francisco, at Legion of Honor, then saw some again in Paris, at Musee Rodin. Balzac was her favorite, "such a mountain of a man."Allan commends the sense of permanence in the placement of public sculpture in Washington, D.C., saying, each piece there, large or small is in a well considered environment. In New York City, there's so little land, they plopped these things down in tiny spots which spoil the effect of the sculpture. In NYC, the Parks Department thinks that public art is a burden, they rotate sculptures in and out. There was one of Andy Warhol in Union Square, but it's gone now.The Andy Monument, 17th & Broadway, NY, NYRegarding motivations, Allan says he remembers trying to draw a portrait in profile and having difficulty getting the nose in perspective. After a few erasures, multiple attempts at a correct nose came out, "crummy," he wore through the paper, was screaming, his mother said to him, "you should get some books on drawing and calm down." Although that may have been very good advice, Allan discovered a camera, "you don't have to do that," he says, "you just push the button and you get everything where it should be. Photography is very easy because it's all there at one time and you either like the result or you don't."Steve says because photography is easy to capture, it is tremendously difficult to take a great photo. As a child, he was with his photo-hobbyist, Dad in a home darkroom. He thought the enlarger, the image appearing in the developer was magical. He thinks the same magic can happen with digital images, he uses GIMP to further "develop" captured images. Because manipulating images is so easy, it's hard to make the art you want. Digital is difficult because of the unlimited possibilities.Brussels 1932 by Henri Cartier-BressonAllan says Andre Bresson, the first one out with a Leica shooting the, "decisive moment." Bresson saw photography as a temporal exercise, saw life flow past him and he needed to capture the most expressive moment. This part of photography remains difficult. When developing images, you want the processing to, "mostly leave the image alone," Allan says, "too many layers of Photoshop effects and it looks like cheap Surrealism."PHOTOBOT!: Surrealism Photoshop IIAllan said he was taking abstract photos a few years ago and found that some of the ones he took with his eyes closed were as good as those he took with his eyes open.Steve suggests that in cases like that, the decisive moment comes in the selection process, "which one of these 100 shots should I present?"Allan says, while there is always a need for that, he doesn't like to think about it too much, you get bogged down with a bunch of issues, he wants to get on the next thing. He sees the emotional power photographs generate.As a child, Jim said he had moments that supported his belief that he was different or alien. He saw the life around as shallow. He was interested in jazz. He heard jazz in the live improvisation on Eat A Peach. He admired the mastery, became interested in the masters in arts. He wishes we could hear Mozart's improvisations, Liszt's jams, "all we see is what they notated for other's to play." He recently watched a recording of Keith Jarrett describing how his trio rehearses to improvise on stage away from what they know.Keith JarrettJack London, "To Light A Fire" Jim doesn't have much in common with hedonist, Charles Bukowski, until Bukowski begins to read his poetry, then Jim says, "I'm right there with you, brother!" Always attracted to masters who did the work, without much telling you about them doing it, he tries to reach a point of equilibrium when writing a haiku, a balance, that's when it's done.Steve says that's an issue for his painting. How much to complete an idea before moving to another. How far is too far. He wants his work to be open to other people. When an artist over-finishes a work, there's no room for the viewer. He wants the viewer to see themselves in the work, to form the image in their mind. He thinks his work is a celebration of eye-sight.OrpheusAllan says it was easier before Modernism because the artist could say he was possessed by a golden light coming from the sky with a nymph whispering in your ear. Art was considered a gift from the Divine. Improvisation was the Gods speaking through you. Like with Orpheus, the music so beautiful, the wild animals came and listened peacefully. Today, we don't have that narrative crutch.Steve remembers Emory talking about a character in his novel taking over control of the story from him, the writer. That seems to be a similar concept of possession that artists use today.Emory says DeCartes says experience gets you to the cliff, insight lets you jump off. He writes about this in "Rules For The Direction Of The Mind."Ruth says she depended on inspiration when performing. It was all an improvisation started by a vision. On her last one, the inspiration never came, "it was horrid." Subscribe to this blog's feed  |  Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes  |  Follow  |  Like  |  Plus