RANDOM THOUGHTS
1. Have been too caught up with organisation of Auction lately.
2. This is not what a Fine Art Degree is about so am trying to get back to thinking about art.
3. Reread The Death of the Author. by Roland Barthes today. Enjoyed it. It promoted thoughts.
4. Since my brother died in Oct 2010 my practise has reflected the utter impossibility of understanding death. Someone who has been always present is now NOT present. The fact of their absolute existence is undeniable, but what is so hard to take on board is ..you can’t see them smile;hear their voice; ask their opinion; tell them your thoughts. He will never see my paintings again; will not be at my Degree Show. It’s just the little things which are so impossible to understand.
Death is completely bizarre.
5. My paintings, I now see, reflect this inner sadness. It’s why I’ve been so caught up with de Stael’s suicide, the beach in Dorset. Even water and swimming has an element of forgetting, ignoring the realities of life. Swimming is an escape into another world.
6. I want to portray emotions, feelings, a sense of place, connection, permanence where there is actually no permanence. I choose subjects which express this and endeavour to evoke these feelings in the viewer.
‘…a text’s [paintings] unity lies not in its origin but in its destination’ (Barthes : The Death of the Author) This is the quote which gave rise to this post and made me start thinking about whether an artist should have a ‘voice’ (origin)or should the viewer simply make what they will of a painting(its destination)?
