Please, could anyone advise on how to unsubscribe from this list? Much thanks if you can advise.
> Michael: My notion was to convey a notion of Henry, > not William, James (I'm > reminded of Shelly Berman's comment that "James Joyce > didn't write "Trees") > to your mind. > Re expressing: You're the artist not me. However, I > didn't mean to imply > express a verbal or pictorial message but rather that > an artist/writer might > wish to convey/make actual > forms/perceptions/imagninings to others. > Geoff C > >>From: Michael Brady <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>Reply-To: [email protected] >>To: [email protected] >>Subject: Re: Envisioning >>Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:30:42 -0400 >> >>On Oct 23, 2008, at 11:56 PM, GEOFF CREALOCK wrote: >> >>>Michael: I have been struck with the frequency with >>> which writers (of >>>novels) refer to their writings coming from their >>> "subconscious". >>>Characters take over the story in ways the novelist >>> hadn't planned. Some >>>novelists are suprised at how their stories turn >>> out. Which leads me to >>>believe that relaxing and finding if there is >>> something in you that wants >>>to be expressed, in words/paint/ whatever. I do >>> believe that there is room >>>for judgment about the academic side (good >>> punctuation, appropriate >>>grammar) being applied to the telling of the >>> story. How that might >>>translate to painting I'll avoid. >> >>My experience is this: >> >>The painting "takes over" only because as I paint, I >> make decisions, which >>then foreclose some options and open others. The >> "direction" of the >>painting comes from choices I make. It doesn't come >> from my >>subconscious--but sometimes it comes from the part >> of my waking mind that >>I'm not attending to at the moment. My conscious >> mind works in very >>associative ways; focusing concentrates the >> associations in a way that >>leads to decision, limit, and closure, which are a >> good thing when >>openness is merely indecision or the postponing of >> choice. And relaxing, >>which you mention, sometimes allows my mind's >> reconnaissance patrols to >>stumble across a remote connection or small node and >> bring it back into my >>main focus. >> >>With painting, I long ago learned the lesson that >> planning and predicting >>and plotting out things according to rules and >> canons, as useful as that >>could be, never matched what appeared on the canvas. >> As soldiers say, the >>best plans fall apart the moment the fighting >> starts. >> >>I rarely think of anything I do as coming from a >> need to "be expressed." I >>paint and draw because I really like to do that, it >> pleases me, it engages >>a lot of interests I have and it satisfies me. I >> have never felt the need >>to tell anything in a painting--and I have rarely >> painted a "message" >>painting (I can think of only two in the last >> twenty years, and another >>two that I "retrofitted' a message onto). But I >> have always felt the >>desire to show things, namely, what I painted. >> "Here, look at this." >>Basically. More like, "Here, look at this. I really >> like it and I hope you >>do, too." >> >> >>| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | >>Michael Brady >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > fax 804 287 6053
