On my way into the studio, a breezy quarter of a mile walk from home, I often drop into the National Museum of Wales to have a quick look at the Cézanne’s or sometimes I check out a patch of one of the Monet Water Lilies or one of the sad and scary Van Gogh’s,
‘Landscape at Auvers in the Rain’- from the last few days of his life in July 1890 . . . All of them soooo present and as real as lightning, the most 'present' painting I've ever seen by the way is Vermeer's 'The Maidservant Pouring Milk' when it toured with other Vermeers to the National Gallery some years ago. It's 'there' like nothing else I've ever seen. Keeps me fighting fit.
I’m only in there half an hour, it’s like grabbing a slice of toast for breakfast, but this morning I’d had no breakfast and it was cold – I needed a cooked breakfast to set me up – I went to my usual place – upstairs in the covered market (it used to be a women’s prison) and who should be tucking into the same, but Doc Franklyn.
Dr Franklyn: Hey … good to see you, early start …?’ I look at him sideways, smiling. ‘Hungry start I think …You too I see…?’ and ordered knowing that I’d only have to wait a few minutes, it was busy and the griddle was in full sizzle. As usual with the good Dr, there’s hardly any preamble, he’s into it all fulltime – and so am I – so off he starts as I pull out the chair next to him and place my mug of tea and knife n fork in front of me.
Dr Franklyn: 'Listen, Something about those drawings got me thinking - I think it was their title, started me musing - the ones you were having some trouble with, the - We Enter As Animals - yes?. '
Me: 'Yes that’s right.'
Dr Franklyn: 'So if we enter animals, how do we leave? Is that it?'
Me: ‘That’s correct.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘I propose a solution … but you know what they say about cures…’ My breakfast arrived – I attacked it and he let me be as I set to and made up my mind whether I wanted to follow this one.
Me: Let’s jaw on that one another time Doc, if we can – I’m doing something with them right now and it’s too close to talk about.
Monday, 29 October 2007
The Colour With No Name 2 0f 7
Dr Franklyn: ‘Fair enough … the other topic I’ve been mulling over was ... the colour with no name.
Me: I had to put my knife and fork down.
‘Where did you come up with that from?’
Dr Franklyn … Laughing ‘I was watching a Clint Eastwood film the other night on TV, the man with no name stuff. It occurred to me that there are plenty of sounds without names – just onomatopoeic resemblances – and plenty of colours without names - what is a POW! ? Not forgetting the exclamation mark of course - it usually means someone is hitting someone else or something … what is a SKREEK! ? It could be nails on a blackboard or a bird call ( people were looking at us now) so what then, is the colour of this tea?’
Me: ‘It’s a milky tea colour of course Doc … and I guess there has been a milky tea colour since the 17th century at least … before that, errr I wouldn’t like to think what they called it - might put me off breakfast! … but I see your point, that is a literal description of what it is … other than that it’s one of the millions of pale browns of some kind – Harmonics I’d call them – colours that people don’t notice until they have to call them something – or they are decorating a room – then they become flavourised’ ( the Doc laughed)
Dr Franklyn: ‘Is that a technical term?’... still laughing.
Me: ‘Does the trick doesn’t it … yes .. flavourised colour descriptions, like White with a hint of Apple – Barley Haze – Cinnamon – Petunia, they’re all apt descriptive names – even if we do tend to laugh at them.’
Me: I had to put my knife and fork down.
‘Where did you come up with that from?’
Dr Franklyn … Laughing ‘I was watching a Clint Eastwood film the other night on TV, the man with no name stuff. It occurred to me that there are plenty of sounds without names – just onomatopoeic resemblances – and plenty of colours without names - what is a POW! ? Not forgetting the exclamation mark of course - it usually means someone is hitting someone else or something … what is a SKREEK! ? It could be nails on a blackboard or a bird call ( people were looking at us now) so what then, is the colour of this tea?’
Me: ‘It’s a milky tea colour of course Doc … and I guess there has been a milky tea colour since the 17th century at least … before that, errr I wouldn’t like to think what they called it - might put me off breakfast! … but I see your point, that is a literal description of what it is … other than that it’s one of the millions of pale browns of some kind – Harmonics I’d call them – colours that people don’t notice until they have to call them something – or they are decorating a room – then they become flavourised’ ( the Doc laughed)
Dr Franklyn: ‘Is that a technical term?’... still laughing.
Me: ‘Does the trick doesn’t it … yes .. flavourised colour descriptions, like White with a hint of Apple – Barley Haze – Cinnamon – Petunia, they’re all apt descriptive names – even if we do tend to laugh at them.’
The Colour With No Name 3 of 7
Dr Franklyn: ‘That’s right - people need them of course; They are the same as Vermillion red or Cerulean, commonly held descriptives or flavourisations – to use your word. Everything we see, hear, touch and smell has to be described in one way or another of course, and a perceived marketplace, or a science, a history, or something’s manufacture defines the kind of description.
Is Magnolia forever Magnolia? or, does it miraculously and expensively transform into a Honey Silk somewhere in the higher echelons of interior design, – but what I was really interested in are the colours that aren’t noticed, or haven’t been sold, the shy colours – the colours with no names…’
Me: Welllll…There are a whole batch of colours that I and a couple of other painters know, we call them Neptunian…’
Dr Franklyn: Are they from a particular part of the spectrum? Can you point to any around us?
Me: No – there are none around us, I can tell you that without looking. From the time when you did all that painting on the island - you know about simultaneous contrast don’t you? – or you found out by empirical methods - that a colour changes it’s value depending on the colour next to it, or the colour surrounding it etc. Well - a Neptunian colour becomes such; not only because of that effect – which can be purposefully encouraged to an end, or built at a subconscious level; but can be mixed to act as such with other colours of it’s ilk… often by scumbling one colour over another.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Okaay… I think I followed you there - and a scumble is a layer of paint who’s basic nature is to be opaque but which is rendered semi opaque by the action of it’s application ? a scumble …’
Is Magnolia forever Magnolia? or, does it miraculously and expensively transform into a Honey Silk somewhere in the higher echelons of interior design, – but what I was really interested in are the colours that aren’t noticed, or haven’t been sold, the shy colours – the colours with no names…’
Me: Welllll…There are a whole batch of colours that I and a couple of other painters know, we call them Neptunian…’
Dr Franklyn: Are they from a particular part of the spectrum? Can you point to any around us?
Me: No – there are none around us, I can tell you that without looking. From the time when you did all that painting on the island - you know about simultaneous contrast don’t you? – or you found out by empirical methods - that a colour changes it’s value depending on the colour next to it, or the colour surrounding it etc. Well - a Neptunian colour becomes such; not only because of that effect – which can be purposefully encouraged to an end, or built at a subconscious level; but can be mixed to act as such with other colours of it’s ilk… often by scumbling one colour over another.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Okaay… I think I followed you there - and a scumble is a layer of paint who’s basic nature is to be opaque but which is rendered semi opaque by the action of it’s application ? a scumble …’
The Colour With No Name 4 of 7
Me: Laughing…’ I couldn’t have put it better Doc – yes – and the important thing in a scumble, is that the under painting shows and contributes. Generally all kinds of harmonic colours can appear, unless your scumbling something like a white over blue of course… Phew … you’ve got me having to remember stuff now – when I paint or draw I forget as much as possible, it’s in me now and I don’t want it in the way – I simply reach for things naturally when I need them – I still mess up though. That’s why you can teach people to paint, how to render stuff that will wow their friends – and very satisfying it is too – we all need time at that - but how they internalise it all, and find form for it within themselves is really up to them – even if your just having leisure fun – you want to own something of the skills – it’s a human thing – to be proud of hard won skills.
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Yes, that’s the way of things - I spent a few years when I had a practise in Barcelona, I was copying and doing my own versions of the Masereel black and whites – I couldn’t get enough, photocopiers had just become the norm and I spent hours reducing and enlarging seeing how far go, and drawing on the paper first sometimes and then photocopying over the top – good fun a new toy.’
Me: Laughing ‘Yes good old photocopy art - all the rage at one time. Masereel would have had a state of the art machine I think – but he didn’t need one, he is one of the truly greats Doc - I spent a long time with his work too, but let me finish this scumble thing for now...
The optical effect of a glaze is generally to retain or enhance clarity,the optical effect of scumbling,putting on thin layers of opaque paint; is to loose clarity,and to often give atmosphere or texture. Sometimes it can be akin to a dry brush technique.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Yes, I thought so – all the great descriptive painters were great scumblers – Rembrandt, Franz Hals…you could go on forever… Question! - how do you paint flimsy material over flesh ?
Together: ‘ You scumble it…!’ Laughing.
Dr Franklyn: But you don’t use it like that do you?’
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Yes, that’s the way of things - I spent a few years when I had a practise in Barcelona, I was copying and doing my own versions of the Masereel black and whites – I couldn’t get enough, photocopiers had just become the norm and I spent hours reducing and enlarging seeing how far go, and drawing on the paper first sometimes and then photocopying over the top – good fun a new toy.’
Me: Laughing ‘Yes good old photocopy art - all the rage at one time. Masereel would have had a state of the art machine I think – but he didn’t need one, he is one of the truly greats Doc - I spent a long time with his work too, but let me finish this scumble thing for now...
The optical effect of a glaze is generally to retain or enhance clarity,the optical effect of scumbling,putting on thin layers of opaque paint; is to loose clarity,and to often give atmosphere or texture. Sometimes it can be akin to a dry brush technique.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Yes, I thought so – all the great descriptive painters were great scumblers – Rembrandt, Franz Hals…you could go on forever… Question! - how do you paint flimsy material over flesh ?
Together: ‘ You scumble it…!’ Laughing.
Dr Franklyn: But you don’t use it like that do you?’
The Colour With No Name 5 of 7
Me: ‘ No, that’s right, all I want is the colour, but the real thing that makes a Neptunian colour Neptunian, is that they carry their own atmospheres with them – individually they are the colours without a name if you like … and very different from that other useful descriptive phrase ‘Autumn colours.’
I’ll show you some Neptunes in a couple of paintings when you come to the studio next … You'd spot them now anyway. I ought to spend time doing a whole series using just those colours sometime – but they can be a bit scary .’
Laughs.
I went up to the counter to get two more teas.
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Thank you – Ok, let me try a verbal description of one of those colours see if I can get close … A deep and dark Crimson under painting, scumbled over with Yellow Ochre ?
Me: ‘Could be useful – I like it, try one from the greens.’
Dr Franklyn: A Chrome Green scumbled with Cobalt blue and Violet… laughing… it’s a new kind of word game isn’t it – like wine tasting. A full bodied red with a smoky aftertaste and a hint of liquorice.’
Me: It’s a game I played a lot as a student – still do – I look at a colour I see on a bus or somewhere like here and think – now how would I mix that? You start with the most obvious mixes, but if you know your hots and colds – and hot and cold colours tend to cancel each other in a mix, but things can get very interesting if you experiment - anyway - you can come up with some surprisingly odd and viable solutions…’
I’ll show you some Neptunes in a couple of paintings when you come to the studio next … You'd spot them now anyway. I ought to spend time doing a whole series using just those colours sometime – but they can be a bit scary .’
Laughs.
I went up to the counter to get two more teas.
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Thank you – Ok, let me try a verbal description of one of those colours see if I can get close … A deep and dark Crimson under painting, scumbled over with Yellow Ochre ?
Me: ‘Could be useful – I like it, try one from the greens.’
Dr Franklyn: A Chrome Green scumbled with Cobalt blue and Violet… laughing… it’s a new kind of word game isn’t it – like wine tasting. A full bodied red with a smoky aftertaste and a hint of liquorice.’
Me: It’s a game I played a lot as a student – still do – I look at a colour I see on a bus or somewhere like here and think – now how would I mix that? You start with the most obvious mixes, but if you know your hots and colds – and hot and cold colours tend to cancel each other in a mix, but things can get very interesting if you experiment - anyway - you can come up with some surprisingly odd and viable solutions…’
The Colour With No Name 6 of 7
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Yes, I think I know what you mean, I had a great love of chromatic blacks at one time when I was painting a lot – allied to the normal toning down of a primary with it’s opposite, like cooling off a red with a green. Loading a black with a lot of Cobolt or Ultramarine can make a stunning blue black or you can warm it up to a zingy violet black, it’s marvellous, but put in the wrong place it just looks like a plain old black or falls flat.
Me: ‘Yes, we’re really getting into the Harmonic areas now – you know how a Blue can sing against an Orange or Red, or vice versa as in primary contrasts ? - and produces involuntary afterimages and flickerings in the eye – well imagine if you could do that with Chromatic Blacks or Chromatic Whites.’
Dr Franklyn: ’That’s amazing – can you do it?’
Me: ‘The answer is yes – but here’s a funny thing Doc – It’s an old saw, but it goes back to what I was saying about simultaneous contrast and what you were just saying about putting chromatic black in the wrong place - context is everything and intention and unintention sits within it.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Most excellent, so in those cases when you’re painting - you must create the context itself for the thing to happen within it – as it were? – and If I could extrapolate further. You imply, that often you are not making a painting, or a picture as such – but providing the context for the unknown thing.?
Me: ‘ That’s pretty much correct Doc, and apart from the technical aspects,
the provision of context in a painting is for me, the state of the contract between minds. Ones own and the lookers - the painting and the audience …
Me: ‘Yes, we’re really getting into the Harmonic areas now – you know how a Blue can sing against an Orange or Red, or vice versa as in primary contrasts ? - and produces involuntary afterimages and flickerings in the eye – well imagine if you could do that with Chromatic Blacks or Chromatic Whites.’
Dr Franklyn: ’That’s amazing – can you do it?’
Me: ‘The answer is yes – but here’s a funny thing Doc – It’s an old saw, but it goes back to what I was saying about simultaneous contrast and what you were just saying about putting chromatic black in the wrong place - context is everything and intention and unintention sits within it.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Most excellent, so in those cases when you’re painting - you must create the context itself for the thing to happen within it – as it were? – and If I could extrapolate further. You imply, that often you are not making a painting, or a picture as such – but providing the context for the unknown thing.?
Me: ‘ That’s pretty much correct Doc, and apart from the technical aspects,
the provision of context in a painting is for me, the state of the contract between minds. Ones own and the lookers - the painting and the audience …
The Colour With No Name 7 of 7
Dr Franklyn: ‘Go on … this is interesting’
Me: ‘ Welllll … for me, it’s the work to be done - and where the fissures and frissons of meaning might reside. For me that is the art – the providing of a context. It’s difficult, and many won’t get it – why should they – nevertheless, you do it as well as you can – you let all the bits and pieces of your armory have their moment or not, as they want, as you direct - then you let it be. Often things don’t work – but others like them – that’s why you have to let it bide – because we all have a common journey – and sometimes you can’t see it yourself – you have to let others have the time to say – ‘I see this’ without explanations all the time –without ones self interest.
I am not after all, painting The Golden Pond – or whatever it is, as a descriptive thing – I am painting something else; it’s neither better or worse – it’s just what I do. They look like ‘paintings’ of course because that’s the form - I’ve never been big on trying to make the ‘art object’ as such Doc, it’s people that count – but that is the place I am caught up in - the whole malfangled art market place thing,Which was ever so of course – and having picked up the ball I’m run with it, all over the field, beyond, and as far as I jolly well.’
Authors note: Listen to the 49machines song ‘ I Am Only Working On This Hill’at www.myspace.com/49machines cut and paste to another browser window.
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Very very good – I’m glad I watched Clint Eastwood the other night.
We aught to talk more about Harmonics and perhaps Masereel next time – I’ll get us another tea… or something stronger, I think you need it now.’
Me: ‘ Welllll … for me, it’s the work to be done - and where the fissures and frissons of meaning might reside. For me that is the art – the providing of a context. It’s difficult, and many won’t get it – why should they – nevertheless, you do it as well as you can – you let all the bits and pieces of your armory have their moment or not, as they want, as you direct - then you let it be. Often things don’t work – but others like them – that’s why you have to let it bide – because we all have a common journey – and sometimes you can’t see it yourself – you have to let others have the time to say – ‘I see this’ without explanations all the time –without ones self interest.
I am not after all, painting The Golden Pond – or whatever it is, as a descriptive thing – I am painting something else; it’s neither better or worse – it’s just what I do. They look like ‘paintings’ of course because that’s the form - I’ve never been big on trying to make the ‘art object’ as such Doc, it’s people that count – but that is the place I am caught up in - the whole malfangled art market place thing,Which was ever so of course – and having picked up the ball I’m run with it, all over the field, beyond, and as far as I jolly well.’
Authors note: Listen to the 49machines song ‘ I Am Only Working On This Hill’at www.myspace.com/49machines cut and paste to another browser window.
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Very very good – I’m glad I watched Clint Eastwood the other night.
We aught to talk more about Harmonics and perhaps Masereel next time – I’ll get us another tea… or something stronger, I think you need it now.’
Thursday, 4 October 2007
PRUNING TREES 1 of 6
We had arranged to meet in Roath Park Hothouse as early as possible. I had been painting, trying out some new watercolours for an hour when the Doc turned up.
He produced a large flask and a Dundee cake. The Doc knew his business, when painting with a couple of friends up on the Black Mountains week in week out, that was our staple fare, flasks of coffee and tea and a mountain of homemade fruit cake, keeps the cold out and perfect comfort food – we set too.
Dr Franklyn: ‘ I’ve been mulling over things about Hirst’s platinum and diamond skull reliquary.’ he looked at me sideways.
I laughed shaking my head. ‘ I know what you’re doing Doc…mmm this cake is good.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘Well - criticism would be a waste of time, he’s an Artist, it’s his right to make anything that he wants, as you well know - but to try some meta-think context might be worthwhile - seeing as the biggest thing about that skull is that it’s way off most scales of Art and Craft as generally understood - or of Jewellers and Goldsmiths for that matter - so how come such a hyper object?.
He produced a large flask and a Dundee cake. The Doc knew his business, when painting with a couple of friends up on the Black Mountains week in week out, that was our staple fare, flasks of coffee and tea and a mountain of homemade fruit cake, keeps the cold out and perfect comfort food – we set too.
Dr Franklyn: ‘ I’ve been mulling over things about Hirst’s platinum and diamond skull reliquary.’ he looked at me sideways.
I laughed shaking my head. ‘ I know what you’re doing Doc…mmm this cake is good.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘Well - criticism would be a waste of time, he’s an Artist, it’s his right to make anything that he wants, as you well know - but to try some meta-think context might be worthwhile - seeing as the biggest thing about that skull is that it’s way off most scales of Art and Craft as generally understood - or of Jewellers and Goldsmiths for that matter - so how come such a hyper object?.
PRUNING TREES 2
Me: ‘ So… Reliquary eh, definitely a meta game then…but you know very well that his skull isn’t for keeping holy relics in, or like one of those errr, Monstrance objects with a glass centre where the Host wafers are kept.’
It was his turn to Laugh.
Dr Franklyn: Yes… and you just reminded me about the whole idea of Sleeping Beauty in her Glass Coffin - it’s all part of the same meta thing – a matter of wheedling out what the game actually is, not what I want it to be, and on the contrary, I think the skull is very much a reliquary, a repository and embodiment of all Hirst’s Quixotic and religious fancies – it could also be an answer to his alchemical yearnings. He doesn’t have to saw and pickle flesh and bone this time to try and transubstantiate death into Art – he’s done it enough – it’s lost it’s shock and awe - well, for those who had it anyway. This time that skull becomes transubstantiated, transmuted, cleanly into a precious metal, platinum by fire – keeping the teeth and making them much much more splendid than they ever could have been in that persons lifetime was a crucial, maybe a flippant decision, but it has good Dada value.’
I laugh again at this collision of ideas. ‘ Go on Doc, you’re on a roll here.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘..and the sheep, sharks and cows in glass boxes? now there’s a perfect parallel of your Monstrance, a Sleeping Beauty, all imbued with the same tangled morbid fears and philosophies of the miracle performed, the miracle dared, the miracle to be enacted again at some ‘perfect’ time, all are pokes and fist shakes at the ‘God’idea -the promisaries of everlasting life, of the Kingdom come covenant – Hirst loves it and hates it - he can't help himself.’
It was his turn to Laugh.
Dr Franklyn: Yes… and you just reminded me about the whole idea of Sleeping Beauty in her Glass Coffin - it’s all part of the same meta thing – a matter of wheedling out what the game actually is, not what I want it to be, and on the contrary, I think the skull is very much a reliquary, a repository and embodiment of all Hirst’s Quixotic and religious fancies – it could also be an answer to his alchemical yearnings. He doesn’t have to saw and pickle flesh and bone this time to try and transubstantiate death into Art – he’s done it enough – it’s lost it’s shock and awe - well, for those who had it anyway. This time that skull becomes transubstantiated, transmuted, cleanly into a precious metal, platinum by fire – keeping the teeth and making them much much more splendid than they ever could have been in that persons lifetime was a crucial, maybe a flippant decision, but it has good Dada value.’
I laugh again at this collision of ideas. ‘ Go on Doc, you’re on a roll here.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘..and the sheep, sharks and cows in glass boxes? now there’s a perfect parallel of your Monstrance, a Sleeping Beauty, all imbued with the same tangled morbid fears and philosophies of the miracle performed, the miracle dared, the miracle to be enacted again at some ‘perfect’ time, all are pokes and fist shakes at the ‘God’idea -the promisaries of everlasting life, of the Kingdom come covenant – Hirst loves it and hates it - he can't help himself.’
PRUNING TREES 3
Me: ‘I’m following you – and I see that it wouldn’t be a valid reading if Hirst wasn’t already bound up in all this stuff by his past and various statements about an obsession with death. He’s recently said that he’s stopped worrying about what Art is – but that’s an answer of course to all those screaming Artsters who must get on his nerves. Hey Doc, at his prices they can get on my nerves all they like – but seriously, when you look at the work and its climate, it’s plain to see why he must take up that position sooner or later. The truth of it for me is that Art wearies and wilts under his - ham fisted and po-faced works. The point being, that he himself isn’t po-faced at all, he goes out of his way not to be, he plays the uncaring Jester to the hilt like some rocking art barbarian who thinks he has the ‘common touch’.
It was the Docs turn to laugh now.
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Very good, and yes I think he’s ham fisted too if I must express a personal opinion directly – but I do believe that luckily for him, and plenty of others in on the big art grab of this century; that there is hardly any critical opinion from a Modernist viewpoint, and probably any other viewpoint, that can survive in that Torricellian gap fashionably inhabited by Post Modernist ideas. Who can?...even Brian Sewell can’t penetrate it!!!... and that’s some jazz!.’ Laughing.
Me: ‘Who can indeed; Time will out, as they say, but it’s also symptomatic of these times - who could be bothered and to what purpose? I would very much like to hear Prof George Steiner’s take on it, I've read ‘Real Presences’ a few times and it’s still completely absorbing – or the philosopher Paul Virilio – Peter Fuller would have been good, but sadly he was killed in a traffic accident, blimey there are lots of takes I’d like to hear….’ Laughing ‘ but yours is pretty good Doc…‘
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Thank you - Yes, I remember that happening – Fuller was a sad loss to art criticism, but for the job in hand I can’t help feeling that ,for all his academic jousting, he was just-too nice.’
It was the Docs turn to laugh now.
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Very good, and yes I think he’s ham fisted too if I must express a personal opinion directly – but I do believe that luckily for him, and plenty of others in on the big art grab of this century; that there is hardly any critical opinion from a Modernist viewpoint, and probably any other viewpoint, that can survive in that Torricellian gap fashionably inhabited by Post Modernist ideas. Who can?...even Brian Sewell can’t penetrate it!!!... and that’s some jazz!.’ Laughing.
Me: ‘Who can indeed; Time will out, as they say, but it’s also symptomatic of these times - who could be bothered and to what purpose? I would very much like to hear Prof George Steiner’s take on it, I've read ‘Real Presences’ a few times and it’s still completely absorbing – or the philosopher Paul Virilio – Peter Fuller would have been good, but sadly he was killed in a traffic accident, blimey there are lots of takes I’d like to hear….’ Laughing ‘ but yours is pretty good Doc…‘
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Thank you - Yes, I remember that happening – Fuller was a sad loss to art criticism, but for the job in hand I can’t help feeling that ,for all his academic jousting, he was just-too nice.’
PRUNING TREES 4
Me: ‘ Yes, I know what you mean Doc – I also get the feeling looking at photographs of the skull – or just thinking of it as an idea, that it’s a sort of terribly old fashioned idea – a studenty kind of thing, borrowed from the Aztecs, or the Mayan - or the Tibetans for that matter – not forgetting the ‘killing fields’ of skulls in the Cambodian Pol Pot regime of the 70’s - I’m sure it’s been done in reality and in art plenty of times – talking of old fashioned,do you remember Chapter Arts Centre recently gave over the gallery to an Artist who decided to show nothing, and that the gallery should simply be a white meeting place for ‘chats’… what can you doooo with these people? … no sense or idea of history at all…’
Dr Franklyn: Laughing ‘Oh yes, I remember that nonsense- and the C.V.A. debacle as well . Y’know; it’s a funny thing about Hirst’s statement about not caring what Art is. Who does? such an idea!- it’s never ever bothered Joe Public in the slightest, your ordinary person couldn’t give two hoots about what art is – come to that, most people wouldn’t give tuppence to hang ‘art’ on their walls - and the idea of going to a gallery for a chance ‘chat’is nonsense - and Wilde’s little Dictum, ‘Of course all art is perfectly useless’ fits Hirst like a glove, here’s a dictum of my own to fit his situation, and was the endplace of my original mulling - Rich Boys play with Rich Toys, and don’t forget, he famously said of his spot paintings, 'They're bright and they're zany, but there's f*** all there at the end of the day.’ he should have the self discovery of your friend who realised he had nothing to say – and get out of the kitchen.'
Me: Laughing ‘Hmm, lets not get on to the CVA – I’ll be steaming – but yes, that’s exactly it Doc. Rich boys do indeed play with rich toys. Platinum, Diamonds, Ivory, all stickily stuck together like some crazy over-indulgent Blue Peter thing, like Peter Carl Fabergé making his mad Easter eggs for the Tsars…talk about religious reliquaries, blimey! And of course the skull has that very shifty title ‘For the Love Of God’ I think it’s more a case of I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water …’
Dr Franklyn: Laughing ‘Oh yes, I remember that nonsense- and the C.V.A. debacle as well . Y’know; it’s a funny thing about Hirst’s statement about not caring what Art is. Who does? such an idea!- it’s never ever bothered Joe Public in the slightest, your ordinary person couldn’t give two hoots about what art is – come to that, most people wouldn’t give tuppence to hang ‘art’ on their walls - and the idea of going to a gallery for a chance ‘chat’is nonsense - and Wilde’s little Dictum, ‘Of course all art is perfectly useless’ fits Hirst like a glove, here’s a dictum of my own to fit his situation, and was the endplace of my original mulling - Rich Boys play with Rich Toys, and don’t forget, he famously said of his spot paintings, 'They're bright and they're zany, but there's f*** all there at the end of the day.’ he should have the self discovery of your friend who realised he had nothing to say – and get out of the kitchen.'
Me: Laughing ‘Hmm, lets not get on to the CVA – I’ll be steaming – but yes, that’s exactly it Doc. Rich boys do indeed play with rich toys. Platinum, Diamonds, Ivory, all stickily stuck together like some crazy over-indulgent Blue Peter thing, like Peter Carl Fabergé making his mad Easter eggs for the Tsars…talk about religious reliquaries, blimey! And of course the skull has that very shifty title ‘For the Love Of God’ I think it’s more a case of I Washed My Hands in Muddy Water …’
PRUNING TREES 5
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Wooo, you’ve got it – the title is typical of a new barbarian who is still a little nervous!!! But wants it all his own way. Oh yes, there are always obscenely overwrought things to be made for the new Tsars, for their companies and companions, and the point is this; except for those who buy ‘masterworks’ to put into bank vaults, Hirst’s skull object is a homage to Them, it speaks of no ones wealth, of no ones mind of purpose, of no other ideas but Theirs, and crucially for a rich boys toy, its worth must be held within its materials, then it’s completely their game, not yours or mine, or Art’s - in the end the diamond and precious metals market are the only arbiters of its value.’
Me: ‘Wow - I’m reminded of Michael Jackson in that documentary a few years ago on a shopping trip for obje’d’art in some Las Vegas mall… why should anyone care, it’s all voyeurism – and as someone else said in a review - if Hirst's work is supposed to mirror society that is not its strength but its weakness, so If it’s satire, give me political cartoonists any day.
Dr Franklyn ‘ Yes, me too – interestingly there’s an answering satire by The Polish artist Peter Fuss called ‘For the Laugh of God’ his look alike skull encrusted with fake diamonds is a mild £1000 and prints at a £1 or so, I think I’ll get a couple actually – Hirst’s prints meanwhile, range from £900 to £10,000 depending on size and edition….no contest – it’s interesting that if ideas are transferable – invested meaning must be too.’
Me: ‘Wow - I’m reminded of Michael Jackson in that documentary a few years ago on a shopping trip for obje’d’art in some Las Vegas mall… why should anyone care, it’s all voyeurism – and as someone else said in a review - if Hirst's work is supposed to mirror society that is not its strength but its weakness, so If it’s satire, give me political cartoonists any day.
Dr Franklyn ‘ Yes, me too – interestingly there’s an answering satire by The Polish artist Peter Fuss called ‘For the Laugh of God’ his look alike skull encrusted with fake diamonds is a mild £1000 and prints at a £1 or so, I think I’ll get a couple actually – Hirst’s prints meanwhile, range from £900 to £10,000 depending on size and edition….no contest – it’s interesting that if ideas are transferable – invested meaning must be too.’
PRUNING TREES 6 Last
Me: ‘ Doc that’s a very interesting idea – look its 12 o clock, shall we meet up next Friday, I’ve got to get over to Flat Holm to do some drawing, a friend is taking me and his boat leaves in an hour.’
Dr Franklyn; ‘ Ok, good luck,I'm going up to the Lake, let’s meet for breakfast upstairs in the Old Market if you can make it - ring me – and as a parting shot as it were - Hirst made a dreadful mistake when he said of the skull, that he hoped
“...anybody looking at it would get some hope and be uplifted...” But, lest we forget, or get too sanctimonious, think of the last lines of Po Chu i’s famous ‘Pruning Trees’ – a long-time favourite of mine.
'... and my eyes, and my mind, went far away. Of Things; There are none, that do not bide both good and ill. Of Men; There are none, who do not have some preferences.’
bonchance.'
Dr Franklyn; ‘ Ok, good luck,I'm going up to the Lake, let’s meet for breakfast upstairs in the Old Market if you can make it - ring me – and as a parting shot as it were - Hirst made a dreadful mistake when he said of the skull, that he hoped
“...anybody looking at it would get some hope and be uplifted...” But, lest we forget, or get too sanctimonious, think of the last lines of Po Chu i’s famous ‘Pruning Trees’ – a long-time favourite of mine.
'... and my eyes, and my mind, went far away. Of Things; There are none, that do not bide both good and ill. Of Men; There are none, who do not have some preferences.’
bonchance.'
Thursday, 27 September 2007
Kurt Schwitters calls Time. part 0
On my way home from the studio I’d arranged to meet the Doc for an hour upstairs in the Three Quarks, it was warm and quiet. We got stuck in straightaway, as is our wont and with musical asides thrown in for good measure.
Dr Franklyn: ‘...What you were saying yesterday …I think that particular function is an unknown...but ...’ Pouring tea.
‘....The eye after all only has intelligence because of the brain…’ he laughs. ‘A bit prosaic and oddly put I know laddy – but people don’t get it at all in relation to the arts…there is a symbiosis of information of sorts I believe regarding the wider neural system – but what makes sense of it all?, it’s not just the brain as an abstract thing – but the very personal self, as held there. Everything about that particular person…projected and protected by that august organ…you can only learn what you want to know as they say and a typed card in a museum ‘explaining’ is only someone else’s imagination at work – and I’m not talking about history either…’
Me: ‘No I know – I’m as interested to know the real name of Rembrandts’ Night Watch as anyone else – or something of Vermeer’s techniques. It’s a different thing to the infantalisation of culture…it’s not the artists job to explain, to anyone: – often we are suckered into it – you deny the right of peoples imagination by doing so…I can only make things as clear as possible - in the work itself - the scope of my intention, the err…wider reverberation of ideas – as it were - held there. It's not Science.
Dr Franklyn: ‘...What you were saying yesterday …I think that particular function is an unknown...but ...’ Pouring tea.
‘....The eye after all only has intelligence because of the brain…’ he laughs. ‘A bit prosaic and oddly put I know laddy – but people don’t get it at all in relation to the arts…there is a symbiosis of information of sorts I believe regarding the wider neural system – but what makes sense of it all?, it’s not just the brain as an abstract thing – but the very personal self, as held there. Everything about that particular person…projected and protected by that august organ…you can only learn what you want to know as they say and a typed card in a museum ‘explaining’ is only someone else’s imagination at work – and I’m not talking about history either…’
Me: ‘No I know – I’m as interested to know the real name of Rembrandts’ Night Watch as anyone else – or something of Vermeer’s techniques. It’s a different thing to the infantalisation of culture…it’s not the artists job to explain, to anyone: – often we are suckered into it – you deny the right of peoples imagination by doing so…I can only make things as clear as possible - in the work itself - the scope of my intention, the err…wider reverberation of ideas – as it were - held there. It's not Science.
Kurt Schwitters calls Time. part 1
After all I have no idea who can and who can’t pick up on this or that, who reads what, who will or wont say 'yes' to the adventure, so... I have to hold my ground solidly, do the work as completely as I can, and I've done my job…all this goes for the musician too I think relating to the ear, like Bebop; deemed unlistenable at first, look what’s happened since – Fusion, Free Jazz, World Jazz, Arts Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra, etc, etc, and look at it now! jazz tried like hell, but bebop and a helping of funk are still the main fodder of Jazz – blues has always been in there of course. Having said that though Doc, and I like all the wild stuff a lot - Louis Armstrong in his prime is still hard to beat…’
Doc Franklyn: Yes, that’s true, long recognised too by musicians, Armstrong was as musically wild, as avant garde as anyone in his day…before he became an ambassador and all that sort of thing - and there’s still plenty to learn from him, perhaps this long splintering is the long slow birth of something new again? I hope so.’
Me: Laughing – ‘As long as it swings Doc.’
Doc Franklyn: ‘Amen … but the point was that it takes the eye and the ear time to assimilate new things – meaning of course – the Brain - which will at first reject the seemingly ungainly thing, the thing that at first lacks those common visual or aural harmonies, or has a different kind of symmetry. People will say ‘it’s ugly, it has no beauty’
Doc Franklyn: Yes, that’s true, long recognised too by musicians, Armstrong was as musically wild, as avant garde as anyone in his day…before he became an ambassador and all that sort of thing - and there’s still plenty to learn from him, perhaps this long splintering is the long slow birth of something new again? I hope so.’
Me: Laughing – ‘As long as it swings Doc.’
Doc Franklyn: ‘Amen … but the point was that it takes the eye and the ear time to assimilate new things – meaning of course – the Brain - which will at first reject the seemingly ungainly thing, the thing that at first lacks those common visual or aural harmonies, or has a different kind of symmetry. People will say ‘it’s ugly, it has no beauty’
Kurt Schwitters calls Time. part 2
Me: ‘Yes and who makes those ungainly things ?... the Artist.
In the case of Bebop of course they didn’t do primitive as one of the routes into the ‘ungainly’…like Picasso did for instance… even though the music was mocked as primitive, it was highly precise, clever and often very fast, to confuse white imitators of course, but the music could go there anyway, it needed to - to become a true Black American artform - not an adendum to something else.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘Correct, there aren’t many areas of society where it is useful or even wise to do that, to make the seemingly unfathomable thing.' Laughs ' But governments seem to manage it regularly !..couldn't help that one. The ungainly, as you intimate, is the thing outside the norm, society is about the norm. It requires a lot of investment of self, time and energy – it requires a vision – beyond the continuous cosmetic workover of things.
Look at it this way; many people all over the world have a guitar, or one of those electronic keyboard thing at home, or whatever musical instruments are in their culture – and so on. They all enjoy a musical dabble in all sorts of ways and styles, they love it ..so it is with painters and artists of all sorts. All the arts are a natural expression of human form and feeling – it’s a birthright – like dancing and singing – all people are creative – innately - but not all - are Artists - the creative that most people know and understand is within the happy ‘Norm’. Would you castigate me when I have a dabble on my piano for not being a Mozart?’
In the case of Bebop of course they didn’t do primitive as one of the routes into the ‘ungainly’…like Picasso did for instance… even though the music was mocked as primitive, it was highly precise, clever and often very fast, to confuse white imitators of course, but the music could go there anyway, it needed to - to become a true Black American artform - not an adendum to something else.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘Correct, there aren’t many areas of society where it is useful or even wise to do that, to make the seemingly unfathomable thing.' Laughs ' But governments seem to manage it regularly !..couldn't help that one. The ungainly, as you intimate, is the thing outside the norm, society is about the norm. It requires a lot of investment of self, time and energy – it requires a vision – beyond the continuous cosmetic workover of things.
Look at it this way; many people all over the world have a guitar, or one of those electronic keyboard thing at home, or whatever musical instruments are in their culture – and so on. They all enjoy a musical dabble in all sorts of ways and styles, they love it ..so it is with painters and artists of all sorts. All the arts are a natural expression of human form and feeling – it’s a birthright – like dancing and singing – all people are creative – innately - but not all - are Artists - the creative that most people know and understand is within the happy ‘Norm’. Would you castigate me when I have a dabble on my piano for not being a Mozart?’
Kurt Schwitters calls Time. part 3
Me: Laughing ‘And I’m no Coltrane either...but back to the other thing ….you’ve got me going on it now – and this story illustrates it perfectly....ready?....
Jake, the son of a friend, a very talented lad went to art school…great things were expected of him. He did his four years at Art College and went out into the world.
A year or two later, after he’d been working at all sorts of jobs, we met up and had a few drinks, talked about everything, including the arts in general and I asked him did paint anymore, or do any kind of ‘Art’ stuff?.
He said – no, he’d given it all up because he discovered he didn’t really have anything to say. Now I’d say that was a fantastic bit of self discovery – don’t you Doc? and I told him so, adding that I hoped he’d have a great life...’ Laughs.
Doc Franklyn: ‘No doubt about it, and very wise of him, the examined life and all that….What happened to him?’
Me: I haven’t seen him for about fifteen years, but - he moved to Amsterdam - was living with a great girl and they started designing and making simple costume jewellery.
Stuff that cost pence to make up with a pair of pliers, some wire and coloured glass beads. Within a year they were selling on the internet, and making contacts, they invested in some fancy wire bending jigs and machines and before they knew it they were selling in bulk to costume jewellery outlets… made a fortune… still are I guess.
Jake, the son of a friend, a very talented lad went to art school…great things were expected of him. He did his four years at Art College and went out into the world.
A year or two later, after he’d been working at all sorts of jobs, we met up and had a few drinks, talked about everything, including the arts in general and I asked him did paint anymore, or do any kind of ‘Art’ stuff?.
He said – no, he’d given it all up because he discovered he didn’t really have anything to say. Now I’d say that was a fantastic bit of self discovery – don’t you Doc? and I told him so, adding that I hoped he’d have a great life...’ Laughs.
Doc Franklyn: ‘No doubt about it, and very wise of him, the examined life and all that….What happened to him?’
Me: I haven’t seen him for about fifteen years, but - he moved to Amsterdam - was living with a great girl and they started designing and making simple costume jewellery.
Stuff that cost pence to make up with a pair of pliers, some wire and coloured glass beads. Within a year they were selling on the internet, and making contacts, they invested in some fancy wire bending jigs and machines and before they knew it they were selling in bulk to costume jewellery outlets… made a fortune… still are I guess.
Kurt Schwitters calls Time. part 4
Doc Franklyn: ‘ Excellent story .... so all in all, it wasn’t in him, as it were, to be the Artist, it didn't ring his bell - but he certainly had something to do, and we all need something to do; to be getting on with, to work for…for most it's the family, but often things are simply distractions from a complex of undefined unhappyness - did you know that one of the definitions of happiness is to be distracted by being absorbed in something?.
Me: ‘Yes, distraction to hide dissatisfaction is a different thing altogether, I understand your meaning as coming from Buddhist philosophy …about perceiving what you are paying attention to differently.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Yes indeed, that’s the kind of thing, but there are a few different sources of the idea, Plato for instance has it that the virtue of happiness is the by product of a life well-lived, and so on…’
Me: Looking at my watch ‘Doc, I’m sorry …short time today because if I don’t get home in thirty minutes, my life isn’t going to be well lived, Glo’ has arranged something…. Look, can we meet up in a few days, I wanted to talk about Damian Hirst’s latest Scull thing as well – and I know you did too – I’ll ring you.
Doc raised his hands – ‘No problem, time always runs away with us, and now that you mention the time… I aught to be getting over to the Europa – I said I’d read there tonight, I hope they’re ready for some full on Schwitters.
Me: ‘Yes, distraction to hide dissatisfaction is a different thing altogether, I understand your meaning as coming from Buddhist philosophy …about perceiving what you are paying attention to differently.’
Dr Franklyn: ‘ Yes indeed, that’s the kind of thing, but there are a few different sources of the idea, Plato for instance has it that the virtue of happiness is the by product of a life well-lived, and so on…’
Me: Looking at my watch ‘Doc, I’m sorry …short time today because if I don’t get home in thirty minutes, my life isn’t going to be well lived, Glo’ has arranged something…. Look, can we meet up in a few days, I wanted to talk about Damian Hirst’s latest Scull thing as well – and I know you did too – I’ll ring you.
Doc raised his hands – ‘No problem, time always runs away with us, and now that you mention the time… I aught to be getting over to the Europa – I said I’d read there tonight, I hope they’re ready for some full on Schwitters.
Saturday, 22 September 2007
Paul Klee's Frying Pan - Part 1
It was about 2 in the morning. I was half asleep in the studio, feet up on an old stool half regretting that I hadn't walked home earlier. The window was wide open and the sounds and smells from Caroline St drifted up along with a completely anonymous bass line pumping through the building from Tantra, the lap dancing club 3 floors down.
I was drifting in and out - I jumped as someone tapped the door - It was Dr Franklyn; a bottle of wine and a bag of pastries. He’d just walked up 5 floors, past the pulsating madness of Club Tantra and wasn’t even out of breath.
I just stood there trying to wake up - all he said was ...
'Saw your light on laddy.' and proceeded to clean two coffee stained cups while looking around. He poured, handed one to me and sat slowly in the swivel chair.
'Quiet night on the painting front?... have a Danish!'
I was sleepily grinning - 'Hmmmmm yes, sort of - I've come to a stop on that thing there.' Pointing to a canvas.
'And there's another five of 'em stacked over there - driving me crazy - been here since two this afternoon and not done a stroke.'
'Ahhhhh...' he said like a slow rattle, peering at the canvas, then again, but longer. and slower 'Ahhhhhhhhhh...' and topped his glass up. I hadn’t touched mine yet, I moved to the window to get a blast of night air and he talked over his shoulder while continuing to peer at the canvas.
‘This stuff belongs with those drawings there doesn't it?’
'Yep' slurp.
' Hmmmm, haven’t been up here for weeks. What do you call them?'
'We Enter As Animals.'
I was drifting in and out - I jumped as someone tapped the door - It was Dr Franklyn; a bottle of wine and a bag of pastries. He’d just walked up 5 floors, past the pulsating madness of Club Tantra and wasn’t even out of breath.
I just stood there trying to wake up - all he said was ...
'Saw your light on laddy.' and proceeded to clean two coffee stained cups while looking around. He poured, handed one to me and sat slowly in the swivel chair.
'Quiet night on the painting front?... have a Danish!'
I was sleepily grinning - 'Hmmmmm yes, sort of - I've come to a stop on that thing there.' Pointing to a canvas.
'And there's another five of 'em stacked over there - driving me crazy - been here since two this afternoon and not done a stroke.'
'Ahhhhh...' he said like a slow rattle, peering at the canvas, then again, but longer. and slower 'Ahhhhhhhhhh...' and topped his glass up. I hadn’t touched mine yet, I moved to the window to get a blast of night air and he talked over his shoulder while continuing to peer at the canvas.
‘This stuff belongs with those drawings there doesn't it?’
'Yep' slurp.
' Hmmmm, haven’t been up here for weeks. What do you call them?'
'We Enter As Animals.'
Paul Klee's Frying Pan - Part 2
'And very nice too...if I may say so...but you've drawn yourself out haven't you? and left nothing for the paint to explore...it's a swine when that happens. The drawings are good...a bit too over stated here and there perhaps...but I see from the title you've got something...errr... going on...as they say.'
I laughed - ' I'm going to have t'give 'em up aren't I – I think I’ll have that pastry now?'
He lifted his glass and swivelled around.
'That's about the long and the short of it, just...put them away for now and get stuck into the canvases with the same energy you put onto the paper - discover your idea again, otherwise you’ll loose it and your idea will disappear with the wind - you know it - because all you'll be doing is illustrating the drawings onto the canvas like the sweet precious nonsense we can see anywhere.' And he let out a low laugh.
'Yes - I figured that as well' I groaned.
'I was just prevaricating…you ok Doc? ...I heard the Gnossienne last night and got Hanumans note … thank you … I pinned it up on the wall behind you.’ I ate my Danish.
He closed his eyes. ‘ Yes I’m ok, thank you for asking.’
I laughed - ' I'm going to have t'give 'em up aren't I – I think I’ll have that pastry now?'
He lifted his glass and swivelled around.
'That's about the long and the short of it, just...put them away for now and get stuck into the canvases with the same energy you put onto the paper - discover your idea again, otherwise you’ll loose it and your idea will disappear with the wind - you know it - because all you'll be doing is illustrating the drawings onto the canvas like the sweet precious nonsense we can see anywhere.' And he let out a low laugh.
'Yes - I figured that as well' I groaned.
'I was just prevaricating…you ok Doc? ...I heard the Gnossienne last night and got Hanumans note … thank you … I pinned it up on the wall behind you.’ I ate my Danish.
He closed his eyes. ‘ Yes I’m ok, thank you for asking.’
Paul Klee's Frying Pan - Part 3
Then slowly as if he were talking to himself. . .
‘ It’s good to be sitting here in your studio, and all this work…all this good good stuff.’
Then he opened his eyes and looked at me. He smiled and nodded his head slowly a few times. He carefully placed his elbows on the hexagonal table where I keep my painting kit and lent forward wagging a bony finger as he spoke.
‘I ahhh - I ah had to make a call to Switzerland last night, it was aaaaaall a surprise – I received a letter from a solicitor there a couple of days ago and I have to pop over to Geneva this weekend.’
‘Bad news … or what?’ I asked.
He smiles and spread his hands – mea culpa.
‘ Who can say – it’s what you make it – maybe the bad news came 20 years ago - let me give you three names – all ladies – see what you make of them – eh!’
I lifted my glass and finished the wine, I look at him with his raised eyebrows, his bushy questioning eyebrows.
‘ Go ahead – I’m intrigued now.’ I say and he laughs.
‘ I love it here, ok here we go....’
His eyes twinkle as he counts them off .
‘One, Adele Hoffentaller, two Lydia Delectorskya, three Iseult Gonne.’ He lifts his hands in the air like a magician and looks expectantly at me – he expects that I would know two of the three – and I play along, he knows I will .... hey it’s 3am and there are only 2 glasses of wine left and some crumbs – and this is our relationship. I also hold my hands up – we look like two hostages.
‘ It’s good to be sitting here in your studio, and all this work…all this good good stuff.’
Then he opened his eyes and looked at me. He smiled and nodded his head slowly a few times. He carefully placed his elbows on the hexagonal table where I keep my painting kit and lent forward wagging a bony finger as he spoke.
‘I ahhh - I ah had to make a call to Switzerland last night, it was aaaaaall a surprise – I received a letter from a solicitor there a couple of days ago and I have to pop over to Geneva this weekend.’
‘Bad news … or what?’ I asked.
He smiles and spread his hands – mea culpa.
‘ Who can say – it’s what you make it – maybe the bad news came 20 years ago - let me give you three names – all ladies – see what you make of them – eh!’
I lifted my glass and finished the wine, I look at him with his raised eyebrows, his bushy questioning eyebrows.
‘ Go ahead – I’m intrigued now.’ I say and he laughs.
‘ I love it here, ok here we go....’
His eyes twinkle as he counts them off .
‘One, Adele Hoffentaller, two Lydia Delectorskya, three Iseult Gonne.’ He lifts his hands in the air like a magician and looks expectantly at me – he expects that I would know two of the three – and I play along, he knows I will .... hey it’s 3am and there are only 2 glasses of wine left and some crumbs – and this is our relationship. I also hold my hands up – we look like two hostages.
Paul Klee's Frying Pan - Part 4
‘ I know two.’ I say, and pointing at him I reel off what I remember.
‘Delectorskya – Russian emigre - raving beauty - one of maestro Matisse’s main helpers – I have a photograph of her…’
He claps as he laughs.
‘So do I – so do I – many in fact.’
I point again grinning. ‘ Iseult Gonne – daughter of Maude – strange half child of the Irish haze - both Yeat’s muses - an orchid in the London smog…’ I burst out laughing at this and so does Dr Franklyn - he knows what I mean.
‘ Excellent, most excellent boyo – and so she was - go on go on’
I’m still laughing. ‘ I can’t – but I have a photograph of Iseult too.’
He responds. ‘ Yes, so do I – but not many unfortunately – very very unfortunately, there is only one of her as a young woman in general existance, and that photograph can break your heart laddy - her young life was difficult y’know and she married in 1920, poor Iseult – and poor Francis Stuart too for that matter – so what about our third contender?’
‘Ok – ummm – but wait a minute - do you mean Francis Stuart the poet?’
‘Yes - the very same - the Third Reich lover himself.’
‘Ok…let's not talk about him - you have me on Adele Hoffentaller, she doesn’t ring a bell – Is this all about your Geneva trip?’
‘Delectorskya – Russian emigre - raving beauty - one of maestro Matisse’s main helpers – I have a photograph of her…’
He claps as he laughs.
‘So do I – so do I – many in fact.’
I point again grinning. ‘ Iseult Gonne – daughter of Maude – strange half child of the Irish haze - both Yeat’s muses - an orchid in the London smog…’ I burst out laughing at this and so does Dr Franklyn - he knows what I mean.
‘ Excellent, most excellent boyo – and so she was - go on go on’
I’m still laughing. ‘ I can’t – but I have a photograph of Iseult too.’
He responds. ‘ Yes, so do I – but not many unfortunately – very very unfortunately, there is only one of her as a young woman in general existance, and that photograph can break your heart laddy - her young life was difficult y’know and she married in 1920, poor Iseult – and poor Francis Stuart too for that matter – so what about our third contender?’
‘Ok – ummm – but wait a minute - do you mean Francis Stuart the poet?’
‘Yes - the very same - the Third Reich lover himself.’
‘Ok…let's not talk about him - you have me on Adele Hoffentaller, she doesn’t ring a bell – Is this all about your Geneva trip?’
Paul Klee's Frying Pan - Part 5
‘Yes it is – I knew you wouldn't have heard of her but I mention her in the same breath as the other two ladies because – and you will know what I mean when I say each of them was filled with light – a different kind of light, but light still: and after all my friend, light is the absence of darkness. I knew each of them intimately – I shall say no more of that, but it is true.’ He sighs and I look at him lost in thought.
His mood changes and he laughs again, he bangs my kit table and tubes of paint jump.
‘Adele was a German Jew, veeeery rich family who used to have big soiree’s in Geneva every summer with the Herman Hesse crowd – ahhhhhhhhhh rich bohemia, what a beauty you were. Adele was allowed to follow her gift for art, She was a student at the Bauhaus and became a great favourite of Paul Klee – in all senses.
The descriptions of him painting while holding the baby and watching the frying pan are all true by the way…’
He stops – suddenly aware that he has launched off on a tale.
I looked at my watch. ' t’s too late to stop now' I say - and I grin’
‘ Ok – so Klee finishes with Adele before Frau Klee finds out - and Adele, a woman scorned as it were, stole not only his frying pan, as a joke - but two small watercolours – and left town for rich Swiss bohemia.’
His eyebrows lifted high as he looked at me while saying this, but I said nothing, both of us knowing that those two watercolours would now be worth a small fortune if signed – but stolen? – hmmm – I didn’t want to interrupt his flow, but he just kept staring.
His mood changes and he laughs again, he bangs my kit table and tubes of paint jump.
‘Adele was a German Jew, veeeery rich family who used to have big soiree’s in Geneva every summer with the Herman Hesse crowd – ahhhhhhhhhh rich bohemia, what a beauty you were. Adele was allowed to follow her gift for art, She was a student at the Bauhaus and became a great favourite of Paul Klee – in all senses.
The descriptions of him painting while holding the baby and watching the frying pan are all true by the way…’
He stops – suddenly aware that he has launched off on a tale.
I looked at my watch. ' t’s too late to stop now' I say - and I grin’
‘ Ok – so Klee finishes with Adele before Frau Klee finds out - and Adele, a woman scorned as it were, stole not only his frying pan, as a joke - but two small watercolours – and left town for rich Swiss bohemia.’
His eyebrows lifted high as he looked at me while saying this, but I said nothing, both of us knowing that those two watercolours would now be worth a small fortune if signed – but stolen? – hmmm – I didn’t want to interrupt his flow, but he just kept staring.
Paul Klee's Frying Pan - Part 6
‘How do you know this’ I said, and he came out of his revere.
‘ Adele and I lived together for two magical years.’ He said.
‘ But - we had a bad falling out at one of those odd masked balls her titled crowd threw....hmmmmmmm...my fault looking back - you can, by jealousy block someones light - it's always a disaster.
It took two weeks for us to unravel, but we broke up – rather badly actually, then I was lost ,castaway for those 15 years – Jeez the whole world thought I was dead – she married some Russian Count I heard years later, It‘s only now my friend that the slow clockwork machinations of Swiss solicitors have found me ...’
I said quietly. ‘ So did she die recently Doc?’
‘ No no – gosh she died a good ten years ago I believe. According to the conversation I had on the phone - in halting high Swiss German and French last night – they’ve been holding a package for me all this time in one of their confounded little safes.’
It went quiet, we both laughed saying together, ‘Paul Klee’s frying pan!!’
‘ Adele and I lived together for two magical years.’ He said.
‘ But - we had a bad falling out at one of those odd masked balls her titled crowd threw....hmmmmmmm...my fault looking back - you can, by jealousy block someones light - it's always a disaster.
It took two weeks for us to unravel, but we broke up – rather badly actually, then I was lost ,castaway for those 15 years – Jeez the whole world thought I was dead – she married some Russian Count I heard years later, It‘s only now my friend that the slow clockwork machinations of Swiss solicitors have found me ...’
I said quietly. ‘ So did she die recently Doc?’
‘ No no – gosh she died a good ten years ago I believe. According to the conversation I had on the phone - in halting high Swiss German and French last night – they’ve been holding a package for me all this time in one of their confounded little safes.’
It went quiet, we both laughed saying together, ‘Paul Klee’s frying pan!!’
Paul Klee's Frying Pan - Part 7
He shook a finger at me. ‘You never know!..laddy.. You never know!
With Adele - anything was possible. I was playing the Satie last night for her - but it's a long time ago and I'm over the shock. Look at the fingers on my left hand.’
He held it up.
‘ I know they’re bony and old, but look at the last two fingers.’
Sure enough they were quite crooked, I hadn’t noticed before.
He smiled and said.
‘ During that stormy last fortnight of our relationship, and both of us spurred on by too much Calvados, Adele hit me a real belter with that frying pan, she used to hang it up like a painting - and it caught me hard as I put my hand up to ward it off – the fingers were broken and never set properly – so yes, I wouldn’t mind Paul Klee’s frying pan.....
It suddenly felt as late as it should be - we had drifted into bemused silence. I saw the Doc down the stairs, and took him to his door and we said our farewells.
As I walked home I passed a group of homeless people having a cider party by an ATM machine - it looked like some deformed golden calf.
As I rounded the museum I was trying to make the Docs dates fit – you never know with the Doc.
The city slept, and all the ATM machines had the homeless huddled by them. The other day I heard someone say - ' Sorrrrry, they don't give change.' and I was trying to figure if that was clever or stupid.
With Adele - anything was possible. I was playing the Satie last night for her - but it's a long time ago and I'm over the shock. Look at the fingers on my left hand.’
He held it up.
‘ I know they’re bony and old, but look at the last two fingers.’
Sure enough they were quite crooked, I hadn’t noticed before.
He smiled and said.
‘ During that stormy last fortnight of our relationship, and both of us spurred on by too much Calvados, Adele hit me a real belter with that frying pan, she used to hang it up like a painting - and it caught me hard as I put my hand up to ward it off – the fingers were broken and never set properly – so yes, I wouldn’t mind Paul Klee’s frying pan.....
It suddenly felt as late as it should be - we had drifted into bemused silence. I saw the Doc down the stairs, and took him to his door and we said our farewells.
As I walked home I passed a group of homeless people having a cider party by an ATM machine - it looked like some deformed golden calf.
As I rounded the museum I was trying to make the Docs dates fit – you never know with the Doc.
The city slept, and all the ATM machines had the homeless huddled by them. The other day I heard someone say - ' Sorrrrry, they don't give change.' and I was trying to figure if that was clever or stupid.
The Great Beyond
Me: Dr Franklyn’s place was closed this evening,
And he wasn't answering the phone, I know he's in
I can see the light on from my studio and when
I went over to Caroline St and put my ear to his door
I could hear strains of Eric Satie.
Gnossienne number 3 - you can't mistake that insistant
tah tah tah tah, ta ta ta - riff. Satie was one of the things
that brought us into contact. I was just turning to go
when Hanuman, a waiter from the Thai restaurant across
the street, pressed an envelope into my hand saying . . .
‘He’s feeling a little sad, it's an anniversary of
something, but he said to give you this.'
I opened it over a pint of Brains at the Wellington
and read . . .
There is no impossibility of gone.
I once thought otherwise - like you perhaps;
But we know now, as the sun rises,
and still, no word, no trace,
no word anywhere.
The day rises and it falls again,
no word, no trace, no wonder,
but I still laugh looking at Orion.
I turned to speak to a shadow,
and i just can’t get out from under.
All are good intensions.
There is no impossibility of numbers,
we think we can compute them all.
If numbers never end, reality never ends,
sad alas for this universe,
and all the beings from the great beyond.
Me: hmmmm, I hope the old goat is ok
And he wasn't answering the phone, I know he's in
I can see the light on from my studio and when
I went over to Caroline St and put my ear to his door
I could hear strains of Eric Satie.
Gnossienne number 3 - you can't mistake that insistant
tah tah tah tah, ta ta ta - riff. Satie was one of the things
that brought us into contact. I was just turning to go
when Hanuman, a waiter from the Thai restaurant across
the street, pressed an envelope into my hand saying . . .
‘He’s feeling a little sad, it's an anniversary of
something, but he said to give you this.'
I opened it over a pint of Brains at the Wellington
and read . . .
There is no impossibility of gone.
I once thought otherwise - like you perhaps;
But we know now, as the sun rises,
and still, no word, no trace,
no word anywhere.
The day rises and it falls again,
no word, no trace, no wonder,
but I still laugh looking at Orion.
I turned to speak to a shadow,
and i just can’t get out from under.
All are good intensions.
There is no impossibility of numbers,
we think we can compute them all.
If numbers never end, reality never ends,
sad alas for this universe,
and all the beings from the great beyond.
Me: hmmmm, I hope the old goat is ok
Filberts Part 1
Me: I know that you collect brushes you showed them to me - but not just any brushes - they have to be Filberts don't they?
Dr Franklyn: (Laughing) They do indeed - I have about 500 filberts from all over the world - I always order two of a Filbert - one to use and one to keep pristine.
Me: What kind of variation do they have and why did you start collecting them?
Dr Franklyn: Well- all the usual examples of hair and bristle of course, and some very unusual ones, there's an absolute zoo of animals represented, a wonderful range of ferrule shapes and metals, I’ll pick a few cheap seamed ferrules if they have other attractions - and handles of every kind: wood, bone, stone, quill and plastic, all the shapes too, oval, round, triangular, hexagonal, travelling versions, short and long, and some very long handled versions.
I don't collect every size in every series, I usually buy mid to large. I have some of the thinner Cats Tongues and some exquisite Teardrops, the very small Cats Tongues - and a good selection of Egberts too, they are usually longer and thinner - there's quite a complex of variation actually but all could come under the genus 'dome head' - if such a genus existed. The shape is actually named after the shape of the Filbert Nut did you know ?
Me: Yes I remember reading that, but why the collection in the first place?
Dr Franklyn: One of the things that kept me sane during my castaway period - besides shelter building, was painting - or more accurately the making of the things I needed to paint with. I was lucky y'see, food of all sorts and fresh water were relatively plentiful- my hunting and gathering, fire keeping duties etc didn't fill my day.
Dr Franklyn: (Laughing) They do indeed - I have about 500 filberts from all over the world - I always order two of a Filbert - one to use and one to keep pristine.
Me: What kind of variation do they have and why did you start collecting them?
Dr Franklyn: Well- all the usual examples of hair and bristle of course, and some very unusual ones, there's an absolute zoo of animals represented, a wonderful range of ferrule shapes and metals, I’ll pick a few cheap seamed ferrules if they have other attractions - and handles of every kind: wood, bone, stone, quill and plastic, all the shapes too, oval, round, triangular, hexagonal, travelling versions, short and long, and some very long handled versions.
I don't collect every size in every series, I usually buy mid to large. I have some of the thinner Cats Tongues and some exquisite Teardrops, the very small Cats Tongues - and a good selection of Egberts too, they are usually longer and thinner - there's quite a complex of variation actually but all could come under the genus 'dome head' - if such a genus existed. The shape is actually named after the shape of the Filbert Nut did you know ?
Me: Yes I remember reading that, but why the collection in the first place?
Dr Franklyn: One of the things that kept me sane during my castaway period - besides shelter building, was painting - or more accurately the making of the things I needed to paint with. I was lucky y'see, food of all sorts and fresh water were relatively plentiful- my hunting and gathering, fire keeping duties etc didn't fill my day.
Filberts Part 2
I did a lot of experiments with coloured earths, barks and tree resins, turtle eggs and all that kind of stuff, experimental binders - and there seemed to be acres of rock faces that could keep me occupied on murals and suchlike for a long time - so I began making and inventing kit to do it with.
Me: Did you manage to get together a good selection of pigments.
Dr Franklyn: ( Pouring tea) It took a lot of work but I was very pleased- I had four basic colours not including a soot black - a close yellow ochre, a sienna-ish red, and two kinds of green - blue was a problem and I found it depended on how long i wanted to take powdering down certain shells. I wished I'd known more chemistry really - but anyway - I called them my primaries, and after a while I became very sensitised to subtle variations in those tones - like when you begin the art of mixing tertiary colours together - absolutely enthralling.
Me: ( Accepting the tea) Thank you - I call them the colours of Neptune - they can be really spooky when you put them together in the right way. What did you do for a white?
Dr Franklyn: Yes, the Neptunian depths, ( Laughs) I know what you mean - they can shudder quite differently to the big blips of prime or secondary juxtapositions. There is a kind of naturally occurring cement that builds at the foot of some rocky outcrops, a gypsum of some kind I think- and often in sandy areas, I'd seen it used on the Greek Islands as a natural building material for garden walls and a sort of lime washing. Well I found something like it and made a decent chalky white - and that increased my tonal and tinting range considerably.
Me: I presume this involved the making of brushes somewhere along the line.
Me: Did you manage to get together a good selection of pigments.
Dr Franklyn: ( Pouring tea) It took a lot of work but I was very pleased- I had four basic colours not including a soot black - a close yellow ochre, a sienna-ish red, and two kinds of green - blue was a problem and I found it depended on how long i wanted to take powdering down certain shells. I wished I'd known more chemistry really - but anyway - I called them my primaries, and after a while I became very sensitised to subtle variations in those tones - like when you begin the art of mixing tertiary colours together - absolutely enthralling.
Me: ( Accepting the tea) Thank you - I call them the colours of Neptune - they can be really spooky when you put them together in the right way. What did you do for a white?
Dr Franklyn: Yes, the Neptunian depths, ( Laughs) I know what you mean - they can shudder quite differently to the big blips of prime or secondary juxtapositions. There is a kind of naturally occurring cement that builds at the foot of some rocky outcrops, a gypsum of some kind I think- and often in sandy areas, I'd seen it used on the Greek Islands as a natural building material for garden walls and a sort of lime washing. Well I found something like it and made a decent chalky white - and that increased my tonal and tinting range considerably.
Me: I presume this involved the making of brushes somewhere along the line.
Filberts Part 3
Dr Franklyn: It was a journey to say the least - blowing paint through bamboo, and bone tubes, the pounding and chewing of twigs aboriginal style, good brushes - but I made myself ill a few times.
Part of my diet was snaring small squirrel like animals, a kind of rock hopping rat, I looked the species up years later. I began binding hairs and small strips of fur to handles - there always seemed to be plenty of binding wire or nylon rope flotsam to strip down to fibres, for binding brush hairs too - I tried it all - but here's the catch - I could never make a satisfactory flat dome headed brush - the Filbert.
Silly really - but It was what I wanted - isn't always the way. By this time I had been painting many rocks and cliff patches using all kinds of techniques, my kit got quite large - but I found I only needed three different size brushes and two kinds of blowing tube to do it all - and the shape of those brushes had to be Filbert.
Me: (Laughing) I use Filberts for everything just about, y'get great line using the edge and good cover using the flat.
Dr Franklyn: Exactly - and that was the tool I needed - a versatile tool in a couple of sizes - but I could never quite make them as I wanted. For trimming, an extremely sharp tool is difficult to make - I made some good blades from bits of Flotsam - but never anything to give the cleanest cut on a short curve. I put together naturally curving hairs, the proper way of manufacture - into tree resin, very delicate work - but all in all - by perseverance I made a few good specialised Filberts - so you might say I wildly became obsessed by this - to my mind - king of the brush shapes.
Part of my diet was snaring small squirrel like animals, a kind of rock hopping rat, I looked the species up years later. I began binding hairs and small strips of fur to handles - there always seemed to be plenty of binding wire or nylon rope flotsam to strip down to fibres, for binding brush hairs too - I tried it all - but here's the catch - I could never make a satisfactory flat dome headed brush - the Filbert.
Silly really - but It was what I wanted - isn't always the way. By this time I had been painting many rocks and cliff patches using all kinds of techniques, my kit got quite large - but I found I only needed three different size brushes and two kinds of blowing tube to do it all - and the shape of those brushes had to be Filbert.
Me: (Laughing) I use Filberts for everything just about, y'get great line using the edge and good cover using the flat.
Dr Franklyn: Exactly - and that was the tool I needed - a versatile tool in a couple of sizes - but I could never quite make them as I wanted. For trimming, an extremely sharp tool is difficult to make - I made some good blades from bits of Flotsam - but never anything to give the cleanest cut on a short curve. I put together naturally curving hairs, the proper way of manufacture - into tree resin, very delicate work - but all in all - by perseverance I made a few good specialised Filberts - so you might say I wildly became obsessed by this - to my mind - king of the brush shapes.
Filberts part 4
Me: You told me you weren’t interested in being 'saved' for years and made no effort to contact passing ships – so when you eventually made that effort - did you take your painting kit and those brushes with you?
Dr Franklyn: (Laughing) The answer is yes and no – it’s a long story – the boat eventualy took me to Tasmania and I was repatriated from there – but it’s a story I'm not sure I want to tell -hmmm - for some other time perhaps.
Me: Ok, Thanks for the tea and your time.
Dr Franklyn: (Laughing) The answer is yes and no – it’s a long story – the boat eventualy took me to Tasmania and I was repatriated from there – but it’s a story I'm not sure I want to tell -hmmm - for some other time perhaps.
Me: Ok, Thanks for the tea and your time.
Dr Franklyns Amenuensis - Intro
I'm Dai Harding, I live and work in Cardiff - these past few months I moved into a new studio in Mill Lane ( opposite the Marriot Hotel and above the Juboraj Restaurant entrance) - the 'Cafe Quarter' as the Cardiff city fathers would have it. My art website and other information is at www.daiharding.com
Dr Franklyn has an all night practice on Caroline St - just around the corner from me - and can often be found in discourse at the Hayes Island Snackbar. He spent 15 years shipwrecked on an undisclosed island in the Indian Ocean and is happy to drink tea in all weathers. ( I think the island was near the Andamans off the Mergui Archipelago - but he's not saying) I've been unable to find any record of photographs of the good Dr and he won't let me take one - but luckily through a friend at Limoges Bibliothèque Municipale we managed to unearth just this one.
Now he's even more of a mystery to me - the photograph isn't dated but the friend at the Bibliothèque says it was found in documents to do with the American poet E.E.Cummings. I know a fair bit about Alfred Jarry the 'Inventor' of Pataphysics - there's also plenty on the Web about him. Jarry died in 1907 and the college itself was 'inaugurated' in 1948. The main founders being - Marcel Duchamp, Eugene Ionesco, Max Ernst, Jean Dubuffet - and others. The continued existence of the original college is in doubt, but affiliated colleges spring up all over the world. I hope Dr Franklyn will be a little more forthcoming.
Dr Franklyn has an all night practice on Caroline St - just around the corner from me - and can often be found in discourse at the Hayes Island Snackbar. He spent 15 years shipwrecked on an undisclosed island in the Indian Ocean and is happy to drink tea in all weathers. ( I think the island was near the Andamans off the Mergui Archipelago - but he's not saying) I've been unable to find any record of photographs of the good Dr and he won't let me take one - but luckily through a friend at Limoges Bibliothèque Municipale we managed to unearth just this one.
Now he's even more of a mystery to me - the photograph isn't dated but the friend at the Bibliothèque says it was found in documents to do with the American poet E.E.Cummings. I know a fair bit about Alfred Jarry the 'Inventor' of Pataphysics - there's also plenty on the Web about him. Jarry died in 1907 and the college itself was 'inaugurated' in 1948. The main founders being - Marcel Duchamp, Eugene Ionesco, Max Ernst, Jean Dubuffet - and others. The continued existence of the original college is in doubt, but affiliated colleges spring up all over the world. I hope Dr Franklyn will be a little more forthcoming.
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