G. Steve Journal

Make Your Soul Grow

Found these trenchant words of advice on Swiss Miss:

“Go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
                                                                                                                                - Kurt Vonnegut

Meaning?

If one chooses to think of creative endeavors -- music, poetry, painting...etc. –- as languages in their own right, then it has to be the height of indiscretion to ask the artist to try to describe the work using another wholly insufficient alternative language.  This is one reason artist's statements are predictable nonsense, inspiring tortured verbiage and smacking of obfuscation.

So I enjoyed reading this refreshing and cogent reply by composer Aaron Copeland when asked about his work:

“The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, ‘Is there a meaning to music?’ My answer would be, ‘Yes.’ And ‘Can you state in so many words what the meaning is?’ My answer to that would be, ‘No.’”

                                                                        — Aaron Copland, What to Listen for in Music, 1939

Uncertainty

Just read an excellent interview in the NY TIMES with longtime street photographer Alex Webb -- here are a few choice observations:

My photography at its purest is about response, about visual exploration, about discovery. On one level, if I knew what it was I wanted in advance, I'm not sure I would choose photography as a medium. Part of what excites me about photography is its very uncertainty, the fact that it is not just the photographer, but the vagaries of the world that result in the photograph. If I had a greater inkling of just what I wanted in advance, why not choose a medium where there is much greater imaginative control, like painting?

I feel the space, the light, the color, the form and the scene simultaneously. I'm not thinking, I'm sensing the street. For me, color isn't just about color, light isn't just about light, space isn't just about space, form isn't just about form. I'm intrigued with the emotional and sensory tenor of these elements.

 It's not just up to me whether a photograph will be successful. The world is my collaborator as well. I believe it was Charles Harbutt, in his afterword to "Travelog," who wonders when he's looking for a photograph if perhaps that same photograph is also looking for him.

Live Your Life

Driving back to the studio some months back, shortly after children's book author Maurice Sendak died, I heard a past interview he did with Terri Gross on her radio program "Fresh Air."  It was a very touching exchange - one of those radio moments when you realize you could have missed your exit - and so when I found an illustrated version of it (thanks, Swiss Miss) I thought I'd share the link and transcribe some of the dialogue:

 

I'm beginning to see nature …

It's something I'm finding out as I'm aging -- that I am in love with the world, and I look right now as we speak together out my window, in my studio… and I see my trees, my beautiful, beautiful maples are hundreds of years old  -- they're beautiful, and you say, " I can see how beautiful they are -- I can take time to see how beautiful they are."

It is a blessing to get old.  It is a blessing to find the time to do the things:  to read the books, to listen to the music…

Live your life,
Live your life,
Live your life.

Good News

I've been personally working in the gallery for over a year now and one unexpected pleasure is chatting with gallery visitors about their lives and learning of all the good things going on that never make the news. 

Though these personal anecdotes may not be "newsworthy" by most standards, I've found they provide a welcome antidote to the barrage of negative stories we learn about every day -- the ones that start to make us believe the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Among some of the stories people have shared: sponsoring a young persons college education, completing work on the 60th house in the area built by Habitat For Humanity and organizing an event to raise money for those who have met some setbacks.  Not to mention the steady stream of rescue dogs that find love from a caring household.

In that vein, here is a link to a mashup of security camera videos that have captured little vignettes of people demonstrating their better selves worldwide - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Happy New Year.