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March 27, 2010
In praise of Clarity
Not being on Twitter, I'm going to stretch myself out to a full langorous post.
I had a week of it - not only did I see Patti Smith, the week before I went to the Van Gogh exhibition like a million others. Even before I'd graced the steps of the Royal Academy, I was overcome with the queue spilling into the street at 9.30 on a weekday morning for a painter who'd never sold a painting in his lifetime. Once in, and behind the many heads, it was so powerful to trace his journey. I was cheeky enough to decide I didn't like his brush strokes (bit like saying Michelangelo could get better with his light and dark but anyway....) He could have stayed a consummate landscape artist and no doubt sold some stuff. But more than that, despite no money he remained convinced of his vocation and pursued it against all odds. Just like Patti Smith.
They are both calling me at the moment as I work out how to follow my star. I certainly did not have that conviction at 20 like they did. But I firmly believe it's never too late! Patti Smith talked about the amazing first page of her book where her earliest memory was going to the park with her mother. On the water she saw a huge white bird with a long neck and beak, its wings rising out of the water. She was entranced and her mother, seeing her daughter's delight, said "Swan" to teach her the word. Young Patti was hugely disappointed by this. How could a silly one syllable word like that describe the reality of what she saw in front of her? She describes this as her first creative impulse.
I don't know how some people have the courage and bloody mindedness to listen to those impulses while the rest of us struggle to believe they are important enough to give them the space they so deserve but I'm grateful to Van Gogh, Patti Smith and all the artists who felt do or die and lived it. From the outside their clarity is deafening but maybe it did not feel like that from the inside. Clarity is a much under-rated virtue but as a foggy minded creature, I'm enjoying a bit of it at last!
Now to see, whether all will be obscured by euros and trademarks.
Posted by Tess at March 27, 2010 02:16 PM