“Strange to say; the luminous world is the
invisible world; the luminous world is that which we do not see. Our eyes of flesh see only night.”
Victor Hugo
I have always been fascinated by how artists
find their inspiration. While it never seems to show up when one is actively looking for
it, inspiration does seem to appear when one is simply open to the
world and “watching with glittering eyes,” as Roald Dahl once wrote on the
subject.
A few weeks back I was out to dinner in
Provincetown with my close friends, artists Jon Vaughan and Sharon Hayes. In addition to making the best Bloody Mary and
Chowder in Ptown, the second floor of The Lobster Pot offers a spectacular view
of the harbor. Jon noticed some interesting fishing boats down on the beach below and
after we paid the check we decided to go investigate. We came upon a series of
dinghies that had been dragged onto the beach and turned over onto their backs,
revealing the most extraordinary under-surfaces, heavily weathered and patinaed
by time and the elements.
Sharon and I began taking pictures with our
iPhones, while Jon went back to the car to fetch his Hasselblad, which he
always keeps in his trunk for moments of inspiration such as this!
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| The Intrepid Jon Vaughan getting the shot! |
When I returned home from the trip, I thought a lot about these photographs and discovered that, for me, they represented a metaphor for how the most beautiful parts of ourselves are often the things that are hidden from view, the pieces of ourselves that we are most afraid to reveal.
I was so enamored with the boats' aged and abstract surfaces that I began to patina pieces of copper and bronze myself. Using household items such as salt, vinegar
and lemon, I am accelerating the aging process and getting some
wonderful effects. While reading up on
how to patina metal, I learned that Rodin instructed his studio assistants to
urinate on his sculptures! The next time
I take visiting friends to the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, I can’t wait to share
this fun fact!
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| The patina experiment on copper and bronze |
I have begun printing my boat photographs onto tissue paper and attaching them to birch panels, and then layering them with coats of encaustic medium. I am also attaching the metal pieces to the surface of the paintings to represent the armor that each of us wears to protect our hidden vulnerabilities and the deepest parts of ourselves. This series is becoming an exploration of what is most essential in people, and the fragile beauty in all of us if we bother to look closely enough.
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| Exposure 1 Mixed media on panel 6"x10" 2013 |
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| Exposure II Mixed Media on Panel 6"x10" 2013 |
I just received a picture of Jon with his first work-in-progress from the boat shoot. Of course, his translation as an artist is completely different from my own, but that is what is so fascinating about inspiration - every person interprets the world so very differently.
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| Jon Vaughan's first output from the shoot |
Philanthropist and Chemist Madeleine Jacobs wrote, “To those wanting to see inspiration, I say stop looking. Stop trying. Instead, see what is in front of you all the time and see what you can bring to it because this is where the magic of inspiration occurs. You will know you are inspired when you are the force within the inspiration itself.”
I think Antoine de Saint-Exupery had it right when thinking about beauty or inspiration, when he said, "Here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
