Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Talking Pictures


Talking Pictures

About twenty years ago the Broederstroom Press published a book of essays which now reads to me like a blog-in-the-making. I wrote it on an old typewriter in the early hours of the morning in an attempt to clarify certain ideas. At least, that was how I saw it. Friends and colleagues understood it to be a continuation of my opinionated ranting after they had sensibly crept off to bed.

The ideas have changed a bit, as has my own history and that of South Africa and the art world, but my passion for making things has not, nor has my interest in encouraging neophyte artists.I spend a good deal of my time debating the niceties of drawing and painting with a group of talented amateurs, and would like to experiment with a blog format as a way of pinning thoughts down and engendering debate----a conversation which will not necessitate my getting dressed [which bit of denim today?],combing my hair [a pointless and vainglorious exercise],cleaning the windscreen of my car and suffering the social phobia which wraps my soul like a poultice.

Some of the subjects I dealt with all those years ago should be treated anew.The post-apartheid, post-protest -art world needs a new lens, as my eyes do, and becoming a crone has afforded a different perspective.The daughter who has taught me the use of a computer has created an archive of my work which has immeasurably added to that perspective.Now let's find out what,if anything , I have to say!


2 comments:

Judith Mason said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Paul Venter said...

What took you so long??!! honeydew squatter