Fragment of “Gareska”, part of a recent painting series
Most of us know that feeling of rubberbanding: the rapidity with which you can move from loving what you are doing to finding it completely unacceptable. The writer Anne Lamott (who has written in depth about writing itself in books like Bird by Bird) advises her Twitter followers to write badly, and to do it every day. This recent tweet is typical of her advice: “The writer’s life is a decison to write badly, study greatness, find out about life. It’s a difficult blessing, hard for all of us.”
Yes to that. So here’s a few reminders about how much we don’t understand. Which, when you are questioning what it is you do understand, can bring some sense of solace.
What we overlook is that underneath the ground of our beliefs, opinions, and concepts is a boundless sea of uncertainty. The concepts we cling to are like tiny boats tossed about in the middle of the vast ocean. We stand on our beliefs and ideas thinking they’re solid, but in fact, they (and we) are on shifting seas.
—Steve Hagen
I always work out of uncertainty but when a painting’s finished it becomes a fixed idea, apparently a final statement. In time though, uncertainty returns… your thought process goes on.
—Georg Baselitz
An image is a stop the mind makes between uncertainties.
—Djuna Barnes
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others.
—Bertrand Russell
Love this, Deborah – especially Steve Hagen’s description of what happens after a painting is finished. What seems so certain shifts over time and other possibilities present themselves. And this is not necessarily a negative thing – they are just possibilities – fodder for the new fixed idea.
I particularly like Barnes’s quote.
Nancy, it is a constant dance between feeling sure and elated, and not having a clue if this works for anyone except me…Maureen, Barnes’ words are so succinct but she nails it. Thanks both.
Uncertainty is always with us. I particularly love De Kooning’s description of this essential aspect of art in an interview with Harold Rosenberg:
De Kooning: If you yourself made a sphere, you could never know if it was one. That fascinates me. Nobody ever will know it. It cannot be proven, so long as you avoid instruments. If I made a sphere and asked you, ‘Is it a sphere’ you would answer, ‘How should I know?’ I could insist that it looks like a perfect sphere. But if you looked at it, after awhile you would say, ‘I think it’s a bit flat over here.’ That’s what fascinates me––to make something I can never be sure of, and no one else can either. I will never know, and no one else will ever know.
Rosenberg: You believe that’s the way art is?
De Kooning: That’s the way art is.
Fantastic quote Altoon. My first exposure to such a simple, elegant and apropos analogy. Thanks so much for posting it. It is going into my “to be used frequently” file…
Great post, Deborah. Could I re-quote some of these?
Thanks for the dose of solace Deborah. At present Life itself is my art studio and I’m learning to deepen the acceptance of being poised (terminally) between uncertainties…
De Kooning: “That’s the way art is.” And life. Sigh.
Thank you Louisa for checking in. We need to serve up those dollops for each other from time to time. You have certainly done that for me. Sending you my best, as always.