art – A Year of Time

I’m heading south today for my uncle’s funeral.

Brian, or Bunny as we all knew him, sadly passed away two weeks ago. These last few years thanks to Covid and life I haven’t seen nearly as much of him as I would have liked. In fact the last time I saw him was my mother’s funeral at which he read his favourite poem – A Coat, by William Butler Yeats.

A Coat

I made my song a coat

Covered with embroideries

Out of old mythologies

From heel to throat;

But the fools caught it,

Wore it in the world’s eyes

As though they’d wrought it.

Song, let them take it

For there’s more enterprise

In walking naked.

William Butler Yeats

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12893/a-coat

Bunny was someone who always made you feel seen, heard and valued. He was fascinated with life, interested in everything and was a talented artist. He persued art for the love of creation. He was a photographer, a painter and a sculptor, though there was little he couldn’t turn his hand to.

I have done many things in my life, but the
most important segments are the periods
from 1960 to 1980 and 2004 until the present when I was and am now making
sculpture and drawing. The gap in-between
I foolishly devoted entirely to business and
regard these as fallow years.

Here Bunny talks of himself and his art. I am so struck by what he says here, fallow years. I keep thinking about this phrase and Bunny. He was a wonderful person, complex and intelligent. We all loved him very much and we all miss him, my aunt most of all who he loved above everything.

I have many memories of Bunny, him in Orkney hidden behind the lens of his camera, him cooking in his kitchen, sitting on a veranda in Tuscany drinking wine with him, Bunny bustling around in his workshop or working on his Mac. When he worked he radiated a calm sense of purpose which was hypnotic. I loved that if I ran cross country to my aunt and Bunny’s house, upon arrival he would offer me coffee or wine, never a glass of water, even if the sun wasn’t past the yardarm yet.

I haven’t yet really processed that Bunny has moved on, gone ahead or left us. This won’t really happen until the funeral, but even then I don’t know when or if his passing will ever feel real. Its been three years since my mum died and I still feel like she could just be away on holiday.

https://flickr.com/photos/noust123/

A couple of years ago I did a course through The National Centre for Writing. It was a treat to myself after years of no creative output and an attempt to kick start my writing habit again.

Our tutor was the wonderful Yan Ge, who has written some absolutely excellent books – Strange Beasts of China being my favourite. Yan was enthusiastic, inspiring and kind. She really encouraged us to enjoy what we worked on.

She told us a story about a ceramics teacher which went like this ….

A pottery teacher decided upon a unique grading method for her class. She split the students into two groups. For the first group, the entire year’s grade would hinge on crafting a single, flawless piece of pottery.

The second group faced a different challenge: quantity over quality. Their grade would be based solely on the amount of pottery they produced throughout the year.

At the end of the year, the teacher reviewed the results. As expected, the first group delivered impressive, well-crafted pieces. They had, after all, dedicated the entire year to perfecting just one creation.

The second group stacked their work in huge, towering piles for grading. The earlier pieces, at the bottom of the pile reflected hurried attempts at churning out work. But, as the teacher progressed up the pile, things began to change. The pottery in the middle of the stacks, which represented the mid-point of the year, showed a noticeable improvement in quality. The students themselves were baffled when questioned about this shift. They insisted they hadn’t changed their focus – quantity had remained their sole objective. This trend continued on up the stack, the pieces of pottery becoming finer and finer until the teacher reached the top of the pile and there sat a near perfect piece.

So the students in the second group, had not only produced a vast amount of work they had also unknowingly honed their skills as they created.

This is my poor retelling of the story, I couldn’t remember where this tale Yan had told us came from, as I hadn’t made a note of it. But …. last week I received an unexpected parcel, a very kind gift from a friend – Art & Fear, Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking – by David Bayles & Ted Orland.

I started flicking through the book and there on page twenty-nine was the story about the ceramics teacher! So I finally knew where the story came from and if you read Art & Fear you will see that David Bayles and Ted Orland tell the story of the ceramics class in a far more eloquent manner than I did.

This story struck a chord with me as I am someone who is paralysed by the pursuit of perfection. I want to write, but I fear not creating something perfect, so often I don’t write, I don’t create, I just make excuses not to put words on paper. I was inspired by this story, it helped free me from my crippling self doubt, it allowed me to see writing as something that is always developing and improving. It certainly isn’t something that will improve if we don’t practice it! I wont ever write the perfect story, but that is ok, all art is a form of growth.

So to steal from Dory of Finding Nemo fame – ‘Just keep writing, just keep writing.’

I haven’t yet read all of Art & Fear, as I have a three book rule while reading which I try to stick to and I currently busy with Sub Rosa by Jennifer Burke, Frank O’Hara ‘Why I Am Not a Painter’ and other poems and Peter Duck by Arthur Ransome.

My current reading pile. I try to stick to a three book rule, otherwise I find I don’t fully immerse myself in the books.

But I can’t wait to read Art & Fear, I suspect it will inspire me to be less fearful of the creative process. I wonder how other creative people over come the obstacle of perfectionism and self doubt?

Tag: art

Bunny

Perfection or Nothing!