For my journal, I collect prompts, things to respond to. If I am sitting in front of a black page I really don’t have much to say. I am perfectly happy being quite. Some of the prompts I have been collecting are interview questions that interviewers have asked artists. A good question shouldn’t go unanswered. The following are a few questions from BELINDA LUSCOMBE, an editor at large at TIME Magazine, that she asked to somebody else.
For you, is art more a way of representing thought, or a way of representing what you see? BELINDA LUSCOMBE
My work would fall more under the category of representing thought than representing things I see. However, my paintings are of things I see which are letter forms. The studies for these paintings are created using collage techniques. I then recreate the collage compositions at the scale of the painting. They are all carefully measured out and drawn onto the canvas at a much larger scale than the original collage study.
As representing thought, the experimental ideas that are generated through collage, are the main arena of my process. I tend to invent and refine ‘systems of construction’ that employ and interact with chance almost as if taking I-Ching readings.
You’ve had friends who were poets and you’ve been interested in the overlap between poetry and art. Do you still read poetry? BELINDA LUSCOMBE
I read some poetry as I have the time and interest. I am not an incessant reader of poetry. I have lately been watching YouTube videos about a few different poets such Rainer Maria Rilke and Charles Baudelaire and various twentieth century poets. I always liked ee commings from very early on. Otherwise I try to keep up to some degree with my peers. I construct a lot of poetry, collage poetry. I don’t exactly write anything myself. I am more of a composer or arranger of found materials. I collect bits of text that I like and then arrange it and see what happens. I have been doing that probably since 1998-99.
Can any images... still have power in a world so suffused by imagery and information? BELINDA LUSCOMBE
If you think about it, the power is vested in the viewer. A viewer can only look at one thing at a time. The question is; Is the viewing public – composed of many individual viewers- able, because of the incredible overload of, like you say, Imagery and Information, able to actually invest in seeing and contemplating. Art is not only about the image, it is also about the context established for looking at images. Seeing things with your phone or in passing doesn’t mean much. If you observe people in an environment, you will notice that most people see nothing whatsoever except the one thing they are focused on, a friend, a coffee, an item in a window, a small disturbance, etc. The rest is just an unnoticed blur of things, background. Very few people seem to be generally observant of all the things around them, the objects, the sounds, the sunlight, the smells, the atmosphere, the feel of things even if they are being affected by it to some degree. It is quite curious how we all walk around as if completely asleep. But that is the way of things. When you add to that the ubiquitous absorption people have in their phones and the continuous influx of information upon which we place our attention and most of which we don’t need to know anything about, our minds are filled with so much noise that it is impossible to have enough inner quiet to stop, contemplate, absorb and consider things.
However, if a viewer can overcome that condition, then an image can be unfurled and affect the viewer in the way it is intended. But, again, that depends completely on the viewer placing their attention upon it and the viewer’s state of mind.
Art exists because the artist wants to make it. It is like a rock or a flower or a bird who are just doing their own things. They don’t exist just to be seen by a human. It is up to the humans to engage themselves in the world around them.
Do you miss anything about being young? BELINDA LUSCOMBE
That is a good question… Maybe not. Most of the things I would like about being young are offset by the uncertainties felt about working out the future at that time. While I feel age weighing on me, I do feel good retrospectively about how I have navigated the past and feel confident about handling the future.
What would constitute a perfect day for you? BELINDA LUSCOMBE
Waking up in the morning, working in the studio all day while keeping my mind quiet and my heart clear. Most days I go out for a walk. I sometimes think of my studio here in the high desert as a
eremitic monastery that is full of quiet contemplation and peacefulness. Then, thankful for a hot shower, going to bed at night without worries or regrets. Is there a better life than that? I can’t think of it.
Thanks for reading. This is a completely reader-supported publication. If you’d like to support my work, buy my books and/or become a paid subscriber
Please leave a comment below! Would love to hear from you.