Happy Holidays,
I am sending gratitude from the Los Angeles studio, wishing everyone a peaceful and bright holiday season. Here we are sending our last conversation during 2022. This one is about transcending - an on-going topic I have been milling over with Shane.
In Part 3 we talked about time and space, we also discussed the complexity of Shane’s 2016, “At the Still Point of the Turning World” oil on canvas. I mentioned Spinoza’s ‘inherent nature of all things’ and Shane shared his thoughts on the creator and observer. In Part 4, the focus is on change and transcendence. As we reach the closing of 2022, I think this discussion is necessary to prepare for what is to come in 2023. Parts of this conversation are taken from our podcast “Blue” also the title of the current exhibition on display at The Blue Room on Western Avenue, consisting of three large works and what I refer to as Shane’s transcendental paintings. - VC
The Life of the Artist and the Creative Process - Part 4
VC: I recently found an excerpt in The World Interiors magazine (January 2021), by JG Ballard. There was a section on the “Word” of interiors celebrating four decades of the magazine’s success with special content using text to describe an interior. Ballard’s contribution, an excerpt from “The Future of the Future” (1977) predicts life in 2000. Ballard’s text brings to light who we are today, and the disconnect endured by living in the information age. I am charmed by his foresight – he was not alone with his vision, as many others predicted similar outcomes. But I would like to begin this conversation with Shane by sharing this current mood of the now /then and the need to transcend into the safe arrival of 2023.
“In the dream house of the year 2000, Mrs. Tomorrow will find herself living happily inside her own head. Walls, floors and ceilings will be huge, unbroken screens on which will be projected a continuous sound-and-visual display of her pulse and respiration, her brain waves and blood pressure. The delicate quicksilver loom of her nervous system as she sits at her dressing-table, the sudden flush of adrenaline as the telephone rings, the warm arterial tides of emotion as she arranges lunch with her lover, all these will surround her with a continuous lightshow. Every aspect of her home will literally reflect her character and personality, a visible image of her inner self to be overlaid and enhanced by those of her husband and children, relatives and friends. A marital tiff will resemble the percussive climax of The Rite of Spring, while a dinner party (with each of the guests wired into the circuitry) will be embellished by a series of frescoes as richly filled with character and incident as a gallery of Veroneses. By contrast, an off day will box her into a labyrinth of Francis Bacons, a premonition of spring surround her with the landscapes of Constable, an amorous daydream transform the walls of her bathroom into a seraglio worthy of Ingres”
VC: It’s interesting, as we read deeper into Ballard’s text, Mrs. Tomorrow’s life is revealed by artist paintings. As I lay awake during these cold months, tossing and turning, listening to the echoing sounds of police cars and helicopters chasing into the Hollywood night, I continue to contemplate my existence, questioning the decisions I have made and where my life will end up. And during this time, I will be prompted by great artworks that have shaped my life. I will make a plea to the world, that creative beings will continue to observe what’s around them and define what it means to be human. And if in the far future, if art has no physical presence, there will be some chamber within our mind that will remind us of great artists and how our experience has been described through the centuries, because, I believe, art was made for just that.
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Part 3 - The Life of the Artist and the Creative Process
A Conversation between the studio manager Victoria Chapman (VC Projects) and Shane Guffogg
Introduction
Hollywood can be hot during July and August. The heat can zap your energy. Summer is a time to go on vacation and rest by the shore with toes buried in the sand or hike in the mountains sleeping in a tent under the stars or traveling to a faraway place. For me, during this time I reflect on my creative and spiritual practice. I am not talking about religion, I am talking about something inherent in oneself, finding the joy or peacefulness within. In continuing with Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, I have had some feedback asking why the need to explore such philosophical texts? Hegel’s book was written as a manual for understanding, consciousness, truth and self-certainty, observing reason, and much more. It shares a view of how our minds work -- the understanding of self, as well as emotions. I am also reminded by Spinoza’s sense of cause and effect, and by being aware of these modes of understanding, it could engage an inner freedom in pursuit of creativity. I often wonder where the conversation begins. Are we merely a projection or are we reacting to the physical world around us? Is the goal of art only to remind us of the beauty or devastation, or to create an illusion of our so-called paradise? Have we turned our backs on humanity by not contemplating this? Can art possibly mirror the individual experience? Shane Guffogg once said in an interview, “We are human beings. Being is part of what we do.” To all the artists out there, by being, art is made, and it can be shared with the world, to inform the masses, or at least reveal itself to those who are awake.
Part 3 – “The Life of the Artist and the Creative Process”
VC: In Part 2 of this conversation, we began to unravel Hegel’s text about notion of force, and I found a passage on time and space (another big topic), where he says,
“It is necessary that motion be split up to time and space or again, into distance and velocity. Thus, since motion is only the relation of these factors, it—the universal—is certainly divided in its own self. But now these parts, time and space or distance and velocity, do not in themselves express this origin in a One; they are different to one another, space is thought of as able to be without time, time without space, and distance at least without velocity—just as their magnitudes are indifferent to one another, since they are not related to one another as positive and negative, and thus are not related to another through their own essential nature.”
What I am taking away from this deep, philosophical statement, is that Space and Time are two separate things. I bring this up because as we are talking about the relationship between the work of art and the process of its creation, I am questioning what the viewer gains from observing art.
We recently recorded audio on Sound Cloud, about the painting, “At the Still Point of the Turning World”, 80 x 100 inches, dated 2016. I asked Shane this question, “You mentioned a point of gravity at the center of the painting and how through the act of painting, you were recalling all the patterns that make up your daily life. You are guiding the viewer to an area in the center of the canvas, which for you is a void and an object at the same time. You talked about the neutral colors that are made of cool and warm tones, and that you wanted the painting to visually pulsate. This was an emotionally strenuous painting to create, and needing time and space to reflect on it, you put it away for some time while you traveled to Venice Italy. Upon your return, you knew what it needed. How did you know and how does this happen?”
A Conversation between the Victoria Chapman (VC Projects) and Shane Guffogg
Introduction
Last month we began a discussion about the studio process, and the conscious efforts to create art. In Part 2, we continue with Hegel’s text from Phenomenology of Spirit, (1807) contemplating appearance and the supersensible world; when one loses themselves to the senses. Interestingly, Hegel’s book was written as a guide to define awareness as it pertains to truth and is one of the most popular philosophical texts discussing the history of consciousness.
We also discuss the first letter in Rilke’s book, “Letter to a Young Poet,” which consists of ten letters Rilke exchanges with a young poet from 1903 - to 1908. These letters were based on writing advice, but the great writer shares his thoughts about living. The first letter is particularly insightful, as Rilke encourages the 19-year-old military cadet to seek a connection with his inner soul to figure out if he has the substance to find his truth as a poet. I prompt Shane with the questions surrounding the purpose of creativity and the arts, as he shares his thoughts, introspectively measuring his experiences. We end with Shane describing a monumental artwork titled, “The Evolution of a Mortal Soul - Amor Fati” a painting partially inspired by Nietzsche’s explanation of eternal reoccurrence. Through these ongoing conversations, I hope to shed light on inquiry for both the maker and the viewer, as art has always been a language informed by humanity for the living to witness.
And so, we begin again ….
Part 2 – “The Life of the Artist and the Creative Process”
VC: Returning to Hegel’s “Phenomenology of the Spirit” when I read the following passage below, I felt it was something we could talk about when exploring the life of the artist and the creative process. For me, this passage pertains to certainty and the action of consciousness which then leads to determination. At best, Hegel's text is hard to read, as the great philosopher and writer dissects each stage of action, from what fires off in our mind, whether conscious or not, then the following steps that eventually lead to cause and effect. What I am interested in understanding here is, what leads one to creative thoughts? What leads one to be inspired? What leads one to get a thought and take it forward to make a decision to make art. Why are some artists more successful at harnessing their creative impulses and others are less so? I don't believe it's a simple solution of saying, "Well - you need to sit down and meditate and do it for a really long time." And, then you will be able to grasp a conscious effort to get out of your own way and take the idea and make art with it. If you can get that far, then of course there are a whole other set of 'good' problems that will need to be solved next! Returning back, you have thought about these things early on, and decided how and what you want to comment on through your visual practice of being an artist.