Thank you for your support and I quite understand the difficulty in finding arts funding especially if one wants to include a political dimension.1 In the UK at least it seems that to fund projects of a critical nature one must be with a university. We can perhaps hope for charity from the suppliers.
Before describing today's Doing I must share a thought which occurred while out painting. The notion of shelter as an art institutional framework that is at the heart of the DS implies calm reflective, patient work, does it not? You have said as much in the introduction, but look here, today I went out and took great pleasure in the fast paced, consciously unconscious outpouring of creative energy. So it seems in my case the shelter, time and security to create unfettered does not translate necessarily into calm patient approach to practice.
Work 3) Cut Wheat Field
We have our first contradiction: the shelter and calm of the Dignity Scholarship allowing finally for unadulterated, unabashed creative indulgence!? The separation, or relief as you put it, from the post truth chaos to indulge privately in ones own creative passions? Well that is a bit of a hard sell to any radical minded spirit on the face of it I fancy, but I understand that the DS is asking the question and I am honoured to be the first one to look for some answers.
Thinking on I realised that it is a question of how ones Doing, however 'self indulgent', is made public that is key and also that you have included this point in the introduction. Forgive me, I'm thinking aloud a bit. I have read the 5 themes of course but there is a lot of meat on the bone there. Perhaps I am guilty of over thinking it all?2 By my reckoning the application of appropriate or fashionable ideas, theories and references to practice is not so difficult once you are in that frame of mind and are equipped with the relevant booknotion but discovering a deeper more authentic, personal understanding is not so easy. Furthermore aiming for that is not exactly encouraged in the contemporary academy or is it particularly necessary in ones entrepreneurial efforts. More to the point it takes time. Time! The temporal scale? Is that up for discussion?3 Time. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years. Even then, lets say one allocates all the time one has to Do exactly what one wants creatively, then the next problem is one of focus, attention, mental space. Doing with the capital D which you wish to advocate is not easy to my mind, maybe barely possible even? One cannot speak for anyone but oneself but I for one have a mind-full of random contemporary detritus or at least a thick layer of it, auto-gleaned from lord knows where, and I must burrow through this before getting to what I might be 'really' thinking. And that is best case!
Yes yes, doing Do will be no gimmie but we must ask and walk4 (what happened to old Holloway anyway, have you heard any whispers?5). But for now there is much to put in order in the gallery6 and tomorrows canvas to stretch so without further delay I must tell you about today's painting trip. At about eight I made off for the cut wheat field taking the route direct across the field opposite the yellow house to the other side then trudged along the perimeter, over the drainage ditch then weaving my way through the various tractor lane routes to a fine position that I had scouted out on a sketching trip previous. It took about twenty minutes. If you were driving towards Hallstavik from Trästa Bron then I was about opposite Bergby Skola, standing on the far side of the field looking back towards the Bergby Gård facility.
It is autumn and my subject was, naturally enough, the appearance of autumn. Specifically the subtly varied tones of the post harvest wheat field which has become a firm favourite subject of mine over the years here in Bergby. After the cut, the remaining wheat straw stumps are left until ploughing in the spring and the combined effect of these abandoned and obsolete straws can take on a colour intensity that is difficult to fathom, coming from within it seems and in ever evolving harmony with the ground as the grass sprouts. Perhaps their finest hour is in winter when poking up through the snow they become a hotter hue of orange, which when complemented by the reflected cyan of the sky is a memorable vision to be sure, especially if one can find an elevated view. I have a study of it that shows it well, Ill send a reproduction7.
And look here the patterns and composition of these straws are glorious also - an arrangement composed entirely by chance by the busy, innocent movement of the tractors at harvest time. You know this is an aspect of the wheat field that Van Gogh would never have seen of course although having said that there would be similar effects produced by the tracks of the peasants and horses who surely would stick to certain routes and bydoing create a nice thick flattening perhaps even wider than that of the contemporary combine? I cannot recall seeing evidence of tracks in Vincent's wheat field works but Ill check again, in any case the wonderfully smooth curves of the vehicle tracks in our cut field today have been rendered with some vigour I fancy, as has the hole. Again I am perhaps guilty of producing a canvas of one pace but the improvements will come so long as we hold the course of bold, energetic and unhesitating painting. Forgive me but I am fond of the sporting analogy and I am reminded of the story of the tennis coach who taught his students to hit the ball as hard as they possibly could every time and care not for accuracy, which would come gradually, naturally, and when it did come he had champions!8 Well let that be the last word, maybe we too shall turn out a few champion oils eh?
Bests
John
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1. Refers to our failure to secure funding for the Dignity Scholarship.
2. We don't think John is over thinking.
3.John is free to adress any subject he chooses.
4. This phrase was used by John in work 4) of his Torpoint Art Service Residency. It originates from the Zapatista movement in Mexico.
5. John Holloway's last book was Crack Capitalism in 2010
6. John has a gallery space in his barn.
7. Harvest Patterns In Winter, oil on canvas, 75 x 45 cm
8. This refers Nick Bollettieri who coached the tennis champion Andre Agassi among others.