I Do Not Want ...

I do not want to travel to distant places to give talks about art I made half a century ago. Minimalism does not need to hear from me. I do not want to travel to distant places to give talks about art I made yesterday. Contemporary art is making enough noise without me. I do not want to be filmed in my studio pretending to be working. I do not want to participate in staged conversations about art—either mine or others past or present–which are labored and disguised performances. I do not want to be interviewed by curators, critics, art directors, theorists, aestheticians, professors, collectors, gallerists, culture mavens, journalists or art historians about my influences, favorite artists, despised artists, past artists, current artists, future artists.  A long time ago I got in the habit, never since broken, of writing down things instead of speaking. It is possible that I was led into art making because talking and being in the presence of another person were not requirements. I do not want to be asked my reasons for not having worked in just one style, or reasons for any of the art that got made (the reason being that there are no reasons in art). I do not want to answer questions about why I used plywood, felt, steam, dirt, grease, lead, wax, money, trees, photographs, electroencephalograms, hot and cold, lawyers, explosions, nudity, sound, language, or drew with my eyes closed. I do not want to tell anecdotes about my past, or stories about the people I have been close to. I refuse to speak of my dead. The people to whom I owe so much either knew it or never will because it is too late now. I do not want to document my turning points, high points, low points, good points, bad points, lucky breaks, bad breaks, breaking points, dead ends, breakthroughs or breakdowns. I do not want to talk about my methods, processes, near misses, flukes, mistakes, disappointments, setbacks, disasters, obsessions, lucky accidents, unlucky accidents, scars, insecurities, disabilities, phobias, fixations, or insomnias over posters I should never have made. I do not want my portrait taken. Everybody uses everybody else for their own purposes, and I am happy to be just material for somebody else so long as I can exercise my right to remain silent, immobile, possibly armed, and at a distance of several miles.

Robert Morris, Artist

This amused me so much that I had to share.  Morris was replying to Robert Knafo's request a studio interview and he is very clear on precisely why he won't give an interview.  

You can read more on the story over on the Slow Muse blog.

 

Magazines from Home

Mana from Heaven ... or that's how the 3 New Zealand magazines I was given have seemed on this lazy Sunday afternoon.

Not that I was lazy.  I have a bin full of paper on the floor next to my desk and my desk is less littered with papers and notes and ... stuff.

Each time I reached a 'clearing/organising' milestone I would allow myself to read another of those 3 magazines. 

North & South was probably my favourite.  Then again, it always was.

I'm aching with flu.  It's been all around me but I had no plans for it myself.  I thought it might have been a food allergy.  I slept yesterday afternoon and then all night too.  A rare feat for me to do both.  I woke feeling better but by lunchtime I was aching and ready to sleep all over again.   I guess it's the season so I'll just concentrate on the fact that I am so glad to see Spring.

I was lucky, I had the book At Least You're in Tuscany for company, so I powered through it these last 24 hours.  Jennifer Criswell offers another take on giving up your career and moving to Italy.

Last night I dreamed I flew home to New Zealand.  It was a long and difficult journey.  A complicated dream.  And so it was incredibly disappointing to wake and find myself still here in Belgium.

There was a red rowboat, parked up on the beach, last time I was home ...

Habas con Jamon, by Yaiza

My parents grew Broad Beans out in the garden of my childhood but never did we make anything as interesting as Habas con Jamon with those beans ...

Today Yaiza had to use water for the final part of the preparation.  That would be instead of beer or white wine but still ... it was delicious.

Thank you to Yaiza who patiently taught me these recipes, and put up with my camera, and with my constant note-taking too.  Details were recorded and my big hope is that I can recreate tonight's dishes next week.

Learning to Cook Spanish Food

Today I learned how to cook 3 different Spanish dishes ...

Yaiza came over, armed with the ingredients I didn't have, and showed me how to create a delicious Tortilla.  And an Aioli sauce that is so divine I'm not sure how it won't be on the menu for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Or that's what everyone was saying as they handed the pot of it round the table. 

Then there was the Habas con Jamon ... and I was left wondering how it was that New Zealanders could have failed to create that dish with their Broad Beans and ham???  Then, as the final touch, Picaillo.  A divine salad, small pieces of boiled potato and eggs, cherry tomatoes, green beans, and tuna.

And oil.

So much oil but it was truly divine.

Tonight I'm realising how much I missed in life due to my mother not knowing to send us out into the world - to the beach, the forest, or simply 'out', with a package of cold Tortilla to save us from hunger and associated horrors.  Ithink my childhood might have been that much happier if my mother had copied the Spanish mothers and done this simple thing.

Oh my ...it was all so good.  Here is a close-up of the two Tortilla's created here in my kitchen.  More of this Spanish cooking is planned.

Impulse and Whimsy ...

I can rarely rely on myself not to need to take actions that would test my dignity were I not constantly wearing trousers of some kind however ... today I was tempted to buy a skirt.  It's the first in years. 

It was all about the colours.