Exploration and Discovery

The GAMBLER

 The GAMBLER.

The other morning when I was baking muffins for my artist friend Marney-Rose Edge,

http://www.marneyroseedge.com/artist, using approximate measures of the ingredients, such as a more generous  amount of blueberries and more yogurt, I thought of the scientific aspect of baking and cooking versus my painting process. 

In order for the muffins to turn out, the correct amount of flour, baking powder, eggs etc. need to be used or they flop.

The gambler in me never uses the specified amount of ingredients when cooking.  I’m always testing to see how the dishes turn out by approximating the ingredients.

However, the muffins and dinners usually turn out fine, just a little different each time.

At the time of baking the muffins, I thought about this incongruity; how precisely I measure the composition and place the masking tape on my abstract canvasses, right down to 1/8 of an inch (1/5 of a cm), checking and rechecking the line and angle to see if it works.  

It should be the other way around.  The baking should be measured accurately as it is a scientific and chemical process.  The painting should be more expressive, like Jackson Pollock’s work, http://www.jacksonpollock.com/.

Hmmm, what does that say about my working process?

WHY ART IS NECESSARY

During the last couple of days, listening to music while driving or painting or cooking, I thought of why I listen to so much music and what it does for me.

Music, one of the performing arts, sets the mood for me, excites me, calms me, and inspires me.  It is food for my inner self; my soul. I need it just to be.

I listen to “Cabaret”, “Three Penny Opera” when I’m cooking a big dinner for family or friends.

I listen to Jerry Lee Lewis or Gypsy Kings when I drive to Maggie’s Friday night dances to get into the mood.

I listen to Buena Vista Social Club, Leonard Cohen, jazz, opera, World music and Mozart when I paint.

I think about how all these artists from various parts of the world started making music and doing what they believed in, enhancing our lives while doing what they loved to do.

The same goes for other performing arts such as theatre.  Just recently some friends of ours, Beth and Brian, took us to see “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” at the Arts Club on Granville Island, Vancouver.  It was an outstanding performance!  I was amazed at the stamina of these actors performing for nearly 3 1 /2 hours with 2 short intermissions.  All for the love of their art! 

The same goes for literary arts such as “Don Quixote”, one of the greatest literary works from the imagination of Miguel de Cervantes . It is my favourite!

This brings me to painting.  Visual artists have an innate desire to create and keep on creating, no matter what. 

Sometimes the art is for the pure pleasure of sharing with the public.  Other times it’s the need to let something out or trying to create some kind of order in their lives.  It is all necessary!