Lately #5: Making, Making
I’ve been thinking about artists and writers who work in more than one discipline, who have more than one creative practice. I like thinking about the interplay that arises, whether or not it's readily apparent.
My introduction to Etel Adnan was through her paintings, which in their simplicity provide quick shots of feeling and mood. Almost always the same scene: Mount Tamalpais from Adnan's California studio window. But she began as a writer, penning influential journalism in her native Lebanon, as well as novels and poetry. In her book Journey to Mount Tamalpais, Adnan wrote "Once I was asked in front of a television camera: 'Who is the most important person you ever met?' and I remember answering 'A mountain.' I thus discovered that Tamalpais was at the very center of my being.” The paintings make that clear in their repetition, their fixation.
In her book handiwork, Sara Baume loosely catalogues her creative life, or at least the part of it that is tangible and physical. She’s written several books, and it’s in that realm that she’s made a professional name for herself. But this book shows that her handiwork is just as central to her life as the writing. Throughout the book she carves and paints a series of wooden birds, and while doing so considers the loss of her father, her ways of inhabiting space, and her practice of birdwatching. There isn’t much of a story here, more a series of actions and impressions that by the end made me feel I'd acclimated to the rhythm of Baume’s days, as well as the rhythm of her hand on her carving knife.
I'll end with a pairing of images, both from Cy Twombly. His formal study of painting began at Black Mountain College in the 1950s, and he exhibited as early as 1951. While he started taking photos of his daily life in his student years, he chose not to exhibit them until 1993. They're stunning--of course.
Until next week,
S