Diary Of An Artist In A New World

The First Artist In Space

From my earliest memories I dreamed of being the first artist in space. While Bill Gates dreamed of money, Murdoch of world domination, Steve Jobs of beautiful machines, and George W. of the mother of all oil wells, I was lost somewhere on the moon painting moonscapes or on a starship photographing the center of the galaxy.

Even today, when other people count sheep to get themselves to sleep, I take my seat in a spacecraft amongst the moons of Jupiter. I have to confess that I have only ever used two screen savers. One was a view from the space station of the earth, and the current one is a photograph of Jupiter taken by the Galileo spacecraft in 1995.

There are few things possible to imagine of greater beauty than the cloud tops of Jupiter or the rings of Saturn. I check the web sites for the Cassini mission to Saturn and the Mars rovers every few days to see the latest photos. Currently there is an image of one of Saturn's moons called Encaladus on the Cassini site. Encaladus looks like the most beautiful pearl in existence.

I dream of being in a little compartment on Cassini taking photographs and making drawings and paintings on my Wacom tablet and trusty Macintosh. I could paint the beauty of space, and then in pictures and poems try to explore the loneliness of being out there, in the middle of the inky blackness with a limited supply of resources. It would be worth it to know that I only had a few weeks of air left if I could just communicate some of that feeling I get from extraordinary beauty.

I remember the first time I saw Saturn. It was in a 4 inch reflecting telescope I had put together from old parts as a project with my young sons. It was in Cairns on a warm evening that we took the telescope outside and after looking at the moons of Jupiter we spotted Saturn low in the eastern sky. That year the rings were nearly side on to the Earth and the planet looked like a yellow ball with a long yellow nail through it. It was the strangest sight, and even now it remains my best ever view of this wonderful sight.

I would love to be the first artist in space. and have a bohemian studio amongst the stars.

If I end up with four million dollars it is still possible to be the first space bohemian. Today it was announced that the first Space Hotel is planned for launch starting in 2012. The rooms are 22 pods around a central hub. It is the strangest looking thing, like a sea creature and proof that reality is always stranger than fiction. When science fiction imagined space stations years ago they visualized wheels in space. Maybe that will happen one day, but so far the space station we have, and now this space hotel are nothing like the future world predicted not long ago.

I would love to be a guest on the Space Hotel in my Galactic Suite painting the marvelous view of the Earth below and its extraordinary beauty like a jewel in space.

Theft Of Precious Brueghel Paintings

On Sunday thieves walked into the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Nice, France, around 1pm and just 5 minutes later brazenly walked out with 4 painted treasures. Police believe that the speed of the operation indicates the thieves knew precisely which paintings to target, and that quite likely they were stolen "to order". It is believed that the pictures are too well known to be sold on the open market.

The paintings stolen were "The Allegory Of Earth" (illustrated) and "The Allegory Of Water", both by Jan Brueghel, and "Cliffs At Dieppe" (1897) by Monet, and "Poplars At Moret-sur-Loing" (1890) by Sisley. The loss of the Monet and Sisley are bad enough, but being realistic, works by both artists are not so extremely rare as the two allegory's by Brueghel. As Patricia Grimaud, deputy curator at the museum pointed out, there are only 5 paintings of this type by Brueghel left in France.

The tiny supply of Brueghel paintings in the world is being depleted steadily by selfish greed like this. The round painting illustrated is another Brueghel that was stolen in Hertogenbosch in 2004. An Internet search reveals a previously stolen Brueghel painting, "The Temptation Of St Anthony" was recovered in Madrid in 2002. Sadly, more paintings are stolen than are recovered.

It is a great sadness to me when I hear of this kind of tragedy. It tears at my heart. It is an alien thing to me to treat artworks as commodities like this. To me these works are cultural treasures belonging to humanity and as such, sacred objects to be protected by all, for all.

What Is It With Luddites Like Elton John?

Aging Superstar Wants The Internet Turned Off!

Elton John has been quoted as saying that the Internet is destroying good music, and that “The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff.

Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision... I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.

There’s too much technology available.

I’m sure, as far as music goes, it would be much more interesting than it is today.

I don’t have a mobile phone or an iPod or anything.

I am such a Luddite when it comes to making music. All I can do is write at the piano."

Why do these stars from the 70's seem to want to return to their so called simpler times? David Hockney was sounding just as out of touch recently. Its not like the 70's were some kind of cultural heaven. In fact the thought of flared jeans and Disco makes me think the biggest value of the decade lay in its example of just how bad culture can get.

Of course Elton John did provide some of the highlights of the time, but music had had its big creative explosion in the 50's and 60's in a marvelous moment of coincidence of musical expression and new technology including the early computers. It was a time when the vibrancy of American black traditions became an acceptable place for white music to find a new voices and to interact. At the same time technology was allowing artists to explore in ways not possible before from the electric guitar to the jet airplane that took the Beatles to India and their discovery of Indian sounds. From the introduction of stereo to multi-track recording, from the Moog Synthesizer to the first video clips the 50's and 60's were a time when technology drove creative change at a tremendous rate.

Even black music could not avoid inevitable change. Just as fast as black music was infusing white music, it too was absorbing and adapting to the new world - the exchange was never one way.

So Elton John thinks there is too much technology available, that the technology is stopping artists from communicating, yet he seems to have forgotten the role technology took in creating the conditions for his own creative burst. Does he have some arbitrary point where the amount of technology was just right?

As a self confessed Luddite, Elton John claims to not have a mobile phone or even an iPod. That tends to indicate his use of the computer is probably fairly limited too. If he were to venture out there onto the Internet a little more, and explore some of the newer creative music programs now available he might discover that communication and creativity are central to this new digital age.

Back in Elton's youth it is true that artists had to go seek each other physically, often in seedy clubs and warm pubs. His theory seems to presume that somehow this is an intrinsically more enriching and creative process than interacting via the Internet. What he seems to have forgotten is that so much of these old time interactions were superficial and meaningless, and always suffered from the problem that there was a limit to how many possible contacts could be made in any given location. Some places, like Elton's London were rich lodes of talent, but even there there was always the divide between there and other creative centers like New York. Nobody could be every where at once.

The Internet has changed all that. Now an artist in London can creatively interact with one in Sydney, or anywhere else that is online. Sure much of that which is on the Internet is superficial and meaningless, but here and there (just like in the old days) there are special places of creativity and interesting things. And the best of these places are very productive indeed.

One of the best things is how the Internet has allowed Indie artists to find an audience and sell directly to a global public that is switched on to the new ways of discovering talent. Or to discover the myriad different worlds of musical taste that the Internet allows to flourish because we are no longer restricted to only that mainstream which the record companies decide to serve up to us.

Of course much of it is unrecognizable to old timers. I wonder if Elton has ever been on an Oekaki web site where artists collaborate on new artworks in sites that are user interactive. This is something new in the visual arts, I wonder if something similar is bubbling up somewhere in music, I would be surprised if it wasn't.

Elton John is a wonderful musician, and I am grateful for the beautiful ways that he has enriched my life with his music. He is, however, in danger of sounding like an old timer who just can't understand the music from the young folk. It happens in every generation it seems, old people discovering that the world is different, and somehow not as rich and beautiful as it was when the person was young.

It is a matter of perception, and sadly, the young also exhibit a related trait when they reject older music as being boring and out of touch. I cannot agree with Elton John about experimenting with closing the Internet. While it seems that he doesn't need it to make his art, too much of what is good now exists purely due to the digital interchange of ideas. Whether it is P J Harvey's Down By The Water, or the Dreamcatcher's remix of Straight To Number One (to mention a couple of my personal favorites) there is so much in music that is living proof that music is benefiting from creative highs that are very much in evidence right around the world and being made by the very people that Elton John paradoxically says just "sit at home and make their own records".

The Starship Trooper's Birthday

Today is the 8th here in Sydney, but in Kansas City it is the 7th of July 2007, exactly 100 years after the birth of writer Robert Anson Heinlein. When he died of emphysema in 1988 I had one of those terrible moments. Besides feeling that horrible sympathy with his personal loss of life, I felt a loss in mine, and a feeling of neglect. For many years I had intended to write to him with a thank you for all he had (unknowingly) done for me. Then all of a sudden there was no possible way to thank him except in my heart.

Robert Heinlein was a very controversial author for many people but for me he was simply formative at an important time in my life. I must have been only 8 or 9 years old when I first read "Time For The Stars". Forever more I dreamed of being out there in space, a mixture of scientist and artist.

More importantly for me than dreams of being in a space ship, it was in Heinlein that I discovered my ideal of the strong and independent woman. She invariably had deep understandings of life and the unverse, a sensibility that men struggled to keep up with. For a boy on a country farm this was revolutionary thinking. "Space Family Stone" represented my boyhood ideals well, but his adult books like "Stranger In A Strange Land", and "Friday" were important as I worked out my personal journey in youth. I adored Friday and despised the publishing houses. "Friday" had a hero called Friday. Friday was like a science fiction James Bond. Heinlein describes this exciting figure with fast moving action. He allows us to like Friday and allows our prejudices to imagine the character. It is only when substantially into the book that you discover that Friday is a woman. Then much further into the book we discover that she is black. Heinlein could challenge prejudices and assumptions and he had several black female heroes in his books. His publishers, however studiously ignored the fact, and Friday, in cover art, was always white. Thats why I despised them.

I always loved the way Robert Heinlein thought outside the square. He never followed convention in anything. It is amazing how much convention is followed by most of those who consider themselves unconventional. If you are going to be left wing then there are certain things that you will always ascribe to. Same for those who are right wing. Heinlein, however invented his own path that was confusing for observors. "Stranger In A Strange Land" appeared to be anti war. "Starship Troopers" is claimed by others to be sympathetic to militarism. His philosophy, however, was always impossible to pigeon hole in neat categories like that. What he meant to me was a questioning of all conventional social ideas, a huge respect and love for women, a dislike of prejudices, and a love of individualism. Heinlein did things his own way so much that he constantly invented new words, several of them have entered the Oxford English Dictionary, like the verb grok (an internal understanding especially used in the computer world) and waldo (the name for mechanical arms that manipulate hazardous materials remotely).

My favorites of his story's are probably "By His Bootstraps", "Methuselah's Children", "The Man Who Sold The Moon", and "Friday". "Stranger In A Strange Land", however, while not my favorite, was one of those books that (along side books such as "The Catcher In The Rye" and "On The Road") was transformative for me as a young man. Thats why, I really should have written a thank you letter to Heinlein when I still had a chance.

Fire At Porky's "Brothel" In Kings Cross

I must be an innocent. I always thought of Porky's as just a low class sex toys and porno shop. A fire this morning showed it is quite a bit more than that and it has far more patrons than I would have expected. News reports say about a hundred patrons were evacuated due to a fire. Porky's is described variously as a night club, strip club, and a brothel. The fire was contained to just one room, although smoke damage was more extensive. The fire started at 4:25 am in a bedroom.

It appears there are suspicians that the fire might have been deliberately lit as the police are reported as saying it is "suspicious". I wonder if, in an age of smoking restrictions, a fire started by a cigarette in a bed would now fit the definition of a suspicious fire?

Two people are in hospital being treated for smoke inhalation.

Cavalier Theft Of Old Master

Old Master worth $1.4 million stolen. Police believe it is an "inside job".

These were the surprising headlines this week. It was brazenly unscewed from its security mounting on the wall in a small gallery room that had no CCTV, and then presumably carried away under someone's coat.

A Cavalier (Self Portrait) (1657-1659) by Frans van Mieris
This delightful little painting has for many years been one of my favorites at the Art Gallery of NSW. I remember when it was given to them in 1993 by James Fairfax. Many people failed to recognize the significance of this tiny work, but it is beautifully painted by a master who was trained by Gerrit Dou (who himself was trained by Rembrandt) and who had 2 sons who became significant painters, and a grandson who had the same name as him, and was also a painter of note. Hence the grandfather is called Frans van Mieris The Elder.

His paintings were always small, rarely more than 30 x 40 cm (12 x 15 inches). In this painting he painted himself as an officer. The painting of portraits in military costume was common at this time (Rembrandt made several) but the costumes were not always representative of reality - often they were more theatrical than an indication of a military occupation. They were however, popular with the public, who attached a romantic association on them, and so they sold well.

Frans van Mieris (1635 - 1681) was about 22 to 24 years old when he painted this self portrait, at what would normally be the start of a career. Van Mieris, however was precocious and there is a painting by him in The Hermitage that is reliably dated to 1650 when he was only 15 that would be assumed by most to be the work of a mature master. In this self portrait he looks full of confidence and well prepared for a life as a fashionable artist. Despite an extraordinary painting ability, van Mieris was not as adventurous as some other and perhaps greater artist's because his paintings tended to follow a similar general pattern of composition of Gerrit Dou, his teacher. It was the safe and conservative approach. Unlike Rembrandt who was prepared to upset patrons in order to convey his artistic vision, van Mieris always pleased his patrons. He was rewarded with commissions from the heads of state of Europe and was consequently prosperous. While very successful he did not enjoy a long life and it is a good thing he started very young because he died aged only 46 years in 1681.

Missing In Action: David Hockney's Logic Board

What else could I think when this week David Hockney made himself look silly and out of touch in many people's eyes when he claimed this week that the iPod was destroying culture, painting, and good dress sense to boot. All this from a man who was one of the leading light of the Pop Movement, an artistic philosophy that disdained traditional standards in favor of the celebration of the lowest common denominator in popular culture.

It was Hockney, who in his masterpiece "The Splash" (1966) made a paean to vacuous Hollywood culture in the conception and then heightened the effect with brushwork that was sparing in its use of painterly qualities. The idea plumbed further cultural low points in the follow up pictures "The Little Splash" and was followed the next year with "A Bigger Splash".

It was about this time that he started making artworks by montaging Polaroid photos. I, like many young artists loved it, but we tended to see it as part of a move to question the need for traditional painting.

Is this week's news really from the man who made an artform out of pop technology with his Polaroid montages? The Polaroid camera was America's popular answer to the need for instant gratification in photography. An icon of all that represented living in the moment. The cool tool of 1966. Is this not  the great leading light of Pop Art now turning his back on one of the greatest Pop icon's of the modern age?

Now that Hockney is almost 70 has the king of pop painting lost his understanding of pop? In attacking the iPod it could be said that a past pop icon is attacking a present pop icon?

This is what was reported in the June 14th Sydney Morning Herald:

Speaking on the eve of his 70th birthday, Britain's best-loved living painter said the proliferation of iPods - Apple has sold more than 100 million worldwide - and other digital music players has combined with a decline in art education to create a "fallow period of painting".

"We are not in a very visual age," Hockney said. "I think it's all about sound. People plug in their ears and don't look much, whereas for me my eyes are the biggest pleasure.

"You notice that on buses. People don't look out of the window; they are plugged in and listening to something.

"I think we are not in a very visual age and it's producing badly dressed people. They have no interest in mass or line or things like that."

Hockney appears to suggest that somehow music stops people from seeing. An interesting theory considering that one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance and one of the revolutionary early exponents of oil painting, Leonardo da Vinci famously employed musicians to play while he painted. Most modern artists, I suspect would agree with Leonardo that music is an inspiration that carries the mind to new creative places, and whether Mozart or Missy Higgins, music is commonly considered an essential part of the artist's life.

Music enhances the visual experience and can add an emotional and creative context to the visual world. I love nothing more than listening to a rock 'n' roller at full blast while walking through the center of a 2am Kings Cross in party mood. Equally I might be in the mood for old time crooners in another part of town. Music helps me interpret and immerse myself in the fabric of my surroundings.

David Hockney also appears never to have owned an iPod, because if he had used iTunes and his iPod, he would have discovered much more than just music of benefit to the modern cultural producer. I carry on my iPod photographs of my artwork as a walking gallery with exhibition open all hours. Some of my poetry is there too. I also use the iPod to listen to audio books. I just finished reading Xenophon - The March Of The Ten Thousand. Commuting in a train becomes a wonderful opportunity for me to catch up on good literature. I wonder if Hockney would in that case blame reading the classics for a decline in painting standards too?

It is fascinating to me too that when Xenophon wrote his book more than 2,000 years ago, books were scarce and handmade. Most people heard the stories in books not from reading print, but from hearing the story spoken out loud, often from people reciting from memory. The iPod re-invigorates this experience by bringing the book in the form of the spoken word. This is a marvelous discovery.

Another news item in the last week contrasts tellingly with Hockneys poorly thought through statement. Another famous British pop export of the 1960's Paul McCartney this week announced that his new album, variously described as vibrant and rejuvenated will be released on iTunes to be listened to on iPods. McCartney is nearly the same age as Hockney, but he sounds and thinks like a young man.

Hockney, on the other hand sounds like an old man from a hundred years ago who might say about the telephone that it has destroyed the art of conversation, and that if God had meant us to speak over long distances he would have given us louder voices. In all ages those who get left behind by cultural and technological developments tend to blame the new ways for perceived declines in standards, while those switched on to the new currents tend to think their new ways are better. In fact neither side is entirely correct, there rarely is such a thing as better or worse, rather there is simply change. To be involved in that change is to find it easier to be vibrant and creative. The energy inherent in the changing ideas adds to and interacts with the artist's own energy.

At the moment visual ideas are rapidly changing as artists discover digital possibilities. Some of the work is sensational. It takes all forms, some of my favorites are on YouTube. Rather than cultural decline I am seeing a cultural explosion. It just needs a new look to discover the new visuals.

So now, when on a bus I do not have to be annoyed by the banality of other passengers loud talk about work colleagues or sickness in the family, or some gossip about last night's episode of Big Brother. If the iPod ever isolates, it does so in a good way by filtering out distractions to creative thinking processes. Isolation is often mentioned in regard to iPods, yet I find the opposite is true. Besides putting me in touch with musical and literary genius, or allowing a space for my ideas to flourish, it is also simply something to share with another. Besides the obvious of discussing books and music another more direct pleasure is possible. Sometimes I might plug in a "Y" junction which allows two head phones to be plugged into an iPod. There are few things more romantic than sharing an iPod song with someone special. Or looking out the window and enjoying the visual feast. All I can say is thank you to the iPod for enhancing my life both as an artist and as a human being.

Farewell To Pluto

This was the week when I finally came to accept the reclassification of Pluto as no longer being a true planet. I heard an interview with an astronomer (I can't remember if it was on radio or in a podcast) in which he was pointing out the clear difference in characteristics between the 8 major planets and every other object in the solar system, including of course, Pluto.

It is a series of characteristics including size, and the way they interact with their orbital environment. Pluto clearly has more in common with Asteroids and Kuiper belt objects than it does with the major planets.

For a long time I had viewed the late move to declassify Pluto as political maneuvering and preferred the definition of a planet as being the ability of an object to form itself gravitationally into a spherical shape. The interview plus this weeks announcement of an accurate size for Eris, another Kuiper Belt object in the vicinity of Pluto. Eris has been shown to be 27% larger than Pluto. It kind of makes Pluto seem that little bit less significant.

I remember as a kid that Pluto's size was still only a guess, with some estimates giving it a diameter almost half that of the Earth. It was easier to accept it as a planet then. Size does count. Of course over the years Pluto's known size gradually reduced, first with the discovery of Charon, Pluto's moon. Increasingly accurate measurements of Pluto's size lead to the realization that it is quite small after all. It is smaller than some moons in the solar system, and as it turns out, smaller than at least one other ice world in the outer solar system.

So, Pluto, farewell as a planet, I didn't let you go lightly.

The image shows Pluto and it's largest moon, Charon.