Some Artwork

To recall Stephen Wright's "I've been doing alot of abstract painting lately, extremely abstract. No brush, no paint, no canvas. I just think about it." That summarizes well my "productivity" in the last ten years, or so. Yet every now and then, I still feel that "pull" to break out the charcoals, oils, water colors, etc. To me, this is reassuring--to know that the impetus still lurks about, in the corner of my mind, or in the corner of my mind's "eye."

Times past, it was a different story: In the midst of my busy academic life (whether as a student, or teacher, or usually both) I experienced bursts of productivity. Perhaps those productive bursts shall revisit me later--certain pursuits or passions have a chronically recurring character. In any case, for me this activity has always been an avocation, although I don't like to think of it as something "encapsulated" from the rest of life--whether "public," "practical," or "personal."

What motivates one in these pursuits? I don't profess any insights here that certainly countless others past and present have not shared in much greater depth, breadth, and substance. It is an utter platitude to view art as a form of communication and expression, and I believe that the platitude exists for an obvious reason: judging from my own experience, I find it to be reassuring that what can be meaningfully expressed or communicated can sometimes lie outside what can be articulated. Words and concepts alone may not necessarily "corner the market" on what one may judge to be meaningful. (Well and wise was William James, when he spoke of the "noetic" and "ineffable" qualities of some kinds of experiences, in his classic The Varieties of Religious Experience.)