Fortitude: Braving the Art of Self-Expression

"Fortitude" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 5 1/2" x 7 1/2"

Painting #5 Day 8 in Leslie Saeta's 30 Day Painting Challenge 

"I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream—past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was—there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I had—but man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream." - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare

In the fantastical world of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Bottom for a brief time is literally turned into a jackass with ears.   He recalls it as a dream and wants to tell others about it but he reasons that the story is too fantastic for anyone to possibly believe it, and it is too grand for him to put into words and give it justice.  Besides, people will think him a fool if he were to tell anyone about it.  So he decides not to tell the story himself but instead to hand it over to another to craft it for him.

What a gift that dream would be to an artist who felt he had the ability to turn it into a work of art! Imagine someone who wasn't afraid of taking the risk of telling a story that was so fantastical that no one would believe it.  Someone like uh, I know, William Shakespeare!

The work in the world of the arts that stops me in my tracks and takes my breath aways strikes me as a courageously honest example of self-expression.  I think, "Wow! You just lay it all on the line!"

I am very much aware of the need to have courage when I paint.  I sometimes carve the words "practice fortitude" "be brave" "courage" into the paper as I'm working, and as I am seeking more authenticity in my own self-expression.  And that is what this painting seems to signify today; the figure is standing inside, peeking out into the light, considering the pitfalls and the rewards of authentic self-expression, mustering up the courage to step forward into the world of creativity and risk-taking .

Re-Turning

Re-Turning 

Hello out there! Carp Paints has been a sparse blog, has it not? Two posts followed by silence for 26 months. How do I get back in your good graces after such a long absence?

I found the beginnings of my last blog attempt and I thought I’d start by reflecting on that which I wrote two years ago.

My art is constantly surprising me. I used to think that I was starting all over again when I started painting, but since I've started painting with acrylics (and doing Cosmos Chi Kung) I'm feeling like it is not a new beginning but rather a real continuation of the same journey, focusing on the same underlying questions about knowing... how do I know... how do I interpret the world I inhabit... how do I create meaning. I don't really think of these things before I paint, but after. I look at the painting and then say "Oh! Really!" Interestingly enough I have this one painting that I am fascinated with. It started with my thinking about the scene in Romeo and Juliet the morning after they have their only night together... he hears the lark and she argues that it's the nightingale... I wrote those lines into the painting. Well, as the painting evolved it seemed to resist me-- sort of had a mind of its own if you can imagine that. - Jan 23 2009

At first glance I’d say that the underlying threads in my reflections on the creative process have not changed much. I’m still fascinated and astonished by the process, still looking at the connections between what I do now (paint) and what I did before (theatre). I’m beginning to understand that the creative process is essentially the same whether I’m directing a play, inventing a lesson plan on how to approach one of Shakespeare’s plays, writing fiction, or painting with acrylic on paper. Happily, this painting, “The Nightingale…The Lark” seems to be an appropriate painting for my re-turn to the blogosphere. The painting was -- at one stage in the process -- a literal depiction of Romeo and Juliet, with Romeo looking out at the landscape and Juliet at his feet pleading with him to stay. It wasn’t working… at least, Juliet wasn’t working-- so I decided to take her out altogether with isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel. It was only then that the standing figure on the right began to emerge. I thought about the implications of this new figure and how it affects the meaning of the other figure staring out at the landscape. I think it lifts the painting out of the specifics of the play and moves it in the direction of the allegorical.

And so, here I stand, awake and ready to walk into the blogosphere again, sharing my questions about the creative process and what it is like for me to be in it.

"The Nightingale... The Lark" was on exhibit in the 2010 Thomas Center Galleries Regional Juried Exhibition, July 17 - September 13, 2010.  For more information click here.