Collage shortcuts

The following quotation was read to me by my wife.

Paul Ricoeur: First I am struck by the sense of obligation to work for great artists. They treat themselves harshly, without mercy. Why? What compels them, if not, I would say, "the thing to do." It seems a vicious circle: the thing to do requires to be done. There is a profound demand, of moral character even. I am very sensitive to the life of a Beethoven or a Wagner, retreating into the Bavarian castles. The one and the other working as brutes.

Question: I still do not understand. What debt are they trying to fulfill?

Paul Ricoeur: I do not know, exactly. Because they create it by paying it, this debt. It Is to be bound by what we are doing.
(Construire 1995)

This is a very insightful idea, in my opinion. It seems to me to correspond with my artwork that I feel like an obsession. A debt that is created by oneself, puts the artist in a continuing duty, which ensures that the work will be done. I have already expressed the idea that my website was like a voracious monster that had to be fed constantly and could not be abandoned, unless to sentence him to die. And what about blogs and social networks but to say that's about the same. I see this "debt" as the motor of creation, the injunction to create, which is very beneficial for me because I could spend my pension going for a walk or drinking in the sidewalk cafes, constantly travelling or running from one exhibition to another and so on. No, if I do not at least one collage a day, I feel compelled to make up that "lost." time.
La citation qui suit m’a été lue par ma femme.
Paul Ricœur : D’abord je suis frappé par le sentiment d’obligation de travail des grands artistes. Ils se traitent durement, impitoyablement. Pourquoi ? Qu’est-ce qui les oblige, sinon, je dirais, « la chose à faire ». Ça paraît un cercle vicieux : la chose à faire exige d’être faite. Il y a là une exigence profonde, de caractère moral même. Moi, je suis très sensible à la vie d’un Beethoven, ou d’un Wagner, s’enfermant dans ces châteaux bavarois. L’un et l’autre travaillant comme des brutes.
Question : Je ne comprends toujours pas. De quelle dette cherchent-ils à s’acquitter ?
Paul Ricœur : Je ne sais pas, précisément. Parce que c’est en s’acquittant qu’on la crée, cette dette. C’est être obligé par ce qu’on est en train de faire.
(Construire, 1995)
Il s’agit là d’une idée très perspicace, à mon avis. Cela semble en tout cas me correspondre en ce qui concerne le travail artistique que je ressens comme une obsession. Une dette qu’on se crée soi-même, met l’artiste dans une obligation constante, qui assure que l’œuvre se fasse. J’ai déjà exprimé l’idée que mon site internet était comme un monstre vorace qu’il fallait nourrir sans cesse et qu’on ne pouvait abandonner sous peine de le condamner à mourir. Et quoi dire des blogs et réseaux sociaux sinon que c’est à peu près pareil. Je perçois cette « dette » comme le moteur de la création, l’injonction à créer, qui est très bénéfique dans mon cas, car j’aurais pu passer ma retraite à aller me promener ou à boire des coups aux terrasses des cafés, voyager sans cesse, courir d’une exposition à l’autre etc. Mais non, si je ne fais pas au moins un collage par jour, je me sens obligé de rattraper ce temps « perdu ».

The other night I had a strange dream where I was with a Japanese master. At one point I had to climb onto a platform, but without success. I heard (?) then the phrase "You are too full." When I awoke, I tried to find the meaning of this dream, but in vain, apart considerations such as: you do with water retention, it is surely that. In fact, I believe that the most important movement in the dream was the efforts to get on the platform, much like the artist chasing the ideal work throughout his life but without getting there.
During the afternoon collage session , I quickly created the character half man and half stone and I was already thinking to leave it as such. But a sudden inspiration made me stick a guy who tries to climb onto a bar, without thinking of my dream. It was before falling asleep, that the link between dreams and the collage became clear to me. This relationship is not literal. The collage is more distanced. It looks at the efforts of the man from the outside, it sees him as a kind of puppet. But for me the meaning of the dream is manifested or condensed. This is the first time that this happens and I hope that it will continue. At over 3000 collages made, I think my brain has developed some habits or at least is boosted by the ongoing work that seeks to open the floodgates of my imagination and let the dream invade the pictorial field.
L’autre nuit, j’ai fait un rêve étrange où je me trouvais chez un maître japonais. A un moment, je devais me hisser sur une plate-forme, mais sans y parvenir. J’ai entendu ( ?) alors la phrase : « Tu es trop rempli ». A mon réveil, j’ai essayé de trouver le sens de ce rêve, mais en vain, à part des considérations du genre : tu fais de la rétention d’eau, c’est sûrement cela. En fait, je crois que le mouvement le plus important a été ces efforts de monter sur la plate-forme, un peu comme l’artiste court après l’œuvre idéale toute sa vie durant sans pouvoir y parvenir.

L’après-midi, lors de ma séance de collage, j’ai vite créé le personnage mi-homme, mi-pierre et je pensais déjà à le laisser comme tel. Mais une inspiration subite m’a fait coller un bonhomme qui cherche à se hisser vers une barre, sans penser à mon rêve. Ce n’est qu’avant de m’endormir, que le lien entre le rêve et le collage m’est apparu clairement. Cette parenté n’est pas littérale. Le collage est plus distancié. Il regarde les efforts du bonhomme de l’extérieur, il le voit comme une espèce de pantin. Mais pour moi, le sens du rêve s’y est manifesté, voire condensé. C’est la première fois que cela m’arrive et j’espère bien que cela va continuer. A plus de 3000 collages faits, je pense bien que mon cerveau a acquis quelques habitudes ou du moins a été stimulé par ce travail incessant qui cherche à ouvrir les vannes de mon imaginaire et à laisser le rêve envahir le champ pictural.

I decided to start another blog, but without words and only with snapshots taken on my walks. I like the idea of being completely spontaneous, instantaneous. I’m not a great photographer but I try to see as I told it my students when I was teaching photography in college. I am getting deep satisfaction by taking pictures. I am not as interested in landscapes as in people seen at a glance, and above all, I adore composing a picture in a second, that’s excitement for me. Today, I went out with my camera just for 20 minutes and I came back with some nice shots!
In the past, photography was the saving straw for me when my imagination had apparently dried out. This is not the case today. I just want to do more and different things.
As for collage, this blog will continue to show a reflection on my collages and the creative process involved. I feel that the latter is no more a problem for me: I just cut, tear, assemble and glue and that’s it! Hopefully this will last for a while. It’s like being on a holiday after tormented times. And on my site, the number of collages displayed is approaching the number 3000! And I shall go on! Because collage is magical!

Have a look at my photos.

I’m currently experiencing an acute photo phase. When I go out, I always walk with a camera ready to shoot. I would like to discuss two of my photos here.

1) An " abstract painting" . When I see this picture, I wonder how I could do better. It seems to me that chances has so much done things right that I could remove the board and expose it as such. This gives me an insight into gestural abstract painting in the sense that I see it as a result of controlled accidents. And, opening one’s eyes, like Brassaï in his days, one may encounter "pictorial" motives that are as good as a real abstract painting.

2) To see if this also applies to figurative painting, here is a photo taken at a funeral. Triggering, I strongly thought about the Entombment by Titian, although nothing in the picture literally evokes it. Of course, painting has more opportunities here on to create a background, choose colors, etc. Because this photo is a snapshot. But the art of figurative painting from nature is (almost) lost: it is now largely reserved for photography.

Andcollage in all this? Well, it uses the images, regardless of their origin and recomposes them. It is - at least in my case - an art of manipulation, it's mix and remix, like a DJ does. It's fascinating, but it's also good to look up from one’s desk and go look out.

Je connais actuellement une phase photographique aigüe. Je me promène toujours avec un appareil prêt à déclencher. Je voudrais discuter deux photos ici.
1) Une « peinture » abstraite. Quand je vois cette photo, je me demande comment je pourrais faire mieux. Il me semble que le hasard y a tellement bien fait les choses, que j’aurais pu démonter le panneau et l’exposer tel quel. Cela me donne un éclairage sur la peinture abstraite gestuelle en ce sens que je la vois comme fruit d’un hasard contrôlé. Et, en ouvrant les yeux, comme Brassaï, on peut tomber sur des motifs « picturaux » aussi satisfaisants qu’une peinture véritable.
2) Pour voir si cela s’applique aussi à la figuration, voici une photo prise lors d’un enterrement. En déclenchant, j’ai fortement pensé à la Mise au Tombeau du Titien, même si rien dans la photo n’évoque littéralement ce motif. Naturellement, la peinture a ici davantage de possibilités quant au fond, aux couleurs, etc., car il s’agit d’un instantané. Mais cet art-là est perdu : il est dorénavant réservé à la photographie.

Et le collage dans tout cela ? Eh bien, il utilise les images, quelle que soit leur origine et les recompose. C’est – en tout cas en ce qui me concerne - un art de manipulation, c’est du mix et remix, à la manière d’un Dj. C’est fascinant, mais il est bon aussi de lever le nez de son bureau et d’aller regarder dehors.

This big Italian catalogue inspires me for some ironic collages. There is a big hype nowadays about weddings. I never went into that; my own weddings (2) were sober, limited to close friends. My daughter made it much bigger, but thank God she did it only once. What amuses me is how the boys and girls are displayed on the pages. They look really artificial and not so happy. And when they are coupled, they don’t seem to have any relationship other than to show the dress or the suit. The other week-end, when we were at the Lake Thun in a splendid setting, there was a photographer making wedding pictures, maybe that this is the explanation for that. And I guess that I am a bit tired of news pictures and in search of something different. B.t.w. on behalf of my facebook publications, people seem to prefer my more "realistic" collages to the more complicated ones. I can understand that, but I won't make it too easy for my "followers".