"rare and original idiosyncracies"

A hand-shaped spot: I'm having a flashback to high school English class, to that one titular blemish on the woman's face in Hawthorne's "The Birth-Mark." There is vitality in imperfection.

From the poet Emily Carr:
"In an online interview, Carole Maso says, 'I am much more interested in producing a flawed, mortal document than something that is just a nod to a certain set of conventions. I also tend to favor writing that is an event in some way, & not just the record of an event; it creates a more vulnerable, fluid space, where the unforeseen, or the errant, or something a little wild is allowed to enter. […] My work is dictated by passion & deep emotion—all that is necessary is to surrender to the text without a care for what it is.'”

Carr continues, "I believe form is a matter of temperment, of what Jorie Graham calls 'rare and original idiosyncrasies.'"

from An Interview with Emily Carr, Poet
http://www.robmclennan.blogspot.com/2012/01/12-or-20-questions-second-series-with.html

Harry Callahan

I really recommend the Harry Callahan exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. Looking at his work, I see a guy always attuned to the visual world, to whatever moments and phenomena and bits ands bobs that he might encounter. And also always willing to perform all sorts of experiments with his photography -- collaging, double-exposing, etc (see the photo above that is of a stationary flashlight in a dark room, with Callahan moving the camera).

A faith in intuition and experiment, and in always LOOKING. I have been painting a lot from imagination and photos lately, but I need to go back to painting from life, experiencing that intense kind of seeing that lets you observe the marvelous in the ordinary. Seeing Callahan's work made me think about this, and the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote about being "uplifted into infinite spaces, -- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all."

I'd like to know more about Callahan's life and his art-making and art-teaching. The exhibition text described him as a quiet, modest, doubt-full sort of teacher. He took so many shots but selected a very few for finished works.

Here are some quotes:

I think nearly every artist continually wants to reach the edge of nothingness - the point where you can't go any further.

The photographs that excite me are photographs that say something in a new manner; not for the sake of being different, but ones that are different because the individual is different and the individual expresses himself.

I photograph continuously, often without a good idea or strong feelings. During this time the photos are nearly all poor but I believe they develop my seeing and help later on in other photos. I do believe strongly in photography and hope by following it intuitively that when the photographs are looked at they will touch the spirit in people.

Quote

"With my students, I don’t even talk about abstraction and representation, because I think we’re beyond that. I think we’re at a time where everything is abstract and everything is representational. It’s more about how you find your own language with paint. It’s really just your body and its relationship to the world. Using the senses is not anti-intellectual."
Painter Josephine Halvorson in The Brooklyn Rail

Milton Glaser Quotes

The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire, and persistence. Talent without these things vanishes and even modest talent with those characteristics grows.
--Milton Glaser