Is it art? is not in this instance asked of the object, the gesture, the idea, but offered in response to the command: Name the most popular answer on the topic of what gives people pleasure.
IS ... is the presence of the object, the gesture, the idea.
IT ... is the subject of what follows (it could be anything).
ART ... is the atmosphere -- the mood, the condition -- that imparts its terms.
*
The artist steps back from the easel and the sunshine reminds her of how good the Earth is. A day as warm and as light blue as this, the shrubs and flowers nourished from last night’s rain, a breeze descending, cooling our perspiration, pressing it against us.
On the easel a small square of rag paper, and on it a pastel impression of the view before it. From the bluff looking down, the darker blue oval of the bay, with its tan beaches and chalk cliffs, a dozen small white sailboats at its centre, their bows pointing this way and that.
*
Sometimes after work she stops at a corner café between the bank and her place. Thursday was not as warm as it was on Sunday, and for this reason she had already made up her mind to keep walking.
An arm rises from the crowded tables. Rising again with a familiar face, beckoning her. The excited face of the man she takes her sketches to.
A seat is cleared, she feels everything is moving quickly and by some predetermined force. Her body is gone, and that's fine because all that is required of her is what she thinks, what matters to her, and sometimes why. When she gets up to leave, everyone will agree that it ended well.
No comments:
Post a Comment