Fw: La Valise Noire (2)

I had quite some interesting discussions this week about this new concept, and I had quite some different reactions.
One conversation I had today with Frederik Beerbaum, another artist with much more experience but with the same interests in philosophy and the role of art in life.
He had a few interesting comments that made me think and I would like to document them here.

One of the new drawings this week for La Valise Noire.
I would say the two silhouettes at the top would represent my children.

One reflection:
We have different force fields at work inside us, made of areas that we do not understand, creating tension. This tension requires us to release the related subjects frequently in order to reduce pressure. For an artist this can be through the process of painting.

I very much like this concept. In fact I tried to translate this to the concept of La Valise Noire; by making the drawing I bring the escaping images into the light, they become part of the explicit part of my unknown, and then get sent back into the darkness of the black suitcase. This would also support the idea that it helps to reduce the force fields if we know more of the forces inside us. At the same time we will never be able to know all, which is also good; if we could explain everything in our lives we would reduce the magic of life to a set of mechanical formulas. This also relates to the start of the book I found with the title 'La valise noire', where the writer says: 'as our images and thoughts are the result of an area we don't understand we can never see the full truth. And despite that we always succeed to convince ourselves that our opinion is the right one, the only way to see it'. Well, that's a very free translation.

Frederik also had a nice poem of Dutch poet Gerrit Achterberg that he quoted (sorry quoting in Dutch):
O vrome vuur
Breng in mij over
Uwen uur en tover
Ik ben een lege schuur
Een lover
Een landweg in het middaguur
Een afgezette passagier
Een in beslag genomen koffer
Offerdier

He also referred to a nice book from Mello Ponti elaborating on the value of painting. He is part of the phenomenological stream of philosophers ( such as Kant, Heidegger etc.). The book is called 'oeil et esprit' (eye and spirit). Will definitely look this up when I'm in Paris.(issued by Galimar 1964)

This exchange of ideas comes back to the purpose of communicating; it helps to verify and enrich our own view of reality. And it brings lots of inspiration, especially for me when I talk to people that are passionately exploring the concepts of life, such as Frederik.

Next article with reflections on La Valise Noire

La Valise Noire

Explore your dark side, as it enriches the colors on the light side. Just make sure you do come back out of the dark.

I observe that there are moments when the darker patterns inside me take over; when for example something that started as inspiring threatens to become sort of destructive. Personally I experience this with alcohol; by itself drinking some wine helps to open the mind, even sometimes really supports getting into a highly productive flow, getting more in touch with my feelings, and reduce the influence of my ratio that wants to remain too much in control. But in the not so frequent occasions that I drink more and where there is a more sensitive context I can actually start showing behavior that would normally be corrected by my mind. And then it can ultimately damage the experience, a relationship or my self-image.

I think we all have our natural patterns, desires and dysfunctional behaviors. We can try to stay away from it, we can try to push them away or ignore them. In the end I think that we do not really change the darker and dysfunctional aspects of ourselves, we can just learn to deal with them in a better way. Whenever we have done things as a consequence of giving in to these darker patterns and desires, and we have been confronted with the unintended result, it gives us a feeling of guilt; causes a (sometimes more permanent) loss of energy. This loss of energy by itself is not really dysfunctional; when looking at it from a distance the ‘takeaway’ from what happened and the negative feeling should be that we learn something, that we act better next time; by compensating, solving or preventing. However, just losing energy because something went wrong in the past does not seem to bring anything to anyone.

I read some articles/books on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) where people learn to deal with such situations by visualizing the negative experience in their mind, and then sending it away until it has disappeared in the far distance. I have tried this for some situations and in some cases it actually seemed to work. Now, at the same time some of these things tend to come back after sending them away in my mind, but that could also be linked to my lack of skills and real training on this topic.

Now, the concept of La Valise Noire came into my mind when I saw some authentic metal suitcases somewhere in a small and charming shop in Paris. The basic concept will be: visualizing my dark experiences and the guilt related and send it into La Valise Noire, focusing on what I can improve/learn.
A few interesting thoughts to be taken into account while making the drawings that will fill La Valise Noire: (i) I will take a specific situation in my mind when starting to draw; I will try to recall the feeling and relive the experience. Starting with just a simple line I will then trust that the right image will appear; (ii) I draw with a small pen, making it a long work to finish the drawing, enabling me to really digest the feeling and the specific situation where I have feelings of guilt and/or regret. (iii) on the back side of the drawing I will write to the person concerned, explain in short phrases which elements were driving me when things happened, and trying to face the brutal truth. And add what I think I should change, as I should not forget the learning part.
I also see some parallels with leadership, but will explore that another time.

Anyway, I thought to share the start of this new concept. Any ideas or challenging opinions are welcome as they will help develop or change the concept. And any suggestions of things I did wrong are welcome too; there must be plenty and they will inspire me for making the right drawings ;)

Read here next article about La Valise Noire

Exhibition Cezanne et Paris - Musee du Luxembourg

Painting: la seine a Bercy >>1876-1878; second more powerful version of same painting in 1874


I was having a new years walk through Paris, covering quite some distance to push away all things that troubled and clouded my brain and creating some space to breathe.
I decided to visit the exhibition of 'Cezanne en Paris' at the small Musee de Luxembourg. The museum is tiny indeed and guess that they have some 50 paintings and drawings there now...not a lot and several paintings are landscapes or elements that are purely realistic and can be seen elsewhere. Still, I took away 2 things.
First the interesting relationship between between writer Emile Zola and Paul Cezanne from when they were around 16/15 years old until the moment that Zola wrote a book some 40 years of friendship later, about a strugling artist, who showed only a few similarities with Cezanne and in the end commits suicide.
Second is the technique that Cezanne uses in some of his paintings where he almost sways his strokes on the paper/canvas...it dazzles, it moves, it creates enormous dynamics. It is interesting to know that Cezanne grew up among the evolution of impressionism, and also some time worked outside to capture landscape. At the same time he seemed convinced of realism, which also caused Zola to write about it; in a caring way he observed his friend Cezanne following this 'wrong' path of realism knowing the new artistic flow of impressionism.
Things I take away are (i) a confirmation that we need to seek interaction to undrstand what we paint, exchange ideas to test them and innovate. And (ii) to dare standing on the shoulders of my forefathers, to keep studying their techniques and see where I can improve or innovate. For example I started to experiment with similar strokes as Cezanne and although not perfect yet I am sure I will integrate this in my coming abstracte work. I am convinced it will enrich it and create more dynamics in the painting, especially when mixed with abstract shapes.

All in all quite inspiring start of the new year.
Bonne annee to all.