From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Wed Aug 31 2005 - 14:26:37 BST
Hi Marsha,
> Hi Platt,
>
> It is a beautiful painting. To me, Sargent was an artist possessed by
> grace. There are many artists I admire, but he is the teacher for this
> humble student.
Me, too. If I could approach half of Sargent's artistic and technical
abilities, I would be a supremely happy man.
> This particular painting has had a mysterious affect on me. I checked and
> I actually painted it in 1999. As you know when you attempt such a copy
> you look very hard to see what the original painter saw. At the time, I
> saw humanity, a man and a woman standing before the artist. Without the
> trappings of modernity, they stood possessing great dignity. I thought
> them the most beautiful people I'd ever seen. I managed a very
> satisfactory copy which I hung in my studio. I was very proud of the
> painting. Not because of any painting skill on my part, but because I
> thought I had captured what Sargent had seen.
>
> Then came 9/11. I saw a resemblance between the man in the painting and
> Bin Ladin, both in physical appearance and spiritual presence. This threw
> me into total confusion. I couldn't stop looking at this man and this
> woman. Who were they really? Who is Bin Ladin? Having made this copy of
> Sargent's watercolor, I am without answers. The media and its pundits are
> far too crass to provide an answer. "They're terrorists!" is not a
> complete answer. Under that label "terrorist" there are much deeper
> questions.
>
> Maybe painting is teaching me that there are only questions, with solutions
> that only last a moment. Does that make sense?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feelings. Yes, what painting has
taught you makes sense in that all is temporary, except beauty (or Quality
if you will). Beautiful paintings like those watercolors by Sargent bring
me to the brink of tears. Why? Edgar Allen Poe explained it best IMO:
"When we find ourselves near the point of tears in apprehending beauty, we
weep not through an excess of pleasure, but through a certain petulant,
impatient sorrow at our inability to grasp now, wholly, here on earth, at
once and forever, those divine and rapturous joys of which in rare
moments, we attain a brief and indeterminate glimpse. The artist struggles
to create such supernal beauty, to make one see or hear with shivering
delight a sight or sound which cannot have been unfamiliar to angels."
> In the months leading up to the present Iraqi War, I made a painting of
> John Wayne. I was trying to discover a deeper level of the American
> culture, my culture. I cried a lot.
IMO Marsha, beauty transcends cultures, beliefs and certainly politics. I
don't think of it in those terms at all. Maybe I'm missing something
important. I guess you would call me a believer in "art for art's sake."
> Painting has become my religion. Is your experience similar?
Not painting so much as beauty which painting tries to elicit. Both Pirsig
and I lost a child. I believe where beauty is, they are. And I cry a lot.
Platt
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