06.06.03 A Blast from the Past

This website updating is sometimes a pain in the ass:-) It's not so easy to imagine what you might be interested in knowing. If there was some revelation to be given I'd reveal it, but I confess to be in the dark about the psychological aspects of my art and it's merit. So let me use Harry Bush to give you a practical aspect of doing art. If you, by some chance, aren't familiar with his work you've got a treat in store. Harry was my hero artistically speaking. He was my mentor, but his world view was so dark it would take all I had to fight off his pessimism and look forward to good times. Rereading his letter from the summer of 88 I'm humbled by how much easier my life is being than was his. Here he's being sarcastically charming comparing ourselves to the Old Masters while resigned to the emphysemic deterioration of his final years. It still gives me a wierd energetic push to read his words.

Thursday, 30 June, San Juan Capistrano,CA

Dear Tom, I see you, too, are noticing the tiresome interference of everyday 'busy-ness'. Home and garden alone: stuff like doing your own laundry, vacuuming, your own ring around the tub-- you could fritter your life away being a fastidious housekeeper, but where would that get you in the ArtWorld? I also know well that you could hack and slash your way through the garden, endlessly grooming, etc. I have often considered the "Master", who very often had a bevy of people performing these pedestrian tasks for them. Wives and mistresses, neophyte and apprentices - all of them clearing the way to leave the Master free to do his Art. (Not to mention someone to look after the finances--to either provide patronage and support( even a place to live) or someone to manage those affairs for the Masters.

In many ways it takes two to Tango. It is VERY difficult to do it all yourself. That's when you get trapped into the drudgeries of shaggy grass borders creeping into the flower beds, a dismal round of demanding duties and tasks which keep you 'busy' at essentially nonproductive (simply repetitive) work. And 'work' per se - a job - is the Kibosh of Art - the problem of the artist to sustain himself. And it inevitably proves out that the 'job' takes precedence, takes over, and Art is down the drain. One has to eat, have a roof over his head, have this, have that, and very few of us artists get it by being artists.....I think I'm despondent because I never get 'better'. One somehow expects to 'recover' or improve from an illness. Guess I never will. In fact, it just seems to be a slow, sliding deterioration. Oh well, mustn't think of it.

It's beginning, in the afternoons, to heat up here, in uncomfortable, sticky ways. Well, take it easy, yourself,Harry

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For no particular reason my life hasn't taken the turns Harry had to maneuver. It heats up, but in the most enjoyable of sticky ways;-)

these are two links to one of my favorite paintings so far- it would be here to open the show, but for modesty:-)

http://tomjonesmen.com/tomjones-legal.jpg http://tomjonesmen.com/tomjones-legal-decor.jpg