Connections

Man stands at the juncture of nature and spirit, he is involved in both freedom and necessity, he is both limited and limitless.

Reidar Thomte
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My uncle Stanley Bate was a successful painter. He lived and worked in the Hudson River valley, as did many other great painters. I learned an important concept from him, the art of visualization. It's the act of connecting the seen with the unseen, the fact with the fiction, of bringing together two realities, of telling a story by means of a story.

One of my favorite paintings of Uncle Stanley's is a picture of four empty chairs and four empty music stands grouped around in a semi circle. It's called "String Quartet."

Every work of art is limited by dimensions, materials and the craftsmanship of the artist. But there is attached to it something unlimited, something which exists in the artist's imagination. That something is the true story of the work of art. The art itself is merely a manifestation of what is really taking place. the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

I took that lesson and began to apply it to my own work. When a character enters a scene the actor has to know when to start in order to be in the proper place at the right time, or how many steps it takes him to get into place. He also needs to know why his character is entering the scene and where he is coming from. That's the objective reality of the moment. But the actor also has to know and bring on the stage with him the subjective reality of the character, a certain mentality, a remembrance of sights, sounds and aromas, a lifetime of experiences.

I also began to realize how important it was to visualize the life behind the words. Even in the case of master playwrights like Shakespeare and O'Neill there was more work to be done by the performer. Each speech carried the obligation to fulfill the words with the sights and sounds of not only the subject being discussed but the real life that surrounds the person speaking it. The words may evoke the image but the image is different for each actor who speaks them.

Miles Davis said "Don't play what's there, play what isn't there." Louis Armstrong said "What we play is life." An actor who doesn't know his words is lost in a jungle of confusion and uncertainty. Just as an actor needs to know his words, so a musician needs to know his notes. From that basis he can then play the visions and memories in his head, the stuff that "isn't there."

So when we look at a painting, watch an actor perform or listen to a piece of music we have the freedom and obligation to look beyond the facade to the super reality, the unlimited life of the artist and the art. To really listen to the music or the drama is listening instead to what the artist is saying which can't be said in notes and words. When we do that we can experience surprising results.

DB - The True Vagabond
Never give up.
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SUMMER QUESTION

Summer is moving along, people.

It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 14 answers so far.

You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.

DB
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Drawing It Out

What we play is life?

Louis Armstrong
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I have a book on learning how to draw by Robert Beverly Hale, "Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters." In a very active and full career as an artist, writer and lecturer, Hale also was an instructor in drawing at the Art Students League in New York City. I was blessed to be able to take his last 12 classes before he retired back up to New England. He had an infectious joy in art, an amazingly perceptive eye for the best in his students' works and a sense of humor.

Is music notes in a score correctly played? Is poetry a proper string of words depicting an image?. Is painting expertly made brush stokes? Is drawing the human figure accurate lines on a piece of paper? What did the old masters know that we need to know?

One evening at the Cafe Carlyle in New York I saw Mabel Mercer sing "Both Sides Now" and when she sang "I really don't know love at all" my heart burst and tears came. I thought if Mabel Mercer, in her long and magical life, didn't know love than no one did.

Right now I'm listening to Nathan Milstein play the Bach Chaconne for solo violin. It is an amazing 14 minute journey through human experiences and when I hear it I feel privileged to be a part of Bach's and Milstein's life.

If it's great art it's not just tones, words, colors and lines, it's not just melodies, poems and pictures. Look behind those things, look beyond them to what is really there. The dancer is dancing it, the musician is playing it, the author is writing it, the actor is acting it, the painter is painting it.

There comes a point in the study of life drawing when you stop drawing a human figure and start drawing a human being. You start drawing life.

Dana Bate
The Vagabond
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AUTUMN QUESTION

(This is not a contest.)

At what event of the past do you wish you could be present? Why?

2 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
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