Literature and Art

Comment

Comment by Guido Vermeulen on August 10, 2011 at 10:40pm

Hi Theresa,

Thanks, also for info on a few authors I don't know. I have 1800 books in my personal library, makes "moving house" a nightmare!

Small envelope means a standard size envelope, landscape size and more and more I use the complete space, means that I write address on the back and put stamps also on the back (10,5 X  21,5 cm).

Large envelope means envelopes for A4. You've had those already (22,5 X 30,5 cm).

Large paintings can be 50X 70, 60X80 or even larger but then you have to demand a frame on measure which is expensive. The painting I made for Gabriel was 64X86, which is the size of litho paper, painted on that with good results. Paper is quite thick and yellow ochre. I don't like white paper at all, makes the colors weak and I want them to be vivid or quite dark, so often I'll darken my envelopes before I start working on them. I mainly work with water colors, ink, acrylic paints, pastels. And play with plenty of water (washing techniques called Lavis in French, also woodglue is a great stuff to use. Sometimes I add herbs and other materials from the kitchen to get texture and smell even. There is no end once you start experimenting.

Comment by Nancy Bell Scott on August 10, 2011 at 10:25pm

Those are two Guido Vermeulen envelopes, yes? I've yet to see one that doesn't grab me. And yes, the titles set you forth on the odyssey; they're great.

Theresa, can you tell me the exact book you have of Michaux's, and is there more than one translation?  (need to know what you find best -- I want to order it.) 

Have been meaning to ask you about haibun.  How does prose work in combination with haiku? It's hard to imagine.

I didn't watch Northern Exposure when it was new to tv.  Too busy going to auctions for a living and as a side-effect finding a lot of stuff that I now use in art years later.  However, my sister recommended NE to me a year and a half ago during a major funk and it really helped.

Comment by Guido Vermeulen on August 10, 2011 at 9:26pm

I'm a great fan of Northern Exposure too. It was on Belgian commercial TV, around the same period they showed Twin Peaks. I have season 3 and 4 on DVD.

About Henri Michaux. Here is a list with recommended books:

VISUAL ART

Peintures (by Alfred Pacquement & Raymond Bellour, Gallimard editions)

Peinture et Poésie (Henri-Alexis Baatsch, Hazan editions)

Mouvements (Gallimard) Michaux drawings

POETRY

Any Michaux book is wonderful. There is a very good anthology in the Seghers colleection "Poètes d'aujhourd'hui", written by René Bertelé (also with some examples of his visual art).

Exist also a collection of texts in English. Found it in a bookshop in Seattle in 1997 and gave it as a gift to Mark & Ann, where I was staying.

The mezcal experiments have been document in 4 books. If you have to read one "Connaissance par les gouffres". Don't do this if your level of French is weak. Michaux is not exactly "easy stuff" to read.

 

 

 

Comment by Nancy Bell Scott on August 10, 2011 at 3:01pm

Just looked up Henri Michaux, thanks to Guido, and found this fantastic asemic art piece by him. I'll look up more but just had to post this.

Comment by Guido Vermeulen on August 10, 2011 at 2:03pm

NIGHT, THE SUMMER IS DYING IN THE NIGHT

Painting based on the first verse of a poem by LUCEBERT, a Dutch poet and quite remarkable one. Belong to the movement of the '50s and was also part of COBRA, great painter as well. Most of the Cobra poets started painting with amazing results. See also the Belgian CHRISTIAN DOTREMONT. We would call this today visual poetry, Asemics even, though in the case of Dotremeont there remained always a link with a real existing phrase. Another Belgian poet painted really Asemic: HENRI MICHAUX. Great writer and painter 2. Experimented with peyotl a lot. Google these guys if unknown to you. Major influences on my own work. Also PIERRE ALECHINSKY (another Cobra member, made duo works with Dotremont..)

Comment by Guido Vermeulen on August 10, 2011 at 1:55pm

METAMORPHOSIS OF THE SOUL & SOME OF ITS SYMBOLS

Based on a major book by JUNG.

Comment by Guido Vermeulen on August 9, 2011 at 11:15pm

About Kafka on the shore, I consider this as one of the best books by Murakami. He makes a bridge again with surrealism and dada, which had a tradition in Japan, what many people ignored. The movement was crushed together with the "proletarian left wing litterature" when Japan went "fascist", preparing world war 2. A good book to read about that period is Vera Linhartova's "Dada & surrealism in Japan" (I have this in French, have no clue on other translations.

Guido

Comment by Nancy Bell Scott on August 9, 2011 at 2:56pm

Thank you each for your comments. I love wire yet rarely use it for some reason, but it was THE material for closing these books. Yes, the first one is the "real" one (it's the back of this one you see in the last two photos); the second one was a failed experiment, where I tried painting the pages shut with a coat of acrylic ochre before wiring, and in person it looks sort of warped and writhing.  Won't do that again.  I think your analysis of the psychology of the wiring, superhero, is right on the mark.

Comment by Bifidus Jones on August 9, 2011 at 1:19pm

your work is quite stunning, nancy

Comment by Svenja Wahl on August 9, 2011 at 6:02am

The wired books are beautiful, Nancy, I like them very much!

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