Today I received TRAUMA, a beautiful and very personal gift from Austrian painter Christian Bazant-Hegemark, for which I am deeply grateful. The volume spans fifteen years and tells the story of searching for a visual language dealing with trauma.
I was surprised how many of the paintings and drawings I still knew from my time in Vienna, some of which even appear in portraits I took in 2013.
When asked whether he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration, Somerset Maugham allegedly replied:
I write only when inspiration strikes.
Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.
»It’s the 499 birds before the 1 that works.« (Alexia Sinclair/via)
or, in the words of Jacob Riis:
When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before. (via)
This video introduces him:
Here you can see him work at his »American Dream« series:
In this clip about Madison (who was born weighing only 800g) he also uses his »time machine« for film:
Ian was a guest at Chase Jarvis Live (you can see what is going on inside the camera from 1h38m35s):
Images are on Ian’s website and his tumblr.
Die Langeweile ist der Traumvogel, der das Ei der Erfahrung ausbrütet. [en]
Walter Benjamin
Some quotes:
Now, in the closed mode an uncultured [petri] dish is an irrelevance. In the open mode, it’s a clue.
To get into open mode, you need: space, time, time, confidence, humor.
If, while you’re pondering, somebody accuses you of indecision, say: »Look, Babycakes, I don’t have to decide until Tuesday and I’m not chickening out of my creative discomfort by taking a snap decision before then: that’s too easy.«
Alan Watts: »You can’t be spontaneous within reason«
Humor gets us from closed to open mode as quickly as nothing else.
There is a difference in between seriousness and solemnity.
