Santa Maria Novella at night Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 16" 30 x 40cm
Last Golden Apples 2016 Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 16" 30x40cm
Christmas Lights at Guiglia Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 16" 30 x 40cm
Pomegranate on the Table Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 10 x 20" 25 x 35cm
Golden Fields behind the House Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 8 x 20" 20 x 50cm
While I was in Florence this week, strolling through the
Uffizi, I realized that the most fabulous artists were ones with great
technical skills, and an ardor for their work/subject burning in their
heart. Modern artists, writers, musicians rarely have that because they
divorce themselves from that pain. I remember a performer-friend who was
encouraged on stage to “put his passion aside” and just act. He sells stair lifts now.
Some artists were terrifically wild: just look at the maniacal Caravaggio, drunken
F Scott Fitzgerald or pyschedelic Jimi Hendrix. The “artistic” personality lends itself to
the big leap into creative bliss, but it can be hell for those around. Leaving behind the everyday is not
always an easy feat.
As I get older, and wiser, my ardor flags. Or maybe it’s just my blood pressure
medication. Is it the difference between
young love and older love? As a younger
person, the more upset I became with my life, the greater, the further out, my
art would carry me. Instead of crying,
I would paint, and all that ARDOR, would emerge on the canvas.
Sometimes I still get really excited when I paint, but not
like in the flush of youth. I have more
control over my painting than I did twenty years ago. I miss those flights of fancy where the work
would be a great surprise, but I have more confidence that if I keep on working
on this painting, it will turn out. I
think my work is better now.
In Florence, I visited the absolutely stellar Laurentian
Library designed by Michelangelo. From
the stairway onward, you can feel the sensibility of someone who completely
understood three-dimensionality. The
library gives way to the collection of manuscripts from the middle ages. They are among my favorite things.
I like the early Renaissance, when art, sculpture and
architecture were just emerging from medieval times: the “Lippis” paintings of the Annunciation,
like Valentines celebrating love, awakening; Piero della Francesco’s portrait
of Federigo da Montefeltro, one of my favorite paintings of all times; and Brunelleschi’s dome.
They were all so wonderful, and live on 500 years later. Can you believe that? Will a 2016 photoshopped image live on? Will a computer designed building stand as an
example in 2500? Who are the artists of
those, anyway?
I love thinking about what makes art, architecture
great. And it came from the people who
created it.
Happy New Year, everybody!
Resolve to be happy.
Laurie and Blair PESSEMIER
