{"id":2147,"date":"2004-01-30T10:50:15","date_gmt":"2004-01-30T10:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/?p=2147"},"modified":"2020-09-25T08:39:59","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:39:59","slug":"sympathy-for-the-devil-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/sympathy-for-the-devil-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sympathy for the Devil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or the Fine Art of Picking Up by Putting Down\u2026<\/p>\n

Not so long ago, I bumped into an art school colleague, or so I thought\u2026
\nLittle did I suspect it was the devil – or at least one of his many advocates – in disguise.
\nHere\u2019s the conversation:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what are you up to these days?\u201d
\n\u201cSame old stuff,\u201d I replied, \u201cpushing pencils morning noon and night.\u201d
\n\u201cStill doing illustration?\u201d
\n\u201cYou know me: no imagination. Once I find something I can do, I\u2019m just another Canadian striving for mediocrity. No guts, no glory.\u201d
\n\u201cWeren\u2019t you working for a magazine once? Fired you, huh?\u201d
\n\u201cAbsolutely! Had to let me go. You know, make way for young people and all that. As you can recall, I only chose this parochial profession of uncertain tomorrows out of sheer lack of ambition. How about you? Still in advertising?\u201d
\n\u201cNo, I gave that up, I do a lot more painting now, you know, real art, not that commercial stuff.\u201d
\n\u201cThanks for reminding me, I\u2019d near forgotten the difference. Not commercial, you mean like you don\u2019t sell any?\u201d
\n\u201cHa ha, that\u2019s the gallery\u2019s job. You might try it yourself sometime.
\n\u201cWhat are you, the umpire of my life? High ball, inside, strike, out?\u00a0 Aren\u2019t you being a bit free with free advice?\u201d
\n\u201cY\u2019know, question your certitudes a little.\u201d
\n\u201cQuestion myself and my work? Man you have to be kidding, I even forget spring will eventually come when it\u2019s mid-winter. You want me to go all existential and get goosebumps? Suffer me at least my perpetual palimpsests, my paltry quills and my puny cell. You know I copped a life sentence.\u201d
\n(I should mention here that the absolute favorite phrase amongst French intellectuals, pop singers and actors is to pretend they constantly put themselves in question and \u201cin danger\u201d. It\u2019s very trendy to pretend you\u2019re continually living on the edge during comfy talk shows. It is incredibly exasperating. In \u201cdanger\u201d? Come on. What\u2019s that mean? Not looking both ways before crossing the street? Purposely forgetting where you put the keys to the car? Eating at McDonald\u2019s?) (Oh yes, we do actually talk like that.)
\nThis is where I start glancing sidelong and skyward, hoping for a passing acquaintance, an approaching bus, a wailing siren or an avalanche – anything to get me off the hook.
\n\u201cWell,\u201d I said, \u201cIt\u2019s been. Nice seeing you again. Must run.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s your hurry? Got time for a coffee?\u201d
\nThus I find myself disconsolately peering into the opaque depths of my cappucino like Frodo into Galadriel\u2019s mirror, but my immediate future only reveals more conversation I don\u2019t desire and no avenue of escape.
\nAnd the conversation goes onwards into realms of Serious Art versus \u201cthe other stuff\u201d and I find myself wondering what the devil has gotten into me. Why am I so passive and tongue-tied? Where\u2019s the usual dose of verve and the sprinkling of cynicism with which I usually season what I serve. Why am I letting myself in for such a philosophical beating on issues which are so close to my left ventricle?
\nThen it struck me. But of course! You have to sympathise with Serious Painters, this poor guy has to reinvent the world each day at dawn, and that is one big job for sure. So, if casually browbeating a former classmate helps you get through the day and define yourself, art and the universe, that seems sensible enough. If picking up your own spirits is a process that relies on putting down someone else\u2019s, then I\u2019m all resilence in the name of solidarity, a supple blade of grass in the ego-tempest, an eager punching ball to be battered. Anything for art thought I, as I paid for both coffees.<\/p>\n

CH\u00c2LONS-EN-CHAMPAGNE<\/p>\n

The exhibition will be opening at 6 p.m. on February 7th at the Municipal Library<\/a>.
\nSTUFF YOU NEED<\/p>\n

Hopefully we will soon have the new section on the site where you can buy things. No, not from me, I have no desire to get bogged down in mailing tubes and credit card accounts, but we hope to have a constantly updated chapter where you can find direct links to whatever is available. As soon as I sort myself out a little\u2026
\nCOMMON COLDS\u2026<\/p>\n

With all the viruses floating about, in cyberspace and elsewhere, many messages addressed to me have been culled by the vigilance of the servers. So, if you\u2019ve written something important and I don\u2019t reply, please send again in a few weeks. After that, if I don\u2019t reply, at least you know who to blame\u2026
\nCHANGE OF ADDRESS<\/p>\n

Couldn\u2019t resist posting this letter, which turned up in my mailbox this morning. No stamps; obviously Elves deliver their own mail or use a courier service. Very sweet; inside was a letter from, well\u2026 an elf obviously, along with some lovely pencil sketches. (The rest of the mail? mostly bills. I threw them out.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or the Fine Art of Picking Up by Putting Down\u2026 Not so long ago, I bumped into an art school colleague, or so I thought\u2026 Little did I suspect it was the devil – or at least one of his many advocates – in disguise. Here\u2019s the conversation: \u201cSo what are you up to these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[514,80,513],"class_list":["post-2147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","tag-address","tag-devil","tag-sympathy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PY8Y-yD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}