Are We Landscape Artists?
Are We Artists in Landscape?
Are we Landscapists and if so what does that mean for each of us?
If we judge ourselves to be any of these three are we that all of the
time or just some of the time?
If we judge ourselves to be that only some of the time what are we when
we are not that?
What are those other selves and how do they interact, cross-reference
and cross-influence?
Are we always in Landscape, whether as an artist or not?
When we are in Landscape in what ways do we and can we find ourselves in
it?
When we are in landscape is landscape always in us. If so in what way
does it infiltrate us?
Are we in fact landscape (each one of us an element in a much larger
environmental dynamic) and if so how are we it?
NB. There seems to be a very limited definition of the term
‘Landscapist’ given as the following:
1. Someone who paints
landscapes.
2. Someone who arranges
features of the landscape or garden attractively.
Certainly rather
limited although there might well be more as I did not spend a great deal of
time searching meanings out. However if definitions are this limited it
provides an opportunity to expand upon the term and meld it into something more
elaborate and relevant, that is for those who might find it worthwhile.
This reminds me of analytical philosophy questions. my dad tells a joke about this and people on a train going to scotland I can remember the punch line something about there definitely been one cow in Scotland and only half of it been brown but I don't remember the preamble. Anyway we met with David Walker Barker last week and since we chatted with him what struck me was how clear he was about the different things he does - when he collects he is a collector and not an artist when he goes down mines he is an explorer of dark places. The different aspects of his life are linked but different. I think I have a very messy relationship to practice - I wonder if this is because I've comically de-materialied it - so I have few products of arting which would let me know that when I was working towards a product of art I was acting as an artist or if I'm just in a messy place. I like mess I've been writing recently about the idea of entwining. I think in metaphors and when I think of entwinement I see an old root wrapping itself around a tree this is different to an entanglement and I think I have gone form been entangled in a mess of practice to been more entwined like the poor soldiers in the first world war who couldn't get their boots off as they had grown part of their feet.
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