Welcome to MissouriBendStudio!

This is an online journal of my artistic investigations and a way to communicate about my work, ideas, quandries and queries! I welcome comments and conversation and do hope you enjoy these musings. My artwork is available in my shop MissouriBendStudio on Etsy.com or on my website.

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Friday, January 28, 2011

The Need for Nourishment



On Tuesday, mid-way through the afternoon in the studio, I suddenly "hit the wall"....you know that feeling when you are absolutely done in and exhausted...I felt that way, but there was also a feeling even more pronounced....starvation.  I desperately needed food and nourishment in the form of language...I needed literature.  When you're in that really hungry state and you don't know what you want to eat, it can be terribly frustrating.  I live surrounded by books, many many of them unread, and yet each book I picked up was not the thing I craved.  You know that old saying, "water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink"....that was the state I was in.  I didn't want a story or a narrative, I wanted a language that would transport me. With reading, it works much the same as when I first look at a work of art and I am taken in by surface, texture and composition...some kind of global sense of it...and whatever image is represented is very secondary.  With literature, I really don't even care if there is a narrative, but the language and its cadence, the writing itself has to captivate me and absorbe me whole.  So, I took a nap and resolved to go the local library on my trip into town Wednesday for my one-afternoon-a-week job at the music museum.  There, I found all kind of unexpected treasures that filled me with the anticipation of reading pleasure and I couldn't wait to get home!  I started with a spare, newly published novella by an Austrian writer well known in his day between the wars, Stefan Zweig.  I love writing that is layered, but I also love writing that is spare.  But, here it is Friday and I've not actually started the novella itself, because I read the beautifully written introduction by Andre Aciman and was transfixed by his writing.  When I investigated Andre Aciman, a name vaguely familiar,  I found that he'd written a number of books, but also was the man behind The Proust Project....the book sitting on the shelf not two feet away from me, still unread after several years. There is a time and a place for everything...so that's what I'm reading now....I've come full circle....the book I needed to be reading was here all the time and I just didn't know it.  The Proust Project gathers short essays by 28 writers regarding their first reading of Marcel Proust and its effect on them, along with a fairly lengthy excerpt from Proust's writing that goes with each. Once I began reading this book, I knew that, of course, I must really read Proust all the way through this time (not starting and stopping as I am famous for doing) because his long, winding sentences weave their way in and out of all the ideas that are at the core of my need to express....time, memory, living, dying, experiencing the moment in the past, in the present and in the future, and sometimes all at once.  I'm not starving anymore....I'm engaged in a rather sumptuous meal and looking forward to a quiet weekend of reading and art making!

Winter Meditation no.15

15 comments:

  1. I love your newest Winter Meditation work. It is really gorgeous.
    Enjoy your weekend with your book~ it sounds lovely.

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  2. Great story Patti - funny how the circles lead you home. The artwork is lovely to look at too!

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  3. K. -- glad you like the new winter meditation...they are just so relaxing to make! Hope you have a great weekend as well!

    F. -- the circular nature of the way I came to be reading the book I'm reading is very much on my mind....there are those circles and spirals from the quote you posted!

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  4. Patti, your writing is so much like your artwork, and apparently, like the writers you enjoy -- light and spare layers, deep with meaning.

    I love coming across other book gathers. I'm so sad at the conclusion of a wonderful book, but I love going to my shelves of never read books and making another selection.

    This time of year, the pool of books (read, partially read, and yet to be read) around my bed grows and grows.

    Enjoy!

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  5. India...thank you!!! Nice to see you....or hear you!

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  6. Kim...the pool of books is a delightful thing! And although I berate myself for all the partially read books, I'm sure nothing is ever wasted!
    Enjoy your reading too!

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  7. Lovely words, lovely images........love your blog!

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  8. Thanks so much Julie....that's great to hear!!!

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  9. Patti, firstly, I like the new piece - the featheriness of the blood-red (if the color is accurate in the photo) is awesome!

    To assuage my own language hunger, I started a novel yesterday and before I knew it I was a hundred pages into it, contrary to the stop-and-start method that has lately made conquering a whole book a monthlong affair for me! It felt good to dive in so deep you don't want to surface. It's all about the language, the flow of it, how it leads me through so smoothly, the way a long walk goes if you have a good companion by your side to chat with, and it falls in with the rhythm of the walking. You must get through Proust just once all the way! It's a project alright. Took me a whole summer way back, and I had to adhere to a schedule of "Proust time" every afternoon. I also had to take notes to keep all the events and character connections straight! Good luck.

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  10. That is a truly profound entry - you have an indepth way with words!!

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  11. Gabriella...I'm looking forward to my "Proust time"...there are enough significant passages in this book, The Proust Project" that I see I'll need a whole season to read the real thing...but what deliciousness it will be!
    Thank you also for the comment on the new book page....the red is pretty much that red and is torn from a random sheet of decorative paper I somehow had in my studio....I love it!

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  12. I am enjoying the comments on this post as much as the post itself. You have become my lifeline for wonderful reading material. I hate to admit that I have yet to read Proust, but now I feel more inspired.

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  13. Hi Julia....thanks for adding your comment to those already here. It is fun to read the comments and always enlightening! I am really enjoying The Proust Project and find it a good entrance into ready the man himself. I think I mentioned in an earlier comment that there are significant enough passages in this book that you really feel as though you are getting a taste of Proust. It is true that I recognize so many of my own thoughts in his writing...that I thought couldn't be articulated, but Proust does it....in a beautifully long-winded way!

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I'm happy to hear from you...comments and questions are welcome!