This is a question that I return to again and again.

What, the subject matter is easier. I have so much to explore, respond to and reflect on.

With each painting project I give myself rules to keep things simple. I do this to avoid the danger of drowning the idea in the experiment. ”how” Is usually defined as I narrow down my paths of research.

That leaves why?

Reading this morning this caught my eye and my imagination.

”It will look at the perceptual aspects of his experiments in representation.” Martin Kemp 2020 as he prepares a David Hockney exhibition in Oxford in 2021 and writes a book on Dante in lockdown.

Then a surprise – Is the Bellini again from the Frick. The link to the last time I asked why.

Giovanni Bellini, St. Francis in the Desert. Collection of the Frick.

Excerpt from the article-

If you could have one famous work of art with you, what would it be?

Giovanni Bellini’s St Francis in the Frick Collection, New York. Bellini said that he liked to “wander at will” in his paintings. He has provided us with multiple journeys of delight within a single frame.

A strange but interesting connection to St Frances.

This may be a good place to find why although why usually needs an answer rather than philosophic Mantra.

This is St.Francis’s prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joyO Divine Master, grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood, as to understand
To be loved, as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
And it’s in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it’s in dying that we are born to Eternal Life
Amen

It’s not complicated it gives direction, nice and simple, saying that I’m not always able to comply with the sentiment. I think it is about looking out to fix things not in.

Looking out not in and what art may do.

That reminds me:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/22/what-else-can-art-do.

Worth a reread.