Longing for the East from a Parisian window
From the painter of this painting
Artist and Audience: Creativity Defined?
In a way, there is nothing creative about this painting. I painted what I had seen somewhere in my life experience: scene of an antique chair next to a window, a fresh flower vase, a book on a table. These were common elements of European sceneries and artworks.
About windows
This is not the first time I painted a window (please see “Revamp of tulips” painted in 1998). Painting a window is “painting within a painting.” Matisse painted a window with his bright colors, decorative style, and well-known flatter perspective (in contrast against the more traditional multidimensional perspective of his peer artists). Chagall painted “Paris through the Windows” rich with imagination and humor for the absurd. Picasso also had his “two women by the window.”
From West back to East
I did this amateur painting with fingernail polish and markers, before bedtime and finished it in approximately 3 hours. The Eiffel tower almost became a symbolic Thien Mu pagoda in central Vietnam, and the tree branches at the front view reminded me of the tree tops stooping over the River Huong from the steps of the pagoda.
When I began painting this window, I did not think of Matisse, Chagall or Picasso. (Those painters’ “window” theme came to me only when I wrote these words). I was simply thinking of my long-desired Paris apartment looking out to a view. But, when I finished the painting, I was thinking solely about the East. My East. No more Paris. The Western scenery of my consciousness had transformed itself into the East of my subconsciousness? So, I named this painting “Longing for the East from a Parisian window.”
From scenery to the inner self
The empty chair was turned inward, instead of toward the window to follow the direction of the artist’s gaze (and the audience’s view). Then, I must have abandoned the outward West to return to my inner East, after my imagination had led me to the refuge of an apartment in the City of Light, away from the East?
In that moment, I questioned whether we should attempt to define artistic creativity. What would be that definition?
The answer?
Now, I no longer have the need for an answer. Why? I read the following Vietnamese poem. The author said he was inspired by my “fingernail polish” product of a few late night hours. My amateur painting had put his pen to work. Even if it was only his pen. One pen.
Art and Audience. Inner self and outwardness. All but one complete, closed circle. All have become one. The circle erases the question. There is no more need for the answer.
DuongNhuNguyen
22 Feb. 2010
Longing for the East from a Parisian window
Paris Lòng Buốt
ghế chẳng người quay lưng cửa sổ
cảnh phơi hoa gửi gấm hư vô
Paris lòng buốt tâm miên ảo
sách khép nguyên từ ngữ thác khô
mực đọng san hô nhung nhớ tạo
hồn xưa trắng nõn góc phương thao
thời gian bỏ ngỏ đường mây hạn
giọt nước giang hồ thấm vực sao
nghệ thuật vừng trăng xanh tụ nắng
tan dần mạch biếc gửi trầm luân
ngõ đêm hẻm cụt lời mưa vợi
tiếng thở quanh đây áo hở lần
môi bán nguyệt thơm tho giấc tỉnh
phấn sơn hà phủ kín bình minh
cao hơn thành quách còn luân tích
ánh mắt em huyền biến cội linh
Lưu Nguyễn Đạt
cập nhật Aug. 3, 2013
