"Art is not made in a vacuum," or the paraphrase thereof, attributed to Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, is an often-quoted phrase that seems to derive from an interview with him, "A Poet of the Cinema," and this quote may be seen in this film clip. In his actual and complete phrase, vacuum is the opposite of pressure, meaning that the artist needs something to push against, or something pushing again them to make them create. That without a kind of conflict, there would be no art.
I first heard a variation of the quote in art school, and it was given to mean that we are influenced by the culture around us, including works by other artists. That we are not alone with our thoughts. That we cannot and do not make works that exist without a relationship to others who came before us, who are here with us now, and to the world. Perhaps the artwork around us is the pressure, but I do not think that is what he meant. Both interpretations are interesting to consider.
Why am I thinking about this quote? It has become clear to me that the work I do is in response to what is around me, what catches my attention, which is often a book or another artist's work, sometimes an article, a piece of music, a lyric, or an interaction with someone. This idea means that each of my works is like a journal entry, not all the same, exploring the question of the day or month, pushing against what I have learned or seen.
This new art quilt continues with that thought. I just finished re-reading the award-winning book, The Swerve [Amazon link] by Stephen Greenblatt, a nonfiction book that explains how a book hunter in the 15th century found a copy of On the Nature of Things by the Roman philosopher Lucretius, which eventually changed modern culture. It also describes the history of books, how and where they were stored and who owned them. It is written as a story, the way all history should be imparted, and is as captivating (to me, anyway) as any novel. You get to both learn and enjoy. Imagine that! One of the concepts that Lucretius re-introduces is Leucippus's and Democritus's theory of atomism: all matter in the universe is made of atoms. Derived from that is the concept that we are all connected, one thing not greater than another. Lucretius wrote many other ideas into his poem, and many of which I do not agree, but I am always interested in the concept of connection.
Visually, I was inspired by the layering and fraying of works by artist Victoria Gertenbach. But my explorations with layering needed some imagery; I dug into my "library" of handmade stencils from past projects for those that resonated with the theme and with me.
And so, this quilt.
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