The Creative Act 2 (Ars Longhaired)

 

     My cream-colored Persian cat Claude has been the subject of previous posts.

     Recently, unexpectedly, no explanation proffered, he has taken up a visual arts vocation.

     Claude works on paper.  Rather, his medium is paper.  He may, in fact, be a “paper medium” (in the paranormal sense), i.e., paper seems to speak through him.  This accounts both for the uniqueness and high quality of his work.

HumDrum, 2011

     At various times every day and night, Claude locates piles of paper in my office (there is a lot of it around; I’m a lawyer), takes pages in his mouth and distributes them throughout the house in arranged patterns on the floor. 

     This isn’t random scattering.  Claude works all the rooms in the house and expends great effort on both transport and composition.  The Druids of Stonehenge – the monument builders, not the 1960s New York City rock band -- would understand.  

Corner Piece, 2011 

     The visual effects are striking.  Formal differences aside, the mood he achieves, which combines elements of classical permanency and flux, a kind of formal spontaneity, reminds me more than anything of the work of certain Conceptual artists (I’m thinking of Agnes Denes and Scott Burton).  

Les Voisins, 2011

     Unlike many Conceptualists, however,  Claude refrains from making any tedious references to “systems” or theory (structuralist, post-structuralist or any other type of "ist" or "ism").  

      He specifically does not “posit a synthesis of all knowledge” in his work.  The work speaks for itself.

A Christmas Carol, 2011 

      In the act of creation, Claude resembles Jackson Pollock painting or Leonard Bernstein conducting.  He is full of feeling and "hums" his creations as he works.   

    When she eventually masters the alto saxophone, I imagine Jane filming and scoring one of Claude's performances.   

 

The Druids Of Stonehenge (feat. David Budge) : Mumsy (Live on the Joe Franklin Show)(Link)