2020 Went Astray

2020 unravelled like a teaser trailer for The End of the World! 

Perhaps the comet was an omen? 

Neowise C/2020 F3 was a rare and beautiful sight in the clear night skies of Spring but it just happened to coincide with the whole world going strange and scary. 

Comet Neowise photographed by NASA's Hubble Telescope in August 2020

The planet seemed to catch on fire and huge swathes of important habitats went up in smoke across every continent. Not only was this a disaster for the wildlife that lived in those locations, the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere really fed into the same global warming cycle that had been a catalysts in the first place. The wildfires were probably the most significant global disaster, though just a small component in the current climate crisis, of course! Droughts ravaged many parts of the world as temperatures soared to record highs, whilst in other parts there was flooding of 'biblical' proportions, brought on by more storms ever named in a single year... 

Then came the Corona-virus pandemic. Enough has been said and written about that all year, so I shan't dwell upon it here. Suffice to say that it may well be a practice run for regular, and possibly more virulent, pandemics to come so it's important to learn as much as we can from this experience. Possibly the most important 'take-away' from this is that viruses don't respect your political views. There's no point protesting against a microbe! Politicians need to put people before profits and the NHS has to be better funded! Also, we witnessed a global demonstration of how, when we feel threatened, humans can become highly irrational and easily distracted. Let's change our ways and work out how to 'pull-together' next time... 

Unfortunately, the politics of the last few years have tended more and more toward division rather than unity... it's an old ploy to take power from the masses - set them squabbling over something relatively trivial, like say, Brexit. Polarize the population and then flood those debates with lies and uncertainty. If people think that facts are 'fluid', then how will they decide what to believe? It leaves them free to select anything that supports what they already believe, so they will seek out 'news' and views that simply agree with their own world view. Of course public response to non-trivial issues, such as equality and environment, can also be manipulated using this method. 

Oh, mentioned Brexit there, didn't I? Sorry. Ah, well, we are going forth with some sort of last-minute deal that, after spending more than our entire subscription to the EU since we joined in 1973, seems to be only a bit worse than what we started with. And that's better than it nearly turned out - so let's be looking for the potentials - in the hope of finding at least some tangible benefits? Thankfully, I managed to avoid mentioning Trump (another global disaster!) But I should mention BLM, which became a rallying cry for much-needed social evolution. 

2020 was a mess. Perhaps the best thing some of us can say in its favour is, "It could've been worse and at least we made it through!"

Now, there's a new year looming, a time for each to reflect and think ahead. Look back on what we have done and forward to what we can do to steer toward the future we really want. 

I chatted with Julie McNicolls Vale at Cambrian News for their maes supplement, back in August... here's the published feature about creative life in lock-down Wales, being a virtual artist in residence for the Arts Council's Lead Creative Schools online programme with Tredegar Park Primary, taking part in Plas Bodfa's international Unus Multorum 2020 online art festival, and my new epic fantasy book THIS (part four) written with Zel Cariad and concluding Book One of our This, That and The Other trilogy! 

 Click thumbnail image to read PDF

Lock-down life suited me fine. I got to spend time with my family and enjoy daily exercise together walking our dog in our local woodlands. I do realise the experience would’ve been a real challenge, and not so idyllic for many, especially those alone in an environment with limited access to natural spaces… and of course, all the NHS staff, carers, and essential support workers that have tirelessly kept our society going have been doing a difficult job very well. But for us, watching the ancient forest go through its cycle of life for a whole year was a constant comfort. It was endlessly fascinating and a privilege to be afforded the time to be on intimate terms with the flora and fauna of the ancient landscape, peaceful and left almost undisturbed by other humans. 

It gave us hope for a better, greener future after lock-down, as people realised they didn’t really need half the ‘baggage’ of the modern world to survive. Perhaps they've glimpsed the cons of capitalism? We’re still hoping that we never get back to ‘normal’ - only back to better is acceptable. 

My year in books 

- one small step for Fantasy, 

one giant leap for this Fantasy author!

Four years in the making, THIS arrived complete and published in four parts from The Red Sparrow Press. Me and my 'creative consultant', Zel Cariad had a wonderful time putting the story together, pick'n'mixing bits'n'pieces from folklore and fairy tales and bringing them right up to date into the modern imagination. I also posted a small gallery of my illustrations used on the paperback book covers, which saw the year in as part of The Folklore and Fairytales of North Wales exhibition at Oriel Ty Meirion, over winter 2019-20...

THIS is just the beginning... the first book in the trilogy, This, That and The Other. 

We really appreciate our readers who have been supporting us so far and helping to spread the word, and a very warm welcome to our new friends who can step into the story via the samples below and join the journey with Rietta and Carla as their friendship is tested across the three magical realms...  

As summed-up in a few reader reviews: "Bursting at the seams with magic," and, "will be enjoyed by fans of fantasy of all ages, especially those who like the classics like the Narnia saga," and, "a lovely depiction of friendship," and most recently a Red Button review that proclaimed THIS was, "imaginative fantasy at its best, wonderful work and heartily recommended..."

My year in art 

- really, 20:20 should've been great for visual arts

...and in many ways it was! 

As an author and artist, I enjoy working solo much of the time, but I was also fortunate to have several outlets for creative collaboration during isolation. 

Just before the nation went into lockdown, I was installing an epic wall drawing in Plas Bodfa, an arts centre in Angelsey, for a major arts festival involving more than 100 international artists. The pandemic was already affecting many of those artists from other countries who found themselves adapting to send their work or to present it virtually. Then, one week before the final installation and opening to the public… well, that’s when everything changed. 

Corridraw: Writing on the Floors photographed by Kim Vertue, 

Writing on the Walls stills from the film, Possibilities of a House 

produced by Culture Colony for Plas Bodfa

The instigator and curator, Julie Upmeyer, who has boundless energy and drive, refused to let things drift and instead organised a series of online and virtual events that became the Unus Multorum 2020 Online Arts Festival. This involved several live-streaming events and she also facilitated a virtual environment using Zoom and social media for the artists involved to interact and collaborate. Unus Multorum also incorporated the launch of Plas Bodfa Objects, a selection of limited edition Artist's Multiples that migrated far beyond the exhibition environment, taking the Festival across the country and beyond - via mail order. My contribution was a special edition of 10 Cicorc... 

I think that, although I didn’t meet many in person, I got to know more of my fellow artists than I would’ve at a ‘real world’ event! I’m also pretty sure that more people around the globe got to see the art who wouldn’t have been able to get there in person, even under normal circumstances. 

Two Cicorc pals, 'James W. Fisher' and  'Arkinholm', exploring Plas Bodfa 
photographed during lock-down by Julie Upmeyer

I love a good residency and also enjoy leading creative workshops in the community. Alas, such opportunities were unrealistic during a global pandemic! However, through the Lead Creative Schools programme, part of the national Creative Learning initiative helmed by the Arts Council of Wales, I did manage to deliver another virtual residency which worked out rather well, at Tredegar Park Primary School - coincidentally, situated in the grounds of my ancestral home! We all shared adventures exploring islands of the imagination. Currently, I'm working with another fantastic school, Ysgol y Foryd in North Wales, on an exciting new project that will take us into 2021, involving food, fun and story-telling - watch this space [...you can read the artist call-out for this exciting Lead Creative Schools project as a PDF HERE]

Another thing that 2020 has encouraged is greater generosity in the sharing of content online. For example, in partnership with The Red Sparrow Press, I was able to make THIS part one available as a 'FreeBook' on the Medium platform, initially during schools closure, but it ended up staying there all year... and I have enjoyed visiting many online galleries and exhibitions, so I've seen more world-class art than I would've done on the usual trips to London and Cardiff. 

I began the year with a presentation at Oriel Colwyn, The North Wales Photography Gallery, of my project, The Stars, at Our Feet. So, it's quite fitting that photographs from that series will feature as the inaugural exhibition at The Signifier's new online initiative - The Six Shot Gallery - which I will then be curating for the rest of 2021 to showcase the work of a different contemporary artist each month. 

Presenting The Stars, at Our Feet at Oriel Colwyn in pre-lock-down 2020
photograph, left, by Kim Vertue, and right, courtesy of the gallery

Aside from THIS, the fantastic new novel, my recent writing has appeared in the following online publications:

The Signifier 

- for which I have contributed regular articles on the history of art 

Folklore Thursday 

- for which I contributed a piece on the marvelously misconstrued collection of Welsh mythologies known as The Mabinogion 

and Frame Rated 

- for which I continue to write regularly as a film critic, often in-depth retrospectives of classics, occasionally reviews of new releases...  

Wishing you all the very best and with a very special, "Thank You!" to everyone who has been reading what I've written and appreciating the art I've made. I especially hope you are enjoying spending time in the Realms of This That and The Other... and... I'm very excited to announce that there is a publishing deal in place for the next book, so will be working on THAT, again with Zel Cariad's invaluable input, and if all goes to plan, the wait for THAT (part one) won't be too long! 

So...

Roll-in and roll-on, 2021! 

A Tuesday in Prague...

Itinerary: Old Town Square, Astronomical Clock, Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle Complex, Golden Lane, St Vitus Cathedral, Museum Kampa…

'Post-Praha' by Remy Dean (photograph, 2013, Prague)

Arriving at the Old Town Square just minutes before ten we get to see the famous, historically important Astronomical Clock strike the hour. First the reaper, whose name is death, rings a little bell (ask not), then two hatches above the gorgeous giant’s pocket-watch clock face open and a procession of the apostles trundle past, briefly pausing to bestow rickety blessings upon the modest crowd assembled below. How must that gathering have changed under their dull wooden gaze? An hour-by-hour time-lapse of five centuries… mediaeval penitents gradually transmorphing through their generations into today’s tourists with their faces hidden behind long lenses and camera-phones. Then the big bells sound across the city, meting out the time. That’s it for now… At other, more important hours, trumpeters appear at the very top of the tower and lay out a fanfare across the gothic rooftops of old Prague.

Then, just a short walk to our first destination. The ArtBanka Museum of Young Art announced its temporary closure earlier in the year, so we were not sure what to expect. The gallery has now re-opened under the grand name of Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace. The visit provided an experience far beyond any expectations – which is strange considering that most of the gallery was empty… the exhibition was the gallery itself. Not as ‘challenging’ and Post-Modern as it may sound when you realise that the gallery occupies a slightly dilapidated, yet spectacularly cinematic, Baroque Palace. The exterior had not really given any indication of the crumbling splendour within. The ascent up broad flights of creaking stairs takes you past little, lovely compositions created by the removal of paint and layers of thin plaster to reveal squares of original paintwork from various historic periods. They fascinated me before I realised this was the exhibition. The fantastic, filmic interiors are in the process of being restored by a team of painter-decorator archaeologists. The grandeur of the main hall with its two-storey mantelpiece and car-sized chandelier is beautifully counterpointed by the areas of floor marked out as not load-bearing, so you really have to watch your step whilst gazing up at the ceiling fresco… It felt a bit like we had stumbled across an abandoned mansion that just screamed out for a period play to be written for it, or perhaps to be a location for a some stylish, high gothic horror…

ArtBanka - the gallery is the exhibition...

So add to this delight the surprise of ascending to the top floors and finding an exhibition of ‘bang-up-to-date’ projected video art. Daniel Hanzlik's Sources of Signals is video art that actually makes use of its medium, not just performance art repeated on a video loop, but the way that video projectors flicker, split colours and cast shadows being used as formal elements within the installations. Even if that sort of thing is not your 'cup of tea', the situation and contrast with the lower floors is an inspiring experience in itself. This dramatic contrast set the tone for the entire visit.

Right outside the doors, the road leads across the famous ancient Charles Bridge, lined with statues of saints and imposing figures pointing the way along the slumping cobbles. The bridge presents ‘postcard’ views of the river Vltava, infested with swans and fronted by a romantic hotchpotch of gothic, baroque, rococo facades interrupted here and there with more modern buildings and bridges. Clearly visible, commanding the crest of the opposite bank, is the fairy-tale castle complex – our next destination.

The changing of the guards starts as we arrive at the main gates of the Prague castle. Smartly dressed soldiers parade through the ‘Ministry of Silly Walks’ catalogue, only they do it with impressive severity and focus, marching ceremonially to rousing bursts of brass and drumming that evoke expectations of ‘Thunderbirds’.  Their precision is admirable and at the exact moment that they eventually hand over their banner, a resonant bell strikes the hour.

Inside the Castle complex is vast and, as you might expect - complex, but you will find a helpful little map on the back of your ticket. Points of interest include the imposing St Vitus Cathedral (you don’t need any map to find that), the jousting hall, the gallery of paintings, the toy museum… and after getting some lunch in one of the castle cafes, which was a fantastic mushroom risotto, I head for Golden Lane – where once great alchemy was wrought.

Last time I had visited Prague, going on four years ago, this section of the Castle had been closed for restoration work and I had only glimpsed it from a small window in the back of the Toy Museum. That was the trip when I had befriended Sparky, my erstwhile guide for this tour – he had wanted to return to his home city for nostalgic reasons and to seek out Abby and Cynthia, two of his little friends that had shared some good times but since lost touch. So he knew his way about, and his point of view was always from a refreshingly different perspective to my own. Although he is a dog of very few words, his constant state of surprise and wonderment at the world is a lesson in itself.

L - R: tiny houses in Golden Lane, Sparky, Apothecary

The houses in Golden Lane are definitively quaint, tiny, pastel coloured, some with knee-high fenced enclosures, window boxes and small ornate windows set in the slopes of their low roofs. Some of the houses are craft shops and some are restored to a period in the castle’s history. I gravitated to a small courtyard at the one end and found the Apothecary, set up as it would have been around the Renaissance times, with bunches of aromatic drying herbs and tiny bottles of tinctures. A little further on was an un-marked, low-lintelled and unassuming doorway… Narrow, worn, red-brick stairways led steeply up and down. A few steps up and I was in the Alchemist’s chamber.

I was overcome with awe, excitement, perhaps longing. This was once the epicentre of the occult world. Back then, the Great Work stood in proud place of Medicine and Science. The corporeal and spiritual overlapped and interacted. Philosophy and Magick guided the search for Knowledge and Wisdom. There was apparatus set up on the table, a book open on the reading stand near to the small window, a grand canopied bed and an age-darkened chair pulled close to the small fireplace. I could picture Prague’s Alchemist Royal sitting there, in deep, world-changing discussion with Doctor John Dee, the visiting envoy of Elizabeth I, Queen of the far away British Empire… but in the chamber below, down the crooked stairs, greater wonder awaited…

Golden Lane - as above, so below - the Alchemist's chambres

The Alchemy Workshop. This could be the place. Not here and now, but here… and long ago! Where John Dee, after much preparation and procedure, was reported to have to have produced the Philosophers’ Stone before the eyes of Royal witnesses. The only time ever, in the lore of occult history, when such claims have been substantiated by independent witnesses… I have no doubt that something astonishing did happen, indeed great alchemy was wrought. A ‘transmutation of the stone’ was performed before the Royal Court of the ruling Habsburgs, and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximillian II was so impressed that he made Dee a Marshal of Bohemia. John Dee, however, was never again able to replicate those results, for it required rare powders that he could not get hold of… Yes, even ‘serious’ historians agree that something profound happened that impressed the wise and educated of the day, and whatever that something was, may well have happened here in Golden Lane… But more of that in my up-coming ‘historical’ novel, VITRIOL…

Feeling suitably transmutated, we strolled down the length of Golden Lane, absorbing the sense of history stretching back from now to then, popping in to the more interesting houses… The Vitalis Bookshop occupies number 22, the house once owned by the sister of Franz Kafka where he often stayed and wrote, and where I purchased a beautiful little book about the Prague Golem and other Stories from the Jewish Ghetto.

Matylda Prusova's kitchen cabinet and Madame de Thebes' writing desk

Number 14 Golden Lane has been restored to the early C20th, between the Wars, when the famous psychic, Madame de Thebes, lived there and received her clients. Matylda Prusova was known internationally and unfortunately attracted the attention of the Nazis, who were obsessed with many things epitomised by Prague – High Magick, Jewish Culture, Alechemy, Clairvoyance, Precognition… all things Occult. At a time when the ‘mighty’ Third Reich looked set to conquer all of Europe, she bravely predicted that they would fail and then fall. So, they tortured her, and because she would not change her predictions to please the elite, they murdered her.

Wonderfully cluttered with film regalia, the home of Joseph Kasda

Joseph Kasda, a very influential art historian, lived at Number 12 after the fall of the Third Reich. A film-maker himself, he was particularly interested in cinema and almost solely responsible for the preservation of early Czech films from before this period. He was the nucleus of the Arts Society immediately after the War and used to host daily talks and screenings, with soup provided by his wife.

The impressive Prague Castle Armoury 

In the battlements above Golden Lane you will find a huge collection of Renaissance armour and weaponry, with some earlier examples dating back to C6th. The workmanship is impressive, ingenious mechanisms of death crafted with the eye of a jeweller. Precision firing mechanisms mounted on the hilts of swords, crossbow-axe-muskets, engraved demons, steel feathers and suits of armour for children… There is a terrible beauty here, if you can divorce the objects from their function, but imagining yourself as one of the wearers and wielders is chilling, rather than thrilling.

St Vitus Cathedral and the Mucha window

This time, I cannot fit in a visit to the Toy Museum, which has a diverse collection bound to evoke nostalgia in most. It is well worth a look, but I still have strong memories from my previous visit - and some pictures...

In the Toy Museum, Prague Castle... those were the days...

So instead, as daylight fades, I enjoy the ambience of the castle streets and then a quick visit to Mucha’s stained glass window in the vast interior of St Vitas Cathedral. The colours and figures are beautiful, vibrant yet sensitive. The deep blues seem to dominate, but are cleverly countered by yellows and oranges, making it seem brighter than the light should allow. (Later, after a visit to the Mucha Museum, I will better understand the visual language and colour theories of this Master.) The rest of the Cathedral is as hugely impressive and gothic as I recall, with many chapel chambers and monstrances of darkened glass. There is an impressive pipe organ and tall columns rising to the hazy heights of the vaulted ceiling.

The castle complex is at our highest point and commands great panoramas of the city as we leave and head back downhill towards the river, where we visit the Museum Kampa. Situated near the Charles Bridge, you cannot miss it - it’s the one with the glowing yellow penguins filing along the jetty outside and David Cerny’s giant bronze babies in place of garden gnomes...

Sparky engages with some Czech art at the Kampa

The Kampa collections are a cleverly curated cross-section of Modern Czech art - a wide range of materials and styles concentrated in a modest sized arts centre. It is one of my favourite galleries, not because every piece of art is awe-inspiring, original and satisfying – they are not. I have problems engaging with some, whilst others ‘knock my socks off’. Something that stands out about modern and contemporary Czech art is that even if it is not ‘good art’, it is usually interesting and rewarding in some way. Perhaps there is a clever use of materials, an unusual treatment of form, an unexpected aesthetic fusion, something that appears derivative… until you check the date it was made (no pun intended here). There is no better place to observe and appreciate this, than the Kampa.

Don't worry, Sparky...

After the walking, you may want to ‘sit-a-spell’ in the courtyard and enjoy the fresh, cool autumnal air coming off the river, spend a moment considering the metal and stone sculptures and statuary, before entering the spacious and calming reception. Then up to the permanent collection galleries where a good range of responses are ensured. On the walls the work ranges from collages of wood, meticulously folded surfaces of paper, rusting metal reliefs, single-colour compositions and lively-lined studies of the human form. The sculptures are varied in every aspect. There are pure cubes of milky white light, clear discs and lenses of glass, mutant, faceless figures screaming out their red existential angst, a tall man walking into a canvas carrying his own coffin, pink bombs, headless beige figures lurking in a corner, awaiting some sort of purpose or direction – Sparky eyes them suspiciously and needs to be moved on before he starts barking…

Almost as an afterthought, we pop in to see the temporary exhibition of work by Zdena Fibichova, a Czech artist whose sculptures elevate the everyday into totemic forms, ephemera into ‘archaeological’ artefacts. The lines in her drawings crackle with bright, colourful energy. Powerfully simple abstracts, in cement and ceramic are pushed to the point where they may be about to become recognisable animal forms. A ripped out page from a spiral-bound notebook is immortalised in bronze-patina clay… and nearby has been remodelled in concrete. You get a few glimpses of the exhibition in the curator's intro video above.

Night had now fallen and the open air roof terraces of the Kampa afford views of the Charles Bridge and along the river where the reflected golden lights shimmer across the water. If you are feeling brave, then the top of the stairwell has a load-bearing glass floor as its roof where you can look directly down at the ‘mobile’ that hangs through several floors of the atrium. I only managed to set foot on it in order to rescue poor Sparky, who could neither move nor bring himself to look down…

The night crossing of the Charles Bridge was moody and Romantic and soon we were back in the Old Town Square, where I remembered a fine restaurant near the astronomical clock. It had been a long day of intense stimulation and we had been on our feet for most of it. Time for some hearty Prague food! At U Zlaté Konvice, down several flights of stairs, we dined in a vaulted cellar surrounded by stuffed bears, boars and badgers. A starter of carp fingers and smoked mackerel was followed by a big plate of smoked ham with Prague style potato pancakes, pickled cabbage and a chilli, all washed down by a hefty glass of local beer. It was a rich and satisfying meal, the ham was glossy and very smoky, the pancakes were dense and herby, the beer was strong, dark and handsome, the lively live music was a ‘cheesy’ accompaniment… the price very agreeable. Just what we needed to round off the day!

Mmm... Sparky hams it up!

Walking back to the hotel through the night streets of Old Prague, looking up at its spired and slumped roofline, sipping warm, red, spiced wine from a plastic cup, I thought that if I were an ancient vampire, this city would certainly suit me…

Olde Prague at night... Romantic, with a capital 'R'

Next: A Wednesday in Prague

'Evolution of Western Art' by Remy Dean - NEW Book

Firstly, thanks to all who took advantage of the free downloads offer from amazon Kindle store on World Book Day. If you get the time to read either Final Bough and/or Scraps, I hope they are sufficiently entertaining...

My new non-fiction book is now also available (as from today) - alas not for free, but for a very reasonable price. It is a ‘history of art’ text book called, Evolution of Western Art by Remy Dean.

Click image of the cover above to find out more

It is a text book supported with a dedicated weblog: http://dean-evolution.blogspot.co.uk/

Publisher’s Product Description:

'Evolution of Western Art' by Remy Dean is an essential resource for the art student, novice practitioner and general art enthusiast who would like to expand their knowledge, and enhance their appreciation, of art.

This fresh approach to art history follows a timeline that spans more than 40,000 years, from pre-history to the present day, using clear language and specific examples to chart the development of key ideas and major concepts along the path. Art is the ultimate expression of a culture and often survives as the only evidence of how people thought and acted. Could art be one of the factors that saved the human race from early extinction? Do we make art because we are intelligent, or has human intellect grown as a response to our art? How does our art define us?

This text book has been developed by a teacher with more than a decade’s experience of lecturing in art history and contextual understanding to young adults (levels 2, 3 and 4). The aim is to remain clear and concise without over-simplification and not shy away from the important concepts. Each example is approached using a method of analysis suited to the work.

This book guides the reader along a path that runs through the major landmarks in the evolution of western art. It takes in ancient art, mediaeval art, the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, the art of the Enlightenment, the Romantics, Impressionists, Expressionists, Modernists, the Abstract, the Post-Modern, the Conceptual and the contemporary scene…

My Top Ten Pieces Of Art

In the latter months of 2010, I have uploaded a countdown of my personal favourite Top Ten Pieces Of Art on my other ‘brother’ blog, I’M HOT GOAT. These are not necessarily the pieces of art that I think are the most important in critical terms, but ones that have made a memorable or important impression upon me. (Some of my all-time favourite artists are not represented in this list, a forthcoming Hot Goat entry, I think…) So, in reverse order:

10: Dalek – the cultural icon designed by Terry Nation and Raymond Cusick

9: Black Circle and Black Square – Suprematist paintings by Kazimir Malevich

8: Stray Dog – photographed by Daido Moryama

7: Blue Velvet – the film directed by David Lynch

6: The Large Glass – hugely important piece of art by Marcel Duchamp

5: Songs Of Innocence And Experience – written and illustrated by William Blake

4: Plight – the installation by Joseph Beuys

3: Stalker – the cinematic masterpiece by Andrei Tarkovsky

2: Spiral Jetty – large scale earthwork by Robert Smithson

1: 20:50 – the perception altering work by Richard Wilson

Read more at:
 
I'M HOT GOAT
 
... and ALL the very BEST for 2011

Praise Dog!

"homo canis sapiens"

We have had plenty of snow this winter. It came much earlier than usual in what I heard has been the coldest December for 30 years. Here in Snowdonia, it is more likely to be snowing in February-March rather than December-January, but there has been snow on the ground for more than three weeks and in our mountains it lays an even 10 cm on level ground with drifts of up to a metre. Roads and schools have been closed. So, we have been putting food out for the birds and our garden has been visited by a good variety of the feathered folk… the expected Yuletide robins, blackbirds, thrush, tits, finches, jackdaws and the pheasant that became a regular last winter.

When we had a dog, visits to the garden punctuated the day, now, it is the empty bird feeders that coax us out into the cold (or the occasional urge to have snowball battles… or build a snow creature). So, missing Watson-the-dog whilst filling the feeders, I was thinking about the Horizon TV programme last week, which was investigating how closely and naturally we interact with domestic dogs. It was an interesting documentary that was, mainly, scientists confirming what was already deep, instinctual knowledge to dog lovers. They can read us. They are attuned to our moods. They are ‘in-sync’, empathic almost to the point of telepathic.

The gist of the programme was that dogs are the only species apart from ourselves that are fully tuned in to human emotions. The higher apes are not capable of understanding our emotional cues, not even chimps, who are almost genetically related to us. Certainly cats are not. There have been series of experiments to support this, conducted by universities and research centres that looked like great places to work…

The observations from some of these experiments led my mind to Eugene Delacroix and a fuller understanding of something that I have been teaching my art history class for about a decade concerning the ‘left of centre resting gaze’...

Delacroix was neither an ape nor a feline, but was a revolutionary French Romantic painter and a primary influence upon the French Impressionists of the late C19th. He is credited as introducing the use of ‘structural colour’ as a method to govern the way the eye of the viewer moves over the picture plain. He used the distribution of colour within some of his major works as a way to direct how we actually look at his paintings and read the narrative they contain. The two examples I use to illustrate this are his famous 'Liberty Leading The People', and 'The Death of Sardanapalus' (1827).

I already knew that the place that the average human viewer wants to rest their gaze within a composition is slightly left of centre. Delacroix also knew this. I knew this fact without knowing why it was so. (I had my own theory that the act of art appreciation would be an activity dominated by the right-hemisphere of the brain, therefore giving a slight bias to look left.) If you divide these works in half horizontally and then in half vertically, you find the centre of the composition…. and slightly to its left, we find... nothing of interest. There is no reward, nothing to hold our interest, so the eyes look for something more satisfying. In Liberty we are attracted either to the yellow of the dress, or the red section of the flag. This keys us into those colours and then our eyes pick out the flashes of reds and yellows scattered around the composition. This is what gives the painting its sense of movement. Our eyes do not rest easy but are dragged from one key colour detail to the next. This movement of our eyes lends movement to the figures that are actually painted in a very posed manner, static as statues – which, in turn, gives the scene its sense of grandeur and historic import.

He used the same technique with Sardanapalus: slightly left of centre, our eyes find nothing to ‘hold on to’, so it is the red swathe that thrusts diagonally up through the composition, or the ivory white of the sultan’s robes that attract our attention, and then our eyes find the scattered rhythm of these two colours throughout the rest of the canvas. This gives the arrangement of quite static figure studies the atmosphere of a decadent orgy.

Right, back to the dog documentary (or dogumentary). It is a fact that the right side of our face more clearly and honestly expresses our emotions. This is supported by reams of evidence, and is common knowledge to profilers, psychologists, CIA operatives, councillors, etc… and dogs. All of us, except for... well very rare exceptions, are subconsciously aware of this. The right side of the face displays our actual emotions, whilst the expression on the left side displays the modified expression, when we ‘put on a brave face’, or try to give the socially appropriate response. When we look at another human face, we first look at it centrally, to recognise the features of the individual, then a fraction of a second later, we scan the right side of their face to read their emotions. To do this, our gaze finds centre, then shifts slightly left-of-centre – the same pattern as when we engage with a work of art. The key point about dogs is this: they also look at the human face with exactly the same pattern. They do not do this with other dogs, animals, or inanimate objects, they only respond in this subtle way to the human face… recognition of features, then reading of emotion through specifically selecting the right side of the face. There is no other animal that does this. Dogs are uniquely tuned into our true emotions.

The documentary also pointed out that we, as two species, communicate on a number of levels. Dogs recognise and respond to many complex verbal cues and commands and we can understand their limited vocabulary of barks, whines and growls. We both use facial expressions to communicate moods. We both rely on posture and body-language to convey a lot of information in addition to, and sometimes in contradiction of, vocal communication. Dogs can very quickly understand gestures such as pointing and other methods of indicating objects and direction. Again, chimps were shown to have major problems with understanding simple gestures and only a very few individual, female chimps have ever been trained to communicate with signing.

So why is it that dogs are unique in this way? Well, obviously, humans and dogs have been working closely together for a long time, possibly tens of thousands of years. During those millennia, we have been selecting and deselecting dog traits through breeding over countless generations. We have created the domestic dog out of the original wolf packs that began to hunt alongside prehistoric humans and shelter in the same caves during the last Ice age. The survival of our species may well be directly linked to this ongoing partnership with the canine clans. I believe this to be so.

The scientists on the Horizon documentary theorised that we began working closely together because we both used similar hunting methods, were both social carnivores, and through necessity both developed some sort of language - in order to coordinate the hunt and to maintain a social structure of some kind. Wolves that cooperated more readily and effectively with humans would have benefited from more successful hunts, scraps and bones, warm dry caves… Of course, this is a two way deal and humans who worked with wolves would stand a better chance of survival, more effective hunts, advanced warning of danger, defence against other predatory animals, additional warmth in the cave… And so the long, slow, but sure process of domestication began and the wolf eventually became the dog.

Back to the birds and another train of (perhaps whimsical) thought… When I go out to replace the seeds, nuts and fat-balls, the birds no longer take flight and disappear, they simply retreat to the hedge, or the higher branches of trees, watching until the food is re-stocked. They return as soon as I reach the back door. Birds also have a social structure, literally a ‘pecking order’, they have basic language, they have songs that mean safety, and alarm calls that warn of danger. By feeding the birds in our gardens, we are helping to select birds that do not fear us, and feel comfortable within an artificial environment. Are we beginning on that long, slow, but sure process of domestication? There are already ‘bird fanciers’ who have created loads of new varieties. Charles Darwin was fascinated by the pigeon breeders who create fancy varieties by selecting traits and emphasising them to create new dominant features in only a few generations. Not to mention chickens, eh?

Pigeons have been trained as missile guidance systems and also used in reconnaissance. So, in a few millennia, will we be co-dependent with birds? Each of us wearing specially accommodating head gear for our mini-flock to perch upon. With a few whistles and clicks (like a sheepdog handler) sending our birds off to let us know what’s over that hedge or round the next corner. Taking simple messages from one person to another in a noisy room or field. Locating the car keys. Finding a particular person in a crowd… Whistling our dogs over the hills and far away, singing the sky news.

It could happen… a little bird told me.

[For more about Delacroix and to see bigger images of 'Liberty' and 'Sardanapalus' go to Mark Harden's invaluable online Artchive... and I also discuss these works in Evolution of Western Art... ]

What Is Art?

“I don’t know much about Art, but I know what I like… ”

This old cliché may be one of the best definitions we can agree on! There has always been difficulty in defining exactly what Art is. The perceptions of aesthetics vary so much from culture to culture (even from person to person). The definition of art is closely linked to the aesthetics of the culture that produced it. Oh no! Now there are two more words that we need to define: ‘Aesthetics’ and ‘Culture’… perhaps art is its own definition and the art a culture produces, defines that culture.

The word, ‘art’ comes from the Roman Latin word, ‘ars’ – meaning ‘art’ – which they defined as ‘a thing of beauty that was of human (as opposed to natural) origin’. (I think it's pronounced 'arz' but it gets more laughs if you say 'arse'.) Hence other similar words such as ‘artificial’, ‘artifice’... but just because something is artificial, it does not mean it is art… which means that there has to be a judgement of whether the thing is beautiful or not. So, what is ‘beauty’? And...

We’re right back to cultural differences and aesthetic perceptions…

In antiquity, there was not just ‘art’, there were ‘the arts’, which were perceived to be of two orders:

The first order were the liberal arts, or artes liberales, which were: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Music and Philosophy – which was the highest of all and from which all other arts were derived. Aesthetics was a philosophy of beauty.

The second, lesser, order of arts were the technical arts: Architecture, Agriculture, Painting, Sculpture… and other manual Crafts, which seems closest to how most people think of 'the arts' today. (Perhaps we should show more cultural appreciation for the farmers' ploughed furrows as eARTh art.)

So what is art? I don't think there will be a definitive answer, though we can explore and discuss what makes good, or at least sucessful, art. That is a thread that I expect will run through this blog.