Friday, July 16, 2010

A Reminder : A manual for living

The manual is not exactly new but certainly not old, and I need to remind myself of it often. I remember working on a manual for living: a ten page guide in the beginning of the year, in the coolness of January and February. I remember the thrill of it, going back in time and as well as into uncharted territory. I remember the pace and the excitement as I watched it lead to many more paintings, the new white series. I remember feeling satisfied.

This week in the studio, has been more administrative rather than creative. Getting ready for the next exhibition, working out the upcoming schedule for the underground studios for next year, cleaning my studio. Nuts and bolts operational things, but at the same time I have looked at art, read about art, talked to artists near and far, I have held and sorted through my materials. It has not been a complete loss. I can not paint every week the way I would like. When I run my hands over my paints, when I sort through my supplies, I do smile. These are my tools, these are the materials I know; my things. These things help me communicate. These things communicate with me.

Here again is a manual for living: a ten page guide, but here also are the words that go with it...


a manual for living: a ten page guide from Megan Chapman on Vimeo.

3 comments:

  1. Lovely to hear your voice again. This little video is great. Wonderful revisit of such emotive work & with your words to accompany the stills on the journey through the video. Still amazed at this work - I could sink right into it. ..

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with 'deboraheileenburrow' the images have a tenderness about them that comes across in your voice. A manual for living is a nice concept.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a find rather discomforting, and at the same time seductive, about the manual is the disembodied quality of the voice...crackling through time and the ethers as if dropping in from another planet or a distant past...a time when people still moved their hands across the page in written, drawn and painted marks.

    Yesterday a therapist friend who counsels at a high end treatment facility told me of how the young women in her charge have never been taught to write cursive, have no concept of space upon the page and who come from a world of texts and keyboards...making it difficult for them to actually express with meaning.

    'A Manuel for Living' carries layers of meaning and message.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete