AN ASSEMBLAGE OF SPORADIC INTERVIEWS 1992--1994 HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA
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Link to Yates's website:
http://robertclarkyates.weebly.com |
BETTY SOARRE: I know you don't like talking about your art too much, but maybe I could ask you some related things, like what your influences are, how you go about working, your thoughts on art and life in general. The idea is, if we know something about you, it may help us in coming to understand your work.
ROBERT YATES: Okay, we'll see. B.S.: When beginning a new painting, how do you approach the blank white canvas? Is it a terrifying experience? R.Y.: Some famous artist once said that the blank white canvas is the most terrifying thing in all creation. I have heard dozens of artists say the same thing. To me, this is a real curiosity — a charming, naive view of the world. . . purely psychological. Life can be very dangerous; real things can seriously threaten you, but a blank white canvas? I have always found the blank white canvas a joy. It means I have built a stretcher, and stretched and gessoed a canvas. The preliminary job of work is done and now I can do whatever I feel like. B.S.: Do you mean that you never have a problem with what to paint ? R.Y.: No, no. Sure I do. In fact, the biggest problem for artists nowadays is what to paint. But when I am troubled by what to paint I would not be facing a blank canvas. I would be washing dishes or reading a book or talking with friends, or doing whatever it is I do from day to day. By the time I'm faced with a blank canvas, I may not know exactly what I am going to make, but I do feel like making something. The making process is underway. B.S.: Well, once the painting is started. . . R.Y.: Once the project is underway, my problems usually start with finishing. When you begin, the possibilities seem endless, but the more you work on something, the less freedom you have to manoeuvre. Door after door is shut. You can paint yourself into a corner. When a painting is what you call "finished", a certain amount of incompleteness is usually evident. That incompleteness is your footprints out of there. You can't stay in the corner forever. B.S.: Art has a high place in our culture. It is like a religion. Temples or museums are dedicated to these revered, almost sacred art objects. This is true even though artists themselves may not enjoy the same respect, and most are at the low end of the income bracket. Would you recommend the profession of artist? Have you any advice for young aspiring painters? R.Y.: Any advice would be the same for both artists and non-artists, whether they are young, old, male or female. And it has been said beautifully by others before. Joseph Campbell said, "Follow your bliss". Find your intense interest and let it inform every moment of your life and give it focus and meaning. When young people are drawn to art they may not know what they are in for. I think they intuitively do and that is the reason for their attraction. But for whatever reason, some people become interested in making art. It has little to do with museums or temples. Usually at first it is a very traditional, innocent interest in making something — still lifes, nudes or landscapes. But the very act of intensely observing what is before you forces the act of seeing. And seeing is a magically transforming activity. I don't think art schools teach this. It just happens. And if the aspiring artist persists, a change will take place. Blake said, "If the fool persists in his folly, he will become wise" and "The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." Seeing is meditative. It does not require your thoughts or opinions or cleverness or memories. It has only to do with the here and now, which is the height of reality. This transformation is in the way you view the world, and the implications are enormous because when an individual is transformed, there is also a transformation of the whole world. B.S.: This is the type of talk I anticipated and hoped for when I asked you about the blank white canvas. I am interested in why artists are different than other people, why they feel a compulsion to transform those "scary white canvases" into art, and why they have a reputation for living on the edge. R.Y.: I guess that probably most serious artists dwell in a psychological area that could seem scary to people who are not conditioned to it. It often seems to have very little to do with what seems to be the preoccupations of most people. It is a place that is psychologically not far from death and eternity. I don't know how to talk about this. I guess you could call it "the edge". If you are peaceful and balanced you can stand on the edge without too much danger. It is definitely dangerous for people who are unbalanced and jittery. They could fall over, as many have done. But what is "the edge"? The very act of looking and being aware can make you at one with what is, which is here and now, the only doorway to the eternal. Artists and religious or spiritual people tend to dwell in these realms, but it is not limited to just them; it is wide open to everyone. Life is a great mystery to everyone; its end is relentlessly approaching and you can either accept the blessing of the wonder of it all or go mad. Or just carry on with your day to day activities, ignoring the wonder, unaware of your madness. B.S.: Who do you paint for? R.Y.: I like the idea of making art for other people, and I really appreciate the appreciation others have for things I have done. But I know that if I was on a desert island and lived alone, with no hope of being rescued back into the civilized world, I am one of the ones who would be involved in artistic making anyway. Even if no one would ever see it, I'm sure I would produce what we call art. The act of making art is magic and meditative, and makes existence meaningful. B.S.: What you are saying implies there is no need for social commentary or relevance in your art. But it is there. I am thinking specifically of your "Reading The Water" and billboard projects, which even you have referred to as propaganda for social change. R.Y.: Yes. There are many approaches to work — many are valid and I have no absolute loyalty to any of them. Alan Gowans has written of "art of compulsion" and "art of conviction". Art of compulsion is art of propaganda. It is compelling and full of a desire for change. Art of conviction is calm and centred. It is not trying to get somewhere; it has arrived. I now do both types of art. I want the world to change for the better, but on the desert island I would probably do exclusively the latter type of art, as I would in the best of all possible worlds. B.S.: So your art of conviction is not necessarily for other people? Don't you need recognition? Wouldn't you like to be better known? R.Y.: Yes, I need recognition, and I have it. My family and friends have a pretty good idea of what I'm about. They can see me for what I am, which is one of them. My work is generally for whoever sees it. It will be there whether anyone sees it or not. Of course I would like my work to be better known — I suppose that is the reason I consented to this interview — but me personally? I don't think so. B.S.: Does it bother you that art doesn't seem particularly relevant to our society, which is more concerned with the economic and material end of things? Does it bother you that there is not much of an audience for art? R.Y.: Well, yes. The flowering of art is indicative of the spiritual well-being of society. Since I am part of society, of course I am bothered that we tend towards decadence and corruption, not well-being. B.S.: Artists seem to produce work, regardless. For the amount of attention they get, most artists might as well be on a desert island somewhere. R.Y.: It is a sad fact — maybe it's a happy fact — anyway, it is a fact that artists spend hours and hours looking with intense interest at their own work, then it is just glanced at by gallery-goers who themselves are a very small minority of the general population. |
PART ONE
Making Art; For Whom & Why PART TWO The Artist, Childhood Influence, Family & Other Artists. PART THREE Education, Relationship to Nature, Artistic Making, Trail Signs. PART FOUR Further Influences & Education, Signatures & Definition Problems. PART FIVE High Art & Folk Art, Snobbery, Colonialism, Roots, Nationalism, Canada. PART SIX Culture, Tradition, Ancestry, The Importance of Art. PART SEVEN The Art World, Hierarchies, Comparisons, Juried Shows & Fashions. PART EIGHT Perception & Conception, Critics, Words & Seeing. PART NINE Art, Beauty, Meaning, Opinions, Judgement. |