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Mona Lisa - Centre of the World
Your weekly art takeaway
Mona L
September 08, 2024
Sep 08 | Issue 07
ML - Welcome to Mona Lisa. A weekly newsletter for artists with timeless quotes, ideas and light bites for curious & wandering minds.
“All Picasso's portraits of me are lies. They're all Picassos. Not one is Dora Maar”
I believe the way toward mastery of any endeavour is to work toward simplicity; replace complex technology with knowledge. The more you know, the less you need. From my feeble attempts at simplifying my own life I’ve learned enough to know that should we have to, or choose to, live more simply, it won’t be an impoverished life but one richer in all the ways that really matter.
Little thoughts
🤖 Why A.I is not going to make art…
🇯🇵 “The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you.” - Lost in Translation.
📱 “Make art not content”….creativity ‘truth-lotion’…👀
🍭 Dali “scrawled it on a restaurant napkin in exchange for millions,”…
Mona’s notes
A resident in my building asked me to recommend a leisurely walking route, and I absentmindedly suggested the local cemetery 🪦 In my excitement to share, I opened Google Maps to show them my preferred path through the graveyard, when I glanced up to see an expression that I can only describe as somewhere between waiting for the punchline, and panic.
Last week I picked up the book “Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World” by Louis de Bernières, for whom the ‘centre of the world’ was the town of Earlsfield in London, where he had lived for 10 years.
I am a great wanderer around cemeteries, I frequently feel tearful upon reading more poignant epitaphs, and from time to time I like to confront my own mortality in a suitably romantic and morbid fashion. One can discern the history of a community by following the succession of names on stones…
I am drawn to the headstones that look dramatically neglected, overrun with foliage and are sinking into spongy earth. The chain of custody feels broken, with nobody left to tend to their memory. I feel a sense of duty mixed with curiosity, to pause upon a life that is slipping from view.
Regarding artwork similar to how I observe headstones seems reasonable. I try to decipher the artist and their lens, and am conscious that a chain of reliably invested custodians have perpetuated the artwork, long after the artist has left this world. Museum or home, it doesn’t matter, it’s still visible.
My work is undoubtedly moulded by my environment so I suppose the centre of my world is the studio - it’s where I make life. I often wonder if my creations are my bid for immortality ♾️ I would of course hope that the jewellery I once made, and the paintings that I now create will far outlast me, provided that I take exceptional care to send them to good homes and custodians…
With love -
Mona x
“I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again” — Georgia O’Keefe
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