TYESE COOPER
  • Articles
  • Classes
  • Mentoring
  • About
  • Contact

Day 5: Between Us, A Painter Reflects on the Start or the Finish of the Creative Process

1/21/2021

0 Comments

 
Clare Thackway at La Pave d'Orsay Paris with Tyese Cooper
​Clare Thackway
Artist 5 in the Series
Artist Specialization: Figurative Painting
Latest Project: "Between Us"
Current Residence: Paris, France
Grew Up: Canberra, Australia
"How to See" is a series where we examine the art of the word "start" like a painting at a museum. What do we see? What do we think of?  Is it a blank canvas? An empty mannequin? A cold sewing machine? Inspiration? Anxiety? A decision? I asked 21 designers and artists from all over the world what it means to them. You'll be surprised what comes up.⁠ Perhaps it will give us constructive insight on starting our own projects in a way where they stick, help us create action, or form specific steps for each of us to "just do it."⁠

‘Clare Thackway shows us how figurative painting can unveil the relationship of intimacy to distance. The space between bodies is an ongoing consideration explored through the use of drapery and the stripe, with these ideas now palpable in the context of a global pandemic. The cloth creates separation and a physical barrier but this can also be felt as an act of collective care. There is a tenderness in the works as they unfold aspects of the body in vulnerable states. ‘ words by Melody Willis.

​I caught Clare on the last day of her latest exhibition, but you’ll be able to check out her work on Instagram and get alerted to her next showing. As she took me through her latest exhibition, “Between Us”. The words 'stripe', 'intimacy', 'envelope', came up often. But today we are diving into the word 'start'. 


​Lately it’s been raining off and on in Paris and sometimes snowing. Today it’s overcast but I notice bits of white light find their way onto my path as I make my way to the 7th arrondissement. I pass Rue de Bac, the Eric Bompard cashmere store and a cafe/restaurant that hasn’t been open since last October called Les Antiquaires. Their deep brown and cream early 1900s decor reflects the name but somehow feels older, dustier than even the vintage bike parked out in front. I cross the street and step into the Le Pave D’Orsay gallery. The echoing of my boots on slats makes it feel vacant but the color palette in the paintings brings a warmth, an intimacy. Clare Thackey is waiting for me, snuggled to one side having coffee in a mustard cup. She harmonizes with the color palette of her latest paintings in a heather grey v neck, wearing a short strawberry bob with bangs,  calm with eucalyptus green eyes. 
Energy

As you look at the word, apart from the exploration of your work, what do you think of when you hear the word ‘start?’ 


“Ummm...well, it brought up a couple of things for me. I think about it like….two fold, I think I should think it’s positive. ‘Start’ to me sometimes feels like it relates to something that’s finishing or feels a little bit like maybe you failed. It also feels quite exhausting…” The idea of ‘start’ feels like, “do I have the energy to force it? What if I fail - that I’d have to start something new? What hasn’t worked? Does that means beginning again?”

I see her shoulders shift. She takes another breath after putting the coffee cup down. She explains to me that she’s in her mid-30s, that she’s tried a few things, been doing the painting thing for a long time. 
​
​The idea of ‘start’ feels like... “do I have the energy to force it? What if I fail - that I’d have to start something new? What hasn’t worked - that that means beginning again?”
Fitness

"What do you mean by 'exhausting' Clare?"

“Hummm...like you’ve worked really hard…or maybe like your pushing something up a hill…”

It's like...not flowing. So I guess that idea of start...it’s the beginning of something. You’re about to push something up a hill. It’s not like you’re in the middle of flow. You’ve got all these things ahead of you. Which can be exciting. It can be new and…refreshing.”

“When you push something up a hill, what do you imagine that to be?”

“Ahhhh, you mean like a physical object? I think it’s more like a heavy body, an unfit....a heavy load that you need to build.” She’s imagining this heaviness as she stares up and to the right. 

“I think also ‘start’ for me also means about a building of a fitness, you know?" She looks me in the eye. “As you go on with the project, you build that fitness and you end up in that flow state or whatever that is. I think a start isn’t that flow state. I think the start is setting the parameters, pushing that thing forward.

I guess I’m kinda thinking of it in terms of running. When you start running, your body aches. You feel all the muscles in your body. You might feel your bones, feel the clicks and what’s not working, then suddenly you warm up and you get in this flow state.”
Creative Process
As you go on with the project, you build that fitness and you end up in that flow state or whatever that is…”
She continues. “It’s the same with the creative process. It’s like what you were saying when you walked in about drawing. When you start drawing and you haven’t drawn for a while, it’s like you kinda have to build a fitness again. 

It’s clunky to start. Then you end up in a flow state where things are... flowing.

Ummm yeah,...exhausting….it’s exhausting, a lot of things to think about...pulling all those elements together.” She takes a bite of a biscuit from the plate in front of her. I took a swig of coffee as a break to review my notes. I wanted to see if we could go back to expound on that notion of “pushing a physical object” up a hill.
“I guess I was thinking about that metaphor of ‘pushing a rock up a hill’. But then I think the reason why that's hard is because it's your own physical body, your own physical fitness. It's building that conditioning for yourself to then make that load easier. So whatever that is, the effort is your own limitations and your own body.”

"Clare, you mentioned that as you build fitness, it feels clunky. It sounds like, then, you’re saying that after a while you get the wheels turning, you finally hit a state of flow. What does ‘flow’ mean to you?” 
La Pave d'Orsay painter Clare Thackway with gallery visitors
Flow
​“Hummmmm...flow….I’m thinking flow in terms of a psychological idea. It’s that state where you’re in extreme focus, but it's not effort-full. But it sort of feels as though you’re not looking at the clock. Eight hours could pass and you're in this sort of state of focus - you're not lost in it. It's almost like meditation. You’re completely lost in the process. 

So it's like, you’ve gotten to this peak of this hill of this effort….and then you’re rolling down.  Your gaining momentum...you're gaining speed. It's almost like you're riding a bike, riding down a hill...things feel like they're flowing. 

Which isn't about-I don’t think that’s related to ‘start’. You get all these things together and then you know, you push and push and push and then you’re goooooing you know?” 

I'm enjoying the enactment of her pushing something - maybe a cart with her daughter inside. “Why do you think you said that? Is that coming from a logical point of view?” 

“No no...it’s coming from an experiential point of view. I don’t know about you, but like when I start creative processes, I ask myself what are the parameters?

“At what point do you do this?”

“At the start. That’s how, I then, approach a painting project. I go ok, 'what rules am I setting for myself?' Then if I come up with another idea as a tangent, sometimes I’ll implement it. It might not end up what you intended at the start. It's still a journey, things change as you go.” I say I'm gonna work with these people; limit to this to 5 elements; or this is the timeframe, the scale, the tools I'm gonna use. That’s the initial effort stage. And then on, it's a matter of executing. You might have influences, different voices, different things coming into it but those parameters are already set. So the flow state is when you’ve got all those things sorted out and then you’re off and running. ​​
Thoughts After Our Chat
Clare talks about setting parameters and building a fitness for a good start. In some ways she reflects what TV writer Sam Callahan said about flow in artist 4 with their hill-peak-rolling analogies. You climb it like a roller coaster does a hill or in Clara’s case, pushing that 'rock up a hill'. The difference is if you interpretation of 'start' to be more of anticipation or labor.

Let's take it further. Is it the anticipation a rollercoaster might give; the challenge of pushing the rock; an invigorating finish; or structure you set with parameters that feels most appealing about a start? Which one is easier to reach for you?

I’d love to have the benefits of euphoria, or however you personally describe flow, before a hard climb. In fact, what would happen if we were to reverse it? What if we could say that in order to ‘start’, one would need to flow...first. That in order to get up that hill (representing start), we need to initiate flow.

For Clare, flow was all about meditation, a state of extreme focus, being loss in the process. What if one was to do things that felt like meditation, where one could get into that state. Different people have various meditative processes - some do yoga, others do breath meditation. During our chat, Clare mentioned she liked to run. Would that be one thing to help you get you to a point of flow? 

My favorite author, at the moment, is Haruki Murakami. He’s written over 21 books and in 2015 was added to Time Magazine’s list of most influential figures. He runs 10K and participates in triathlons at 72 years old. Is that how he gets into a state of flow...how he “climbs”….to ‘start’? My beginning always involves playing! Corralling my ideas into a mood board with images, fabric swatches, poems, etc works to create silhouettes or color combinations I would have never thought of before. I also love dedicating 20 or 30 hours during a season to just drap various fabrics and shapes on the mannequin and take photos to get into that point of focus. 

What do you think? What is your definition of flow? Of ‘start’? What’s symbolic as the climb for you and what would make it easier?

----------

Check out Clare's pieces on her website. My favorite piece is called Longing Forward, 2020, oil on canvas, 65cm x 54cm. What are yours?
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

© TYESE COOPER 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Privacy Policy / Politique de confidentialité
Get inspired, from Paris, with my bi-weekly newsletter sent out Monday. Through a lens of art, form & philosophy, helping you see another perspective of you and your business ideas.
  • Articles
  • Classes
  • Mentoring
  • About
  • Contact