the artist is always naked (finishing really old work 2)

the artist is always naked (own work, 1982-2012, 45 x 90 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

this painting is one of a number of really old works (in this case also 30 years old) that i have decided to finish, using the techniques which i have acquired in the meantime.

actually for this painting techniques came second. it was the image itself which was hard to realize. finally i decided to depict a theme which has been on my mind for many years. and which is also a theme which i discuss with my students.

namely this: any artist, in any field (music, painting, writing,...), always has to put so much of her/himself in his/her art, that it is similar to standing naked before an audience. any small hesitation/mistake/clumsiness/... in music/singing/drama/art/... is picked up immediately by the acute human ears and eyes of the audience. so let alone that one can keep one's personality covered, one's inner drive, one's demons and desires and also one's inner beauty of course.

the audience most frequently doesn't realize how hard this can be for artists, who are generally not the least sensitive of people. still, i tell my students that it goes with the job, and that they should find ways to cope, preferably NOT by trying to keep themselves covered...since that is a strategy which will hamper them to develop their own truly unique talent.

african drummer (finishing really old work 1)

From a marketing point, my Career Manager has advised me to start writing using Proper Punctuation, you know, capitals...;-)

however, my brand manager has firmly opposed this, saying that a sudden shift in punctuational behaviour might project an unstable brand image, something a commercially-aware artist should always avoid like the plague. (should artists avoid the plague? one notorious dutch artist whom i do not admire recently repeated his belief that artists should try everything in life...)

they are now fighting it out in the bahamas, where i've sent them mainly to be able to work in peace and quiet ;-)


african drummer (own work, 1982-2012, 30 x 20 x 20 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

this sculpture is one of a number of really old works (in this case 30 years old) that i have decided to finish, using the painting techniques which i have acquired in the meantime.

these techniques are certainly not spectacular in any sense, or innovative in a grand fashion. but they are fulfilling to me personally. and i have got to the point where i am confident that i can put in the appropriate finishing touches or radical changes to old work. touches or changes which were elusive to me before.

for this sculpture, the finishing touches were a 'simple' 6 layers of translucent acrylic paint on top of a transparent layer of acrylic medium (for restoration and protection purpose of the cracked clay underneath). building up colours in a glaze is of course an age-old technique, but it has taken me years to develop it for myself. and it's not so easy to actually perform, as one needs to work smoothly, without hesitation, consistently across a 3D surface with nooks and crannies and other difficulties.

open access, elsevier boycott

On his blog Tim Gowers recently petitioned for a general boycott by scientists of Elsevier´s scientific journals.

His reasons I find excellent, as do many others, which has resulted in over 3,000 scientists now signing the petition on www.thecostofknowledge.com.

Let´s hope this initiative really takes off. I wrote on this subject on my visual arts blog earlier, and I find it truly heartening to see people taking a stand. Open access and open source can be (in my not so humble opinion) a way to reduce the poverty and the technology gap between rich and poor in this world.

Since society most often has already paid well for the research, it is extremely unfair that important knowledge should not be available to the public unless they can pay exorbitant prices.

We might think that mathematics is an important example (ok, I think so too, a little biasedly...) but consider important medical research, which can directly save lives...!

So open access is the first step, really. And money should not be a dominating force in the dissemination of human knowledge.


the open access logo

france bans fracking in shale gas development, netherlands gives permits

in an earlier post i wrote about shale gas protesting in france (protest song by my brother here).

this week the french government has banned the use of fracking in shale gas exploration/development.

this is extremely good news, and shows that protest can be effective.

sadly, at the same time my own government has given exploration permits to a number of companies to look for shale gas even in the area where i live. so i just signed a protest petition on www.gnmf.nl (in dutch). i hope that many people will sign, and protest in other ways as well.

mountain blaze

mountain blaze (own work, 2010, 80 x 200 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

this large painting is hard to photograph, i find, because it is difficult to avoid reflections of light and also because it is difficult to get the colours approximately right. still, the photo should help to explain the sense of adventure that i had while painting it. i did not know where i was going, i just painted very boldly, as if i knew what i was doing...

going from very bold strokes to finer brushes, but maintaining the `firesome' spirit of the mountain, was quite a challenge. like i said in previous posts: it feels like it isn't really me who is painting. i'm just holding the brush.

i really wonder where this landscape journey will take me in future years.

clouds over fallow field

clouds over fallow field (own work, 2000-2010, 39 x 128 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

this painting really took quite some time to finish. i worked on it (off and on) for 10 years. this is partly because i have to get used to a painting, especially when it contains something really new to me which i cannot place but which i feel is worthy of development.

lately, i have found new improvement in this process. it has become easier for me to discern in which direction i want to proceed, and which elements in a painting strengthen this direction and which elements weaken it. also, i find it easier to merge `old' work with new insights, for which i am grateful because i have a lot of `old' work which awaits finishing.

[postscript: i discovered that i already posted this painting, to illustrate an exhibition announcement. but it fits in the series of recent landscapes.]

sea, sky

sea, sky (own work, 2010, 120 x 122 cm, click on the image for an enlargement)

i would like to post some fairly recent landscapes, now that i've been freed from the mathematical project `natural topology' (see one-but-previous post). however, i just realized that images will be better findable on the web if i dedicate a post to each image separately.

this is more work, but it also gives opportunity to describe the paintings separately, which should be added benefit. i just have to overcome my usual reluctance to add words to a painting.

the above painting is characteristic of my continuing resolve to paint `as is'. i don't know why a painting works or not, i just know when it does. and i know that by allowing my subconscious intuition free rein, eventually a painting will start to work. even though this may be a laborious and time-consuming process.

i think that i'm in the process of reducing some aspects of landscapes to their essence. this is probably an inevitable development, and i'm looking forward to start a new painting. each time it surprises me how strongly paint can speak, even when reduced to simple forms and strokes.

stolen drawing (art theft 1)

man (own work, 1985-2005, 40 x 60 cm (approx.), click on the image for an enlargement)

the above drawing (of which i have only a poor photograph, and which has been slightly altered since) was stolen from the corridor in my studio building, last june. by someone with a key, even, which makes it all the more painful. i have since removed my paitings and drawings from the corridor.

obviously someone thought the drawing beautiful enough to steal. but for me it is a unique work, which i created primarily in art school (art academy utrecht) and which i later retouched and slightly modified for more effect. it was not for sale, because it is a dear example of how i started out as an artist.

i cannot put into words how cowardly and callous i find this theft. perhaps i will write some more posts on art theft in general.

Natural Topology (mathematics book announcement)

ocho infinito xxiii (cover drawing for the book `Natural Topology', own work, 2004-2011, click on the image for an enlargement)

Dear readers, some of you may know that Wim Couwenberg and I started a project called `Natural topology' some years ago. The aim of the project is a) to explain intuitionism to classical mathematicians b) to simplify aspects of formal topology c) to show that intuitionistic topology is elegant and constructive, and its results can be easily translated to Bishop-style mathematics if one inductivizes the definitions d) to clarify in-our-eyes-important aspects of the relation between foundations of constructive mathematics and the foundations of physics.

Last January, we gave an informal talk about this project at the University of Nijmegen for a general audience. Positive and sceptical reactions together prompted me to work out the basic idea rigorously, all the time linking it to other developments. I am happy to announce that the long-promised book Natural Topology is now available online, from my website at http://www.fwaaldijk.nl/natural-topology.pdf

An abstract of the book is given below. I hope it will provide food for thought and discussion, also for the philosophy of mathematics and physics. The book is essentially self-contained and on the advanced undergraduate level (I believe), meaning that anyone with a knowledge of basic topology and some perseverance should be able to read it. For a good appreciation of the whole book, a certain knowledge of constructive mathematics probably is necessary, I suspect. But enough interesting elements should be accessible to anyone, I hope. (An interesting general-audience example concerns the line-calling decision-support system Hawk-Eye used in professional tennis.)

Of course all comments and reactions are welcome.

Kind regards,
Frank Waaldijk
http://www.fwaaldijk.nl/mathematics.html


Abstract:

We develop a simple framework called `natural topology', which can serve as a theoretical and applicable basis for dealing with real-world phenomena. Natural topology is tailored to make pointwise and pointfree notions go together naturally. As a constructive theory in BISH, it gives a classical mathematician a faithful idea of important concepts and results in intuitionism.

Natural topology is well-suited for practical and computational purposes. We give several examples relevant for applied mathematics, such as the decision-support system Hawk-Eye, and various real-number representations.

We compare classical mathematics (CLASS), intuitionism (INT), recursive mathematics (RUSS), Bishop-style mathematics (BISH), formal topology and applied mathematics, aiming to reduce the mutual differences to their essence. To do so, our mathematical foundation must be precise and simple. There are links with physics, regarding the topological character of our physical universe.

Any natural space is isomorphic to a quotient space of Baire space, which therefore is universal. We develop an elegant and concise `genetic induction' scheme, and prove its equivalence on natural spaces to a formal-topological induction style. The inductive Heine-Borel property holds for `compact' or `fanlike' natural subspaces, including the real interval [α,β]. Inductive morphisms preserve this Heine-Borel property. This partly solves the continuous-function problem for BISH, yet pointwise problems persist in the absence of Brouwer's Thesis.

By inductivizing the definitions, a direct correspondence with INT is obtained which allows for a translation of many intuitionistic results into BISH. We thus prove a constructive star-finitary metrization theorem which parallels the classical metrization theorem for strongly paracompact spaces. We also obtain non-metrizable Silva spaces, in infinite-dimensional topology. Natural topology gives a solid basis, we think, for further constructive study of topological lattice theory, algebraic topology and infinite-dimensional topology.

The final section reconsiders the question of which mathematics to choose for physics. Compactness issues also play a role here, since the question `can Nature produce a non-recursive sequence?' finds a negative answer in CTphys. CTphys, if true, would seem at first glance to point to RUSS as the mathematics of choice for physics. To discuss this issue, we wax more philosophical. We also present a simple model of INT in RUSS, in the two-player game LIfE (Limited Information for Earthlings).

ai weiwei released on bail (see previous post, art & society 2)

since i'm working extremely hard to finish a fair chunk of mathematical research, i haven't been able to write on this blog.

but this good news of course must be added: ai weiwei has been released on bail, although he may still face civil charges.

news sources say that the attention given to this case by western media and protesters have pressured the chinese authorities to release ai weiwei. many others who like him are critical of the authorities are however still detained under equally vague charges and with doubtful legality.

(read more in the l.a. times, and the l.a. times).


ai weiwei, china map

ai weiwei arrested in china (art & society 1)

one of my favourite modern artists, ai weiwei, was arrested this week in his home country china. he has been charged with economic crime, according to the LA Times. however, it is very very likely that this is just a form of censoring by the chinese government. ai weiwei has been arrested before, on trumped up charges, even leading to hospitalization.

sometimes i am just so fed up with the world.

ai weiwei is a very talented artist, and a very talented technical craftsman as well. he combines these talents to comment on our society, and sometimes this is especially about his home country china. his art is always respectful in every way, but it does have a message. that is one of the very important functions of art, imnsho.

i hereby wish to give my support to ai weiwei, and to all other artists and like who are hounded by governments, authorities or other organizations for speaking out for those values that are the very essence of a better humanity.

and shame on all those bureaucrats and power-hungry people who wish to muzzle the freedom of speech and other (artistic or not) expression in order to force their world vision on others, and in order to maintain their power positions.

(to be continued)

fukushima: our problems hoisted on future generations

the cleaning up of the millions of gallons of radioactive water at fukushima (which are a waste result of the attempts to cool the daiichi nuclear plant with water to prevent meltdown) could take decades, according to expert opinions reported in the LA Times, if it can be resolved at all.

these news items have a tendency to be understated, because the nature of news is like an extreme version of the nature of fashion, and seldom does public attention linger on any one issue if there are no `dramatic' turns of events.

but since we were discussing these topics on this blog, i felt i should mention this hoisting of our problems on future generations. the cleaning of this nuclear wastewater is actually but a minor issue compared to the nuclear waste that we are creating all over the world, for which we have no long-term solution either.

so, as an artist, perhaps you can see how serious i am on this issue when i say: forget about art, but do not forget about the next generations. who gave us the right to pollute the world in an irreversible manner for eons to come?

what can art be and do? (shale gas development in the cévennes 2)

as a follow-up to the previous post, just let me post this link to a very informative news article on shale gas development in the cévennes on french news online.

in the recent posts, environmental issues feature prominently. one could ask if an art blog is the best place for these concerns, but i'm inclined to allow it (...;-)). first of all, one can't cut up the world in subjects and expect to never have to redefine or rethink categories. second, a real and important issue for me is the role of art in society. and a major role imnsho is to raise awareness about fundamental issues that society faces.

so, although this is not primarily meant as a protest blog, from time to time i will post on issues which i hold to be fundamental in arriving at a better society and world.

and this just begs the question: how many famous works of art are about environmental protection??

protest song against shale gas development in the cévennes

(in french, by my brother kees waaldijk, a gifted musician who obviously shares my environmental concerns...)



the cévennes form a beautiful natural region and national park in southern France, near avignon and nîmes. shale gas development is being increasingly criticized for its environmental impact and health hazards.


in the cévennes (photo by havang).

nuclear energy & earthquake japan

i am very sorry to see my very recent admonishments about the dangers of nuclear energy viz. natural disasters proved true by the completely dreadful earthquake which occurred last week in japan. i hope the people there will manage to contain the damage, and overcome this terrible adversity.

i also hope this will finally set people thinking about our completely irresponsible way of creating nuclear pollution for ages and ages to come.

when will we learn that we should not burden the next generations with our problems? when are we going to say: the buck stops here?

visits to this blog : thank you google & blogger!

yesterday was a strange day...you might remember that just a month ago i proudly posted that my blog had had 100,000 visits...in total, over its lifespan of almost 3 yrs.

however, yesterday i had over 60,000 visits (and today so far another 15,000) on one day. all due to the fact that google celebrated the birthday of constantin brâncuşi (19 february 1876). and yes, i posted a few nice photographs of brâncuşi's work that i took in the centre georges pompidou on this blog. these photos rank highly in google image search...(and now things go back to normal, since google's celebration is over)

although i know these effects are typical of the modern web-based society, it still is strange for me to witness it up close. because in real life, as an artist i'm somewhat of a recluse. anyway, thank you google and blogger, for providing people like me with the opportunity to reach many others, outside of commercial and/or hierarchical channels.

some drawings (leading to self-reference)

this blog serves multiple purposes, which sometimes does not make for very consistent threads. the thread on nuclear energy has been served well enough, but a new thread (self-reference in art and other areas) will have to wait a little, since i also want to put up some fairly recent drawings...some of them containing a fair amount of self-reference...[and with real difficulty in getting the true colours of the real works approximately right, so i have to say the real works are really better (this is a plus too, of course, but readers of the blog often are not in a position to come view these drawings in the physical world)]


woman in park (own work, 2008-2011, click on the image for an enlargement)



self-portrait as artist who cannot even draw (own work, 2010, click on the image for an enlargement)



notre dame des anges texting (own work, 2010, click on the image for an enlargement)



notre dame des anges with glasses (own work, 2010, click on the image for an enlargement)



i think i met an angel (own work, 2010, click on the image for an enlargement)



self-portrait as artist with higher inspiration (own work, 2010, click on the image for an enlargement)

nuclear energy & art 3: chicago & henry moore

to finish the thread, there is also a (in my eyes) disturbing sculpture `nuclear energy' by henry moore, which was commissioned to mark the place where the first makeshift nuclear reactor was realized in chicago (chicago pile-1). the sculpture was erected in 1967 at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the splitting of the atom on the grounds by enrico fermi on december 2, 1942.


henry moore, nuclear energy (picture lenka reznicek, click on the image for an enlargement, cc-license see the link)

It’s a rather strange thing really but I’d already done the idea for this sculpture before Professor McNeill and his colleagues from the University of Chicago came to see me on Sunday morning to tell me about the whole proposition. They told me (which I’d only vaguely known) that Fermi, the Italian nuclear physicist, started or really made the first successful controlled nuclear fission in a temporary building. I think it was a squash court - a wooden building - which from the outside looked entirely unlike where a thing of such an important nature might take place. But this experiment was carried on in secret and it meant that by being successful Man was able to control this huge force for peaceful purposes as well as destructive ones. They came to me to tell me that they thought where such an important event in history took place ought to be marked and they wondered whether I would do a sculpture which would stand on the spot. (Henry Moore quoted in Art Journal, New York, spring 1973, p.286)

i think moore captured this duality rather too well...the sculpture reminds me of a giant skull. i don't think this is quite coincidental either, because imho moore was a great artist.

lenka reznicek writes a blog called radioactive! the nuclear blog, below is another of her pictures (creative commons licensed, go to her flickr page -link above- for the full license).


plot m marker, red gate woods chicago (photo lenka reznicek, click on the image for an enlargement).

enrico fermi died in 1954 of stomach cancer, as a result of overexposure to radiation. below his image in a graffiti tribute from vitoria in spain:

self-fulfilling post: more posts in january 2011 than in the entire year 2010 (self reference intermezzo)

title says it all. this post is self-fulfilling ;-) since it is the 20th post of january, and in 2010 there were only 19 posts on this blog. just to show you how empty self-reference can be...although in the foundations of mathematics, self-reference is a profound tool. kurt gödel's incompleteness theorems hinge on the possibility of encoding mathematical statements about our number system in numbers. [the whole numbers 0,1,2,...with addition and multiplication]. combine this with the fact that formal derivations in the number system can also be coded as calculations on numbers, and with quite some work one gets a statement Q about numbers which talks about itself...namely Q, when decoded, reads:

the statement Q cannot be formally derived in the formal number system.

suppose Q can be formally derived...then -assuming the number system is consistent- this means that Q is true, but then Q cannot be formally derived! contradiction. since the assumption that Q can be formally derived leads to contradiction, we conclude that Q cannot be formally derived. this means that Q is true!

wow, you say, so what. but this is one of the most profound insights in the limited power of formal human reasoning that i have ever come across. roughly speaking, it means that no matter how hard we try to formalize our reasoning, if the formal system is strong enough (and consistent) then we will always come across statements which are obviously true but which cannot be derived in our formal system hence the name `incompleteness theorem'. the second incompleteness theorem states that especially the consistency of the system cannot be formally derived within the system.

gödel's incompleteness theorems were a shattering blow to the program of david hilbert, who wanted to formalize all of mathematics. the dutch mathematician l.e.j. (jan) brouwer had already predicted in his phd-thesis (1907) that this would be impossible, on mathematical-philosophical grounds. but gödel gave a sharp mathematical proof, in 1931.

********

for me, there is some relevant personal history here...since you could say that both my mathematical career and my artistic career were fueled by the absolutely marvelous book `gödel escher bach - an eternal golden braid' (written by douglas hofstadter, and winner of the pulitzer prize for non-fiction in 1980 - when i was fifteen).



few other books have so sparked my interest in art, neuroscience and mathematics as this book, and it is wonderful that there are people like douglas hofstadter devoting time and energy to translate difficult concepts from mathematics and natural science to a more general audience.

and yes i will come back to maurits escher once more in later posts...(did i mention somewhere how much i love bach's music? but i know very little about music, so i won't write about it on this blog i think).

in art, also self-reference can play various important roles. one obvious role is that of the self-portrait...(see some recent previous posts for digital self-portraits) and i will come back to that also, after i finish the thread on nuclear energy and art.

*******

this post was partly sparked by my lunch today with paul, staunch supporter of this blog and its author, who repeated his earlier remark that i should not forget to combine my mathematical background with my artistic endeavour from time to time.

so thank you paul!