THE WISDOM OF INSECURITY

Oil paint on fiberglass screen with pencil and staples

   I used to visit the museum and look at Cezanne paintings. He would often use a blue line especially in some of the still life paintings. Initially I thought the blue line was just some of his underpainting that remained but upon looking carefully I could see that the line was intentionally painted on the surface. It was obviously an important part of his structure and presentation. The line would at first appear to mark the edge of an object but after a longer look seemed to function separately from the way the rest of the space and forms were made. The line did not precisely describe an edge of a table or apple but seemed to me to occupy a space that was neither here nor there. It was not apple or table and it was not wall. It seemed to be some kind of interval, maybe air or another element that referred us back to the flatness or rectangular shape of the canvas. There is of course no one answer.  The role of that blue line for me, beside being a design element, began to suggest a humility and uncertainty about what is seen and known when we really observe something. And although the forms and spaces in his paintings were as solid as concrete, it was clear that if you reached into the painting and picked up one of his apples that blue line would disappear.

Cuckoo, Oil paint on wood and screen with staples and pencil