Clare London Day Three: It’s Not What You See – but How You Feel?

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. (Edgar Degas)

What an excellent quotation, eh? I may be an author but I can’t say I have any other artistic talents. I can copy a picture, which made me good at cartoons when I was younger, and I can sew a great Barbie frock, so I do have some creative talents. But real painting, drawing or sculpture? No way!

And yet it’s a theme I find myself drawn to in my fiction. My novel “True Colors” features an unruly, provocative and highly talented artist Zeke. He is infamous for his turbulent abstract art and sets up intriguing, unexpected exhibitions where he blends paintings with all the objects and treasures of real life. He and his lover Miles are drawn even closer together by Zeke’s art, finding it a medium for their emotional bond.

More recently, I have a short story releasing at Amber Quill Press later this month – the 18th, if I may pimp it LOL – called “Muse”.

Gavin McGrath's art career is in ruins, his health is failing, his wife's left him because of his promiscuity and he's alienated people in the industry with his aggressive and arrogant behavior. But when a full pot of red paint falls on his current canvas, apparently ruining it, it brings a change in his life he never expected. A strange, beautiful young man appears in his studio as his companion and Muse.

Matteo is from another time but he understands artists all too well – and now his place is with Gavin. Matteo brings devotion and inspiration across the centuries, forcing Gavin to take stock of his life and his behavior in the months he has left to him. Eventually Gavin realizes he must reconsider the capacity for love he's always scorned - before it's too late for both him and Matteo.

Matteo was inspired by a work by one of my favourite painters, Caravaggio, called “The Musicians”. Gavin’s art is more traditional, the sketching and painting of nudes, but his new project excites him in a way nothing ever did before – and so does Matteo.

And in a current work in progress, my hero is the owner of an art gallery. Charles has always been in awe of an artist’s skill, including the young Valero brothers whom he sponsors and loves. But after a murder in the gallery, Charles takes stock of his life and realises he has talents of his own. He expresses himself through his love of art, and passes on that encouragement and compassion to others. And in the process, he discovers a determination to seek out the truth –whatever the cost.

So I’m no artist myself, but I’m an enthusiastic consumer, and I love when it moves hand in hand with other mediums. When I wrote fanfiction, occasionally artists would gift me with drawings they’d made to illustrate my stories. I also entered several contests and challenges, inspired by a drawing. Of the four stories in my anthology “Masquerade”, three of them were illustrated in this way. I’ve included some of these pictures today, to share with you.

The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it. (Banksy)

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since. (Salvador Dali)

But how many of us can live that dream? We all work hard for our art, whatever form it takes. For me, visual art inspires a different response than fiction does. Fiction requires a longer attention time, and – if good - will build a path to your heart. But art generates a much more immediate response. I can admire the craft and skill of a painting, as I can a book – but my heart has already decided whether to love it.

Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us. (Roy Adzak)

And isn’t that what we all seek in fiction, as readers and/or writers? I know it’s true for me.


Thanks so much to DIK for allowing me on board this week. I’ve had a great time, I must admit I don’t want it to come to an end so soon. I have heard that the weather at home is cold and damp and my inbox is by now the size of War and Peace (and probably just as contentious). Hmm. But look! I don’t seem to be able to find my suitcase, to pack to go home. I’ll have to stay here. No, of course the family won’t miss me. Well, not for another month or so. And I am so in need of a decent holiday…

You can visit Clare London here
http://www.clarelondon.co.uk
or at her blog .
http://clarelondon.livejournal.com/

Pictures in order: Pensive Beauty; Kit from Freeman by Gwydi; Muse cover; The Musicians by Caravaggio; Mori from Threadbare by Agnes; Sleep from Possession by Helm; The Kiss from Possession by Helm.