[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:34.40,0:00:39.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,VIJA CELMINS: I ended up doing this extremely detailed work
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.60,0:00:46.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that I detest but I somehow \Nworked myself into this space
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.20,0:00:49.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I’m hoping to work myself out.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.56,0:00:55.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But I hate to abandon a work \Nthat I have cared for so long.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:56.44,0:01:01.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean I’ve been working on this \Nlittle tiny piece for over a year.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:01.56,0:01:04.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So you know, these two images go together
Dialogue: 0,0:01:04.76,0:01:10.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I’m leaving out the comet because I \Ncan’t stand an event that exciting in there.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:11.80,0:01:15.78,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean I had the comet in there \Nbut now the comet is maybe,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:16.64,0:01:19.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don’t know, millimeters under here.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:20.00,0:01:25.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I have redone the image many many \Ntimes one on top of each other
Dialogue: 0,0:01:26.36,0:01:29.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I paint it and then I sand it off.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:31.68,0:01:36.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This little photograph which I found \Nsomeplace and which I’ve been dragging around.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:38.24,0:01:40.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don’t know, it’s a kind of inspiration.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:40.80,0:01:48.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And a kind of a place to put \Nyour mind so that it allows me to
Dialogue: 0,0:01:48.68,0:01:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,maybe focus more on the touch.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:53.00,0:01:58.11,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You know, my touch on an \Nimage that here is like found,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:00.32,0:02:11.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,found by me and that’s, like, described in \Na touch, which remains part of the work.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:18.56,0:02:21.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This may be the ninth time I’m painting it.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:21.92,0:02:28.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But each time I try to articulate \Nit however I’m able to at the time.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:28.68,0:02:36.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And if I lose it, which I often do, \Nthen I paint it again on top of itself.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:38.16,0:02:43.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean somehow I think that \Nthe image then begins to
Dialogue: 0,0:02:43.44,0:02:47.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have a sort of memory in it \Neven if you can’t see it.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:50.20,0:02:54.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It can build up a kind of a \Ndense feeling toward the end
Dialogue: 0,0:02:54.92,0:02:57.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then it makes me happier.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:01.80,0:03:04.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’m very suspicious of illusionism,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.64,0:03:09.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so the space is flat and I like that but,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:09.48,0:03:15.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you know, I have an image that \Nwhat I’d like for it to do is to
Dialogue: 0,0:03:15.68,0:03:23.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,like give a little so that it like \Nmakes you want to go in a little bit.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:23.56,0:03:26.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So you’re looking like \Nmaybe you can look in there.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:27.12,0:03:30.81,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And then, you know, be kept out.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:39.04,0:03:43.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For me this part is interesting \Ncause this is the part
Dialogue: 0,0:03:43.04,0:03:45.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,where I’m like building, you know?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:45.32,0:03:48.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’m building the, the work from the beginning.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:50.48,0:03:54.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I kind of like the idea of laying a field out.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:55.56,0:04:00.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Then many times I begin like \Nworking with an image already on it.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:00.88,0:04:09.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This time I thought I would build \Nmore of a feel thinking of a feel
Dialogue: 0,0:04:09.40,0:04:14.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that begins to fill up some of \Nthe grain of the canvas itself.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:15.12,0:04:17.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is all part of the work.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:17.84,0:04:23.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In fact I often now talk about building \Na painting instead of you know,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:23.52,0:04:24.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,painting a painting.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:24.72,0:04:26.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Like I’m building a painting,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:26.40,0:04:33.71,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’m making a structure that’s a painting \Ncause it’s a two-dimensional object…
Dialogue: 0,0:04:36.56,0:04:42.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This painting has such an \Nillusionistic space in it.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:44.72,0:04:50.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think I remembered kind of feeling \Nthe joy of being able to paint anything.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:50.60,0:04:58.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,At that time I painted a lot of uh \Ndifferent objects, things that turned on,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:58.88,0:05:02.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you know, like my hot plate and the lamps,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:03.60,0:05:06.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,everything pretty much I had in the studio.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:07.23,0:05:11.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Then I started painting images of little \Nclippings and this is one of them.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:11.94,0:05:14.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So I sort of liked the painting.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:14.00,0:05:19.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I’m trying to see whether it can sort \Nof hold up to my having had you know,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:19.72,0:05:22.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,maybe thirty five years of painting after it.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:26.36,0:05:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think I painted this in the \Nmiddle of the Vietnam War.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:31.00,0:05:32.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I was remembering the planes,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:32.76,0:05:38.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when I was in Europe myself \Nin 1944, just a small child,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:38.60,0:05:40.36,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I remembered the airplanes.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:40.36,0:05:48.14,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They were, I’d never seen one \Nof course but I, I heard them…\N
Dialogue: 0,0:05:51.16,0:05:54.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is an invented thing, you know?
Dialogue: 0,0:05:54.68,0:06:00.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That it’s not like a copy of \Nnature, or a copy of photograph.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:00.08,0:06:04.94,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It’s an invented thing that, \Nthat you have in front of you.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:10.68,0:06:16.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But see these. These are \Nthese little nuts that I found
Dialogue: 0,0:06:16.08,0:06:20.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that have this fantastic surface \Nthat’s like this surface.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:22.40,0:06:26.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean I have to say that I’ve \Nalways found it impossible
Dialogue: 0,0:06:26.04,0:06:28.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to go straight from nature,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:28.08,0:06:32.33,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,although I did do that series of stones didn’t I?
Dialogue: 0,0:06:37.28,0:06:44.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Most of the changes in the work \Noccur poking around my own life.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:44.92,0:06:48.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Like when I picked up those \Nset of rocks in New Mexico,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:49.92,0:06:52.84,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,never even occurred to me, I \Nhad them in the back of the car,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:52.84,0:07:00.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I put them out on the table and I just had \Nthis instinctive desire to make them myself
Dialogue: 0,0:07:01.64,0:07:05.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as if I was maybe a creator myself.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:07.60,0:07:11.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,To make them myself to see how close I could get,
Dialogue: 0,0:07:11.20,0:07:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,like a test or something like a discipline.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:16.80,0:07:21.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I had them cast in bronze and then I painted them.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:21.28,0:07:26.52,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I decided the piece should be the found stone
Dialogue: 0,0:07:26.52,0:07:32.05,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the one that is sort of translated by me.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:38.36,0:07:41.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But I have been liking these chalky, surfaces
Dialogue: 0,0:07:41.64,0:07:47.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I’m attracted to these \Neye dazzling little things.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:05.68,0:08:10.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For a while I thought I would just \Nrepeat the one image my whole life.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:10.08,0:08:11.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When I, when I started going down
Dialogue: 0,0:08:11.92,0:08:13.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and taking a picture of the ocean I thought,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:13.96,0:08:16.20,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,well I’ll just do this over and over
Dialogue: 0,0:08:16.20,0:08:21.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and maybe something will show up that is amazing.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:29.68,0:08:31.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And then of course I got tired of it
Dialogue: 0,0:08:31.64,0:08:34.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then I moved on to some other things,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:34.12,0:08:35.19,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but not too many.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:37.32,0:08:43.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,One of the things I did is I repeated \Nthe image in different materials.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:43.04,0:08:46.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Like first I started just with the pencil
Dialogue: 0,0:08:46.40,0:08:48.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then when I was asked to do these prints,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:50.08,0:08:52.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the first image I did was a lithograph.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:56.40,0:08:59.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I have it like a dog with this bone.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:00.72,0:09:05.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I come on to these things \Nand I maneuver a little bit
Dialogue: 0,0:09:06.28,0:09:09.10,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and this a little bit that \Nway and a little bit this way.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:13.12,0:09:18.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It’s like something unconsciously \Nseeps into the work.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:20.96,0:09:26.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Some subtlety that my brain \Nwas not capable of figuring out
Dialogue: 0,0:09:26.88,0:09:30.90,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by spending so much time with it.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:48.16,0:09:52.56,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I tell you these images just \Nfloat through from my life,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:52.56,0:09:55.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they have no symbolic meaning.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:55.72,0:10:02.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean generally I, I pick \Nimages that are already surfaces.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:07.52,0:10:12.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I did the spider image the first time about 1992
Dialogue: 0,0:10:12.88,0:10:19.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I think I like the image because \Nit sort of held on to the edges
Dialogue: 0,0:10:19.92,0:10:25.62,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and made this flat plane \Nwhich I’m so in love with.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:27.28,0:10:32.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This image has been drawn on \Na piece of paper with charcoal
Dialogue: 0,0:10:32.92,0:10:35.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and also with an eraser.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:35.04,0:10:39.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Just a plain eraser, Pink pearl,
Dialogue: 0,0:10:39.24,0:10:42.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,then that was transferred onto the plate.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:42.88,0:10:47.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And then I went back in and I scraped.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:47.51,0:10:55.44,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I scraped the web once more, like \Nbringing it into more of a focus.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:57.80,0:11:05.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And an image that is a corny \Nimage, right up my alley I guess.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:05.64,0:11:10.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,An image that’s got a lot of associations with it,
Dialogue: 0,0:11:10.04,0:11:19.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but an image which I of course put in this \Nvery cold, scientific kind of dressing.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:19.92,0:11:21.64,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because most of my images....
Dialogue: 0,0:11:21.64,0:11:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well I guess they are pretty \Nemotional images for some people.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:28.80,0:11:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It’s like one of the elements \Nthat I kind of neutralize.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:36.24,0:11:39.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Even though I’ve been sort of \Nobsessed with this image you know,
Dialogue: 0,0:11:39.76,0:11:44.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that kind of describes a space, I’m not really,
Dialogue: 0,0:11:45.48,0:11:47.69,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I mean you know, I don’t really have a,
Dialogue: 0,0:11:48.37,0:11:52.09,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,an agenda here where I line \Nthem up and do it one way.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:52.24,0:11:56.66,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Each one you know, develops \Nhow it wants to develop.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:58.65,0:12:02.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But I like being back in the studio,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:04.28,0:12:13.35,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,sort of back in the, you know, working \Nwith this strange tedious surface.