On the cutting out of tongues ...

Wisdom in an oft-quoted Matisse line

“Self Portrait” by Henri Matisse, 1906, oil on canvas. On display at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Denmark.

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I’m a novice, a painter for all of five years - serious about it for barely 18 months. So this is my STOP READING NOW bright cadmium red warning light if you were expecting the perspective of an “expert.”

I am not that.

But I am a lover of art, and I love painting in particular. And having survived on this planet until now, I have a few thoughts on beauty - from the lovely serendipity of nature to the smile of a baby to the perfectly asymmetrical lines of a Jackson Pollock canvas.

These are moments of grace - when beauty can touch the heart.

The great French painter, Henri Matisse, is said to have said this:

I have always sought to be understood and, while I was taken to task by critics or colleagues, I thought they were right, assuming I had not been clear enough to be understood. This assumption allowed me to work my whole life without hatred and even without bitterness toward criticism, regardless of its source. I […]

Whoever wishes to devote himself to painting should begin by cutting out his own tongue.

It has bothered me all my life that I do not paint like everybody else.

I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things.

Time extracts various values from a painter’s work. When these values are exhausted the pictures are forgotten, and the more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

There is a lot there to dwell on, but I’ll focus only on that cutting out your tongue idea.

Now, I will not presume to know exactly what Matisse was getting at, and I’ve yet to find a good explanation for the context in which he said it. But to me, it means this:

Don’t react negatively to criticism - take it in but don’t let it affect you too much either way.

And don’t feel the need to explain your work. Once you’ve released a piece of art into the wild, it doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to the people who look at it.

Given that philosophy, then, what the hell am I doing writing a commentary on art? I’m doing it because I want to express regular thoughts on process, on beauty, and on what I’m learning. And to share some of the best of what I’m seeing in my small corner of the planet.

I won’t be explaining my own paintings - I’ll hold my tongue on that.

But I will invite you to take a walk with me, and perhaps together we can learn a few things. I’m am quite sure I can learn from you.

Thanks for joining me.

David D. Haynes is a former journalist and community organizer living in Wisconsin. You can see his original work at www.daviddhaynes.org