)<center> CSI :
Creative Scene Interpretation
"chee wokka : distill time"
[episode 67]</center>
Our Chief Snoop Interviewer, Laurence J. Kobie (LJK) brings us, for this edition of Creative Scene Interpretation, an intimate interview with Cecil on his latest work, "chee wokka: distill time" an acrylic on canvas, 24 by 30 inches in size...
LJK: Good day, Cecil! Thank you for coming here today with your latest work.
Cecil: Gracias~
LJK: I understand that you just finished this piece this morning... is the paint dry?
Cecil: Definitely! The paint has been dry for about a week or so...
LJK: But isn't it true that you said that you finished it today, Cecil..? How could that be?
Cecil: ((smiling)) I don't finish a painting until it has a name. It's very important for me to reach completion with a work including naming them. It's part of the composition to give it an audible sound... a name, a sound that speaks what has been said to me finalizes it. It's birth cycle complete I can now move on.
LJK: Interesting. Do you have any paintings that haven't been named yet?
Cecil: Yeah... I have two pieces that have been delayed for, probably ten.. twelve months now. I just can't call them finished so they stand around in the studio waiting...
LJK: And you... ah, this doesn't bother you... not having finished them??
Cecil: No, not at all... it's all part of the process. I've learned to accept the pace. I know from the past that it all comes together when the time is right.
LJK: How do you name your pieces?
Cecil: The name of each piece while being created goes thru many different names, but since they are works in progress the progression of names goes forward as do the compositions... they flow until they flow no mo'! ((laughing))
LJK: ((laughing)) I'd like to know where the name of this painting came from. Can you tell us about that..? Did the name really come to you this morning?
Cecil: Yes. I was standing by the computer when she came into the room, SooZen my friend, my love, my mate... reaching up with cupped hands she very gently placed her palms against my cheeks. What a shock! Cold hands!! She had just come in from the outdoors where the temperature is in the twenties. "Chee!" (pause) "Wokka!!"
"Chiwoka..? Is that what you said?" as I was walking away to roll a Bugler...
"Chee" (pause)"Wokka" I repeated. Something clicked inside my head. I went to the easel where this piece has been perched and saw a connection with 'chee wokka' and the painting.
LJK: What about the rest of the title - distill time...
Cecil: I knew for maybe 2 weeks or so that the painting spoke of time. It was clear to me that the answering to initially placing the circles on the piece some of completion, of eternal but there were elements put in with the circles that made it more of movement... a clockwork, but I still had not connected. I went thru several names before this morning and sat down at my drawing board with pen in hand and wrote first 'chee' then 'wokka', not quite certain whcih spelling to use. I ended with the spelling you see. But I needed to connect time to it... it was time! Wink The painting, altho conveying movement of time, stopped time - brought it to stillness... but not quite... "still time"..? Like 'still life'..?
I knew I was close, Kobie... you don't mind if I call you Kobie do you?
LJK: No, of course not, Cecil. I'd prefer it.
Cecil: ((continuing)) It felt like one of those breakthroughs dawning... I wanted to be there when it rose, when it connected. 'Dis' 'Still Time' !! Yes! distill time... lower case... yes, following the colon after 'chee wokka'... that was it!
I could hardly wait, the pulse was rushing, I was smiling, BIG. I got a marker out and took the canvas off the easel. Turning it over and placing it on the drawing board, I uncapped the marker and wrote the name on the reverse. It was finished! Complete. I signed my name and added '<named Sun. 2/12/06>' wondering if some day, years from now, if anyone would confuse '2/12' (Feb. 12th) with the second day of December...
LJK: Cecil... why would you wonder a thing like that...?
Cecil: Hell, I don't know Kobie. It's just one of those things that pops into my head. Don't you ever have odd things pop into your head? Come on, now...
LJK: Yeah... yeah! I do... but I don't talk about it. No the piddly things anyway. :Wink:
Cecil: Piddly!!
Hah! ((more laughing))LJK: Hey, Cecil... how would you like to show the rest of us your latest - 'chee wokka : distill time'..?
Cecil: Sure. Here's the painting on the canvas in my studio. Sorry about the dark lower areas. The early morning light was not very good -
Cecil: ((continuing))... but it gives an alright idea of the piece.
LJK: How long did this painting take you... the actual visual composition itself?
Cecil: Hmmmmm... let's see..... about two, maybe three weeks. The background takes some time to complete.
LJK: That is a cool background! And it's perfectly smooth to the touch. How do you do that?
Cecil: I'd rather not say right now, Kob'...
LJK: Ko-BEE, please, Cecil... Kobie.
Cecil: Always on the search for shortcuts, Kobie... sorry.
The background takes time... it goes in steps. Of course the overlay of lines... the geometrics also take time. I often study the piece for awhile listening to the piece... shifting thru different messages until I know what goes where at that given time. I don't want to put something down that doesn't belong!
LJK: Too difficult to remove the unwanted..?
Cecil: Definitely. But like I said there's really no hurry... just the initial background - that's performance... move, drizzle, squirt, rotate, shift... that is quick but not rushed.
LJK: When you finish what you call 'the background' it really is a work of art on its own... it could stand alone.
Cecil: Yeah.. it could, but it's only the beginning for me and the relatioinship with the painting. We get more intimate the longer we're together.
LJK: I see! Yes, I do see how one can get into an intimate relationship with their art.
Cecil: Intimacy and passion - fires the imagination!
LJK: I recognize some influences you've must've picked up on in the past - Mondrian for one.
Cecil: Yes, ol' Piet! We go back a long ways.
Mondrian, Pollack, Kandinsky, Klee, Klimt... o! Miro - I've always liked his approach. Then there's Picasso, of course... Matisse. One of the living that I really like is Dan Namingha. He's a Native American living in Santa Fe... good stuff!LJK: Hmmm... you live in the Southwest don't you, Cecil? Any influences from the area? I do notice the colors you use in many of your paintings...
Cecil: Yes, there is an influence. I enjoy colors! I use lots of colors familiar with the southwest. Geometrics are all around us - the mountains, hilss, ravines, mesas.. the roundness of cacti, the infinite skies with their clouds... verticallity of cliffs... blah, blah, blah...
LJK: And the colors of the sunrises and the sunsets! Especially when there are clouds scattered in the sky... beautiful.
Cecil: Truly.
LJK: How long have you been painting, Cecil?
Cecil: I came across a paint box in our families basement when I was 18. An old wooden box, when opened gave off the fragrance of the oil paints still good within. I picked up a canvas board at a local art supply store to give it a go.
Having had an early introduction to jazz that I cultivated myself thru reading about the early Beats and all... I found myself strongly attracted to the visual arts within that genre... a Beat thing and the painters of the time and earlier. The ones we spoke of a short while ago and the Abstract Expressionists.
I still have the very first painting I did.
LJK: We'd love to see it! I hope you brought it along with you...
Cecil: As a matter of fact, Kobie, I did.
I didn't name this... but I did date it -
LJK: Cook sixty-three...
Cecil: 'Cook' was a neighborhood nickname. I'll leave it at that. Sixty-three was the year I did it.
LJK: Let's see... 63. It's now 2006 - 43 years ago! You've been painting for 43 years?
Cecil: No. Not close.
I've done lots of stuff within those 43 years, Kobie... not all of them painting!LJK: Okay, Cecil, we won't go into those right now... time limitations an all. But I sure there's an interesting story somewhere in between those 43 years, right?
Cecil: Right...
LJK: I want to thank you for bringing us a little insight into your works and giving us a crappy picture of, what I'm sure is, a stunning work on canvas - chee wokka : distill time. And speaking of time, we are about out of it... may be not as out of it as our guest today, Cecil...
Thanks for sharing with us and I hope we get together soon, Cecil.
Cecil: Thanks for taking your time and having me here, Kobie...
LJK: That wraps up another episode of Creative Scene Interpretation... our guest today - Cecil from Phar Lepht, Texas.
Tune in again for more crazy snoopy interviewing from me, Laurence J. Kobie and Peace Out 'til the next time...
Cecil: pssst! Kobie! Hey... you got any donuts? I'm hungry for a donut... I gave this interview free, man. One donut, please... I ain't shittin' you. I'd really like a donut...
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Cecil
12 February 2006
