Les Rêves Canadiens


Emery Kelen, ed., Leonardo da Vinci's Advice to Artists. Pennsylvania: Running Press, 1990.
When Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519 at the age of sixty-seven he left close to five thousand pages of notebooks; Kelen has chosen the most timely and valuable insights to compile for artists in this fine book. For me, this book has become a companion as well as an inspiration. True, I disagree with da Vinci on a few minor points, but I feel that these would make a rich starting point for dialogue with the old gentleman, if he were still here. The book is laid out in useful sections for the working artist with a short annotation for each section and a beginning introduction, "Everyone is an Artist," by the editor. Even the front cover is fascinating to me as an artist; its reproduction of the Mona Lisa with an almost holographic affect that moves from positive to negative is subtly hypnotic. Inside the editor has interspersed illustrations of many of da Vinci's sketches, details from finished works, and some of his most famous pieces all in black and white. These are placed in timely positions relating directly to the text.
Some of the notes da Vinci made were of the mundane variety describing the mechanics of painting, but some of the thoughts propel one into the world of the dreamer where illusion and reality merge and blend. This is the beauty of the book for it is my reality as an artist, that everything has a double or triple meaning and shades there of. Kelen suggests that da Vinci's notes were an answer to Michelangelo's criticisms. Da Vinci was a fastidious dresser and and considered sculptors to be filthy laborers who took the easy route of describing nature. The painter could surround himself with fine music and friends and produce a work that could fool even the subject's pets.
I think that da Vinci's habit of mirror writing everything must have been a novel form of meditation something like a walking meditation, and I can only assume that by the very volume of his notes that he must have developed quite a mastery of the discipline, and I think enlightenment. I found his advice to artists to be very telling; he said that an artist would be well advised to place a mirror in the studio so they could view their work as if painted by another artist and so be more objective. Each time I look over and see the cover of the book winking from positive to negative I am reminded of his advice, and thank Mr. Kelen for bringing me those messages for reflection.

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