Delusion

This subject features a lot.

On the subject of Big Foot - says Johnny, 'It's to do with delusion - you can't do my sort of paintings unless you are deluded - because only you can believe it can have the depth.

I've been watching a programme about Yeti and Big Foot.  I don't believe it, but it's been interesting to listen to people who believe he is real - like UFOs, if I'm into reality, I've got to believe in UFOs.

Reality doesn't really exist - it's a state of mind.  When you are in a dream, it does exist and while you are in it, you are living it.  What sense have I made out of it?  It's something to do with spirituality and the need for a human being  to believe in something out of this world - and this is where reality comes in- they've invented for their own reasons, gods for people to believe in.'

The Studio - what about the feet?

I do wonder who 'they' are.  Because if they are we and we are they, is this  a collective delusion? Or maybe selective delusion ... or elective delusion - and exactly what quorum is required for the confirmation of reality ... or delusion ..?

Johnny makes me think.  They maybe ridiculous thoughts, but it's fun to play around!  'So what's your painting 'Big Foot' like?' I ask.
'Black,' says Johnny.





Photo of Big Foot to follow at some point.

Back to Don Quixote

I'm sorry for the gap.  I have been consumed by piano, the National Trust and new job.  I've felt guilty for not writing but post-Serbia, I couldn't make the connection somehow.  Johnny's world was remote and I was detached.  I could not write - although I wanted to - but nothing I wrote seemed worth reading - so I kept pushing the delete key.  I'm not sure that I feel up to it right now, but it's time.  I know it's time because last week I was in London and went to the Royal Ballet to see Don Quixote!  It was a birthday present from my daughter and it was three hours of magic, which was over in ten minutes.  All the time I was watching, I was thinking of my own Don Quixote, who chases windmills.

One of Johnny's latest 'windmills' is Big Foot.  There is a painting on the go ..  is Big Foot real, or is he a delusion?  To Big Foot believers, he is undoubtedly real and the non-believers are deluded.  To non-Big Foot believers, it is the believers who are deluded.  Who is right? I don't know, if I was with a load of committed believers, I might end up a believer. If I was with non-believers (who seem to set the standard in this instance), I will remain a non-believer because I am sceptical of Big Foot's existence.

Johnny was in London this week to do all the exhibition stuff he thought he hated and would be a horrible experience.  He finds that the gallery will move heaven and earth so that he can light his paintings appropriately. The PR people are a delight.  And he spent an ecstatic few hours at the Paul Klee exhibition.  Paul Klee is one of Johnny's 'mentors' and source of inspiration.

This is one of my favourite paintings and was the first Johnny Middleton I bought.  It's called 'In memory of a poem of Paul Klee.'  At the time I bought it, it was simply a memory of a fantasy night, lying on my back on a beach on Koh Phangnan and gazing at the universe. Now, it has become 'Echoes'.  This is what I love about abstracts - they shift with you - but it is still and always will be, 'Starry, starry night.'