'Mephisto," by Charles Batte, of ChasBatte Studio
Click on the image above to visit ChasBatteStudio.com. Don't miss Charles' fabulous collection of Hallowe'en figures!
My dear friend Charles Batte, Artist Extraordinaire and Monarch of ChasBatteStudio.com, has answered my Artist Questionnaire, and with style. I concocted 29 questions; Charles has graciously answered them all, and added one of his own, the last. With a grateful nod to Proust, James Lipton and Inside the Actors Studio (none of whom are aware of my dubious effort) we present:
Forest’s Pseudo-Proustian Artist Questionnaire
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Forest: What quality do you value most in your own art?
Charles Batte: Insight, when and if it should come.
F: What quality do you value most in the art of others?
CB: Insight.
F: What quality in a new artist’s work do you find most encouraging?
CB: A willingness to explore new things rather than repeating the tried and true.
F: What Artistic Blunder is your pet peeve?
CB: Bad proportions.
F: What single aggravating technical problem would you most like to eliminate from your art process?
CB: Painting eyes. Where are the elves when you need them?
F: What part of your artistic process gives you most delight?
CB: Getting a tiny little idea and being able to see it through to completion.
F: And what part makes you feel most like flinging yourself under the nearest train?
CB: Trying to meet a deadline.
F: What word would you most relish hearing used to describe your art?
CB: Brilliant.
F: What word would you most dislike hearing used to describe your art?
CB: Cute.
F: What alternative typographical symbols best express the foul word you use most during your artistic process?
CB: My favorite foul word doesn't even require symbols: PIFFLE!
F: What piece of art are you most proud of?
CB: The one I am going to do next.
F: What is the most absurd object you’ve ever created?
CB: Slipcovers for Apollo's feet.
F: How old were you when you realized you had no choice but to do this stuff?
CB: Probably 3 or 4.
F: In Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen, Babette quotes Achille Papin: "Throughout the world sounds one long cry from the heart of the artist, 'Give me the chance to do my very best.' "
What is your cry? (It’s ok to steal Babette's, if she and Papin are right.)
CB: I am afraid she is right. What else is there?
F: If you could choose one sound track to play during a one-person show of your art, what would it be?
CB: I was going to say a fabulous recording of "Aida", the Verdi opera, because I love to have it playing while I am working. However, I think it would be too overwhelming for a gallery show. Therefore it would have to be "Oeuvres pour piano", by Erik Satie, played by Aldo Ciccolini.
F: Doll Art: what one word best sums up your current feelings about the term “doll?”
CB: Cute. (See above.)
F: If you were about to be irrevocably changed into a mythological, fairy tale, or fictional critter or character, what/whom would you most want to be?
CB: A phoenix.
And, what would you most likely be? Really?
CB: A house elf (Dobbie, and I would never get that darn sock)
F: If your visual art were transformed into literature, what genre, author or style would it be?
CB: French Neo-Classic Tragedy, with 5 Acts in rhymed couplets.
F: If it were transformed into Music, what would it be?
CB: Opera.
F: What food would it be?
CB: Gorgonzola Cheese.
F: If you have a nom de plume, what is it (or, conversely, if you have a real name, what is it)?
CB: It cannot be revealed for legal reasons.
F: If you were to choose a truly outrageous nom de plume, what would it be?
CB: Monsieur Le Genie
F: What embarrassing, unseemly or illegal art form do you secretly wish to indulge in or create?
CB: This question has me baffled.
F: If you have a favorite colour, what is it, and why?
CB: Pink. It is so pretty.
F: If you have a least favorite colour, what is it, and why?
CB: Blue, not that I dislike it, but I just never use it anywhere.
F: If you feel misplaced in time, in what era would you feel most at home (setting aside dentistry, plagues, horrid social injustices, etc.)?
CB: Eighteenth century Venice.
F: What is the very first piece of art that moved you deeply? Can you explain why?
CB: A portrait by Andrew Wyeth of an old African-American gentleman.
F: If you didn’t do what you do, what would you most like to have done?
CB: I would love to have been an Olympic Ice Skater.
F: What prospective profession fills you with most horror and dread?
CB: A toll booth attendant.
F: If you were to offer one sentence of advice to an artist just starting down the road you’ve traveled, what would you say?
CB: Turn around, go back and find the nearest circus to join: the work is easier and they pay more.
F: Assuming you arrive at the Pearly Gates (and not elsewhere), what would you like to hear God say about your art?
CB: Welcome. We have put you in the room next to Michaelangelo.
F: And if it is the Devil:
CB: Welcome. We have put you in the room next to Bosch.
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