My Favorite Painting

Hope 1886
By George Frederic Watts
Collection Tate
[Online image]
[Accessed on 2nd of February, 2010]


When we met in September, I asked Donna, Ourania and Kimathi about the following questions:

Question #1: If there is no one sees your art, do you think you will still create things?
Question #2: If you are the only person on the planet, do you think you will still create things?
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Donna answered that she will keep created things for herself for both cases though she feels sad.


Ourania smiled and answered that she will definitely continue her sculptures. Even if there is no one on the earth, she doesn’t mind. She said she can enjoy such freedom (with chips and beer).


Kimathi’s Answer: “Oh, if there is no one on the earth, I rather want to kill myself. I can’t even imagine such world.”


Somehow, no one asked me back for the answer, but my answers are follows:


My Answer for Q1: No. I don’t paint if there is no audience. I would rather like to do something else which makes me feel close to other people.


My Answer for Q2: Yes, I will paint as a distraction to cope with loneliness however; I will do other things as well such as keeping a diary or playing some music.


I have my most favorite painting in U.K. That is one of the reasons why I decided to study in London. It is Hope (1886) by George Frederic Watts. The painting visited Japan when I was 19 years old and I bought a poster of this painting at that special exhibition in 1989. The poster traveled with me many places; first, Wyoming (USA), then back to my parents house, 2 or 3 small apartments afterwards. I didn’t bring the poster to London because there is an original in Tate Britain. However, when we had the first visit Tate Britain in September, Lindy seen me gazing at this painting for long time and she presented me its postcard. (That was the first time Lindy proved her amazing insight power!) My impressions about this painting have been changing as time goes on but there is no other painting which I kept always by my side. It may sound funny but I feel like this painting is the place I can go back whenever I get lost (may be for any event…). Have I ever got this sort of hope before? –Probably yes, but it’s always go away in a few seconds. What kind of hope is this actually? –I don’t know the name of that hope. Why do I feel strong empathy to this painting then? –I really don’t know but it seized me at a glance when I saw it first time when I was 19 years old.

The painting matched my feeling of those days and I can’t eliminate that experiences anymore.

The above Question 2 is the questions popped out from this painting image. The answers from 3 artists were totally different but refracted the artist characteristic. May be everyone has their own reason for creation.