Garden: I have approached art from different aspects and it has accompanied me from the beginning: My parents had an antiques shop – as a child I used to wonder through the storehouse through pictures and porcelain – it was for me an adventure. After school I studied History of Art and Archaeology, in other words, I experienced the theoretical in parallel with my own painting. Then after a break to start a family I taught art at school and became interested in Psychology and Art Therapy.
You brought me this work by Braque from St. Paul-de-Vence. On it is "Avec l’âge, l’art et la vie ne font q’un" (with age art and life become one). I think the connection is best described in this sentence. You must work for a long time, then there is no difference between art and life.
Chisholm: As a mountaineer one often gets asked the question, why does one climb? And the answer is, because there is a mountain. Why do you paint and write?
Garden: Why do people decide to become carpenters or architects or to bring up children? Perhaps it is their own way of taking up contact with their inner mountain and to feel their way through the density of their lives. In the best case it could be to bring out the most intensive side of a person, perhaps to get them closer to the peak.
It is always a new challenge for me when I stand before an empty canvas, to feel inside for the something that requires expression, to give it space with my eyes and hands, with all my being. Without this work I would feel disconnected.
These notes are based on conversations between Evelyn Garden and Dr. Ian Chisholm in the atelier in Liguria.
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