"What is empty? It is the lack of a story… but you can always find a story." Wendy Woods
Can you? I must say I'm struggling today, even though it is a lovely day and many thoughts of this and that filled my head as I walked. But no ideas for a blog. Nevertheless I felt I should try and write something, so I turned to my desk calendar weekend painting - the above by Monet - The Seine at Vétheuil, mostly because it is a rather empty painting. For Monet, somewhat bleak I felt. Well maybe that was because of my own somewhat bleak mood.
And bingo - I now have a line of thought, though bringing it back to food may be difficult.
Because of my bleak mood I remembered a quote that I found yesterday, scribbled on a piece of paper by David "We don't look at things as they are, but as WE are." It's from Rabbi Shemuel ben Nachmani (comment in Talmud)/ quoted by Anaïs Nin.
Which led to one of those coincidences that seem to occur at an increasing frequency these days. In an article talking about that quote's origins, it mentioned that Anaïs Nin had used it in her book The Seduction of the Minotaur, admitting that it was from elsewhere. The coincidence and the origins of the quote might be another story, but not one I'm going to pursue here. What was amazing to me was the passage in the book:
"Lillian was bewildered by the enormous discrepancy which existed between Jay’s models and what he painted. Together they would walk along the same Seine river, she would see it silky grey, sinuous and glittering, he would draw it opaque with fermented mud, and a shoal of wine bottle corks and weeds caught in the stagnant edges."
The Seine river! Moreover, on the NGV website where I found another Monet painting of Vétheuil, I found this note:
"The artist has framed this and other views of his subject quite selectively, excluding from one of the busiest tradeways of western France all signs of heavy commercial river traffic. Instead he presented a view of Vétheuil that makes the town appear peacefully rural, animated only by Monet's virtuoso manipulation of shimmering, irridescent hues."
As an artist - not a photographer - you can do that can't you? You can eliminate the dustbin in the corner of your picture, the telegraph lines, that run right across your view, although these days I'm sure they can be digitally eliminated. Artists, however, can just leave out what they don't want. A painting expresses the artist's emotional relationship to the scene, which is not necessarily what it actually looks like.
And there is another minor story behind that painting as told on the NGV website. In 1878 Monet was short of money and moved to Vétheuil - a small nondescript village on the Seine near Paris. Whilst there he painted several scenes of the river, many of them from a houseboat that he owned and used as a studio - which to me doesn't show a lack of money. The one at the top of the page was painted in 1880.
Moving on from Monet, but still with art and empty landscapes, take a look at these two photographs:
There are heaps of examples of course, of beautiful empty landscapes, but I chose these two for slightly different reasons. The first really is a photograph by a photographer called Bruce Percy, and I imagine - but don't really know - that it has been edited in some way. Becasue to me it looks more like a painting than a photograph. But it is of a real place - the Altiplane - a large high altitude plateau in Tibet. Almost featureless, but not quite and Bruce Percy had interesting things to say about emptiness in landscape - the first is perhaps obvious:
"Over time, we slowly come to accept that less is often more, and even then, sometimes less is still too much. In essence, we begin to understand that empty landscapes aren’t really empty at all." Bruce Percy
He has certainly managed to pare back his landscape to almost nothing. So empty is never truly empty - my empty brain was in fact not empty - it never is. It just burbles on from one fleeting thought or emotion to another - on and on. And one of those emotions - today anyway - is a feeling of emptiness.
The other quote from Mr. Percy, which caught my attention was this:
"Empty landscapes also remove the temptation to get hung up on the ‘what’ and focus more on the ‘why’." Bruce Percy
I'm not sure he's necessarily right there. For me it was more that we should always be asking questions. As well as a story there is always a question. Yes it's often why? but it might also be Who? What? How? When? ...
Enough - what about food? Well a couple of things.
The aim of every good cook is this is it not? If the plate has been willingly - even better - delightedly - emptied, then we have done our job well. I don't mean that it has to have been perfection on a plate, it just has to have been good enough to be consumed without any hesitation. And if it was healthy and environmentally, politically, commercially appropriate as well then pat yourself on the back. It's a small triumph.
An empty stomach? Rather more to say about that. For a start, it's never empty is it? Even if you fast for days. It's full of bacteria and as we now know what goes on with the trillions of bacteria who live within us is vital.
Is fasting good for you? Opinion is divided as to how much, how often, how, and I'm not going into all of that now. Suffice to say I still fast once a week, sometimes two, just to maintain my weight at an almost steady 60kg. It means that I can not worry too much on the other days about what I am eating. Selfish, and actually marginally greedy, but it works for me.
Just, out of the corner of my eye as it were I saw that there were various things that you should never do on an empty stomach:
Don't drink cofee on an empty stomach in the morning - it increases the acid and maybe causes constipation. So eat something with the coffee.
Don't work out on an empty stomach
Don't take medicines on an empty stomach - well I think there are few where the opposite is true
Don't go shopping for food on an empty stomach - you'll buy more and probably stuff that is bad for you - chocolate, crisps ...
I'm sure there are more
And last of all - the big one - there are far too many people in the world who have an almost permanent empty stomach and yet, theoretically at least, there is enough food to feed everyone on the planet. I also won't go there.
One last thing on food - 'less is more' as mentioned above. So true. What could be better than bread and cheese - possibly the most basic foods of civilisation. David is making some of his beautiful bread as I write. I'm looking forward to a supper of still warm sourdough bread and tasty Red Leicester cheese.
I will admit however, that sometimes you do need to add that little something that makes a dish perfect. Chilli on that celery pasta for example. I did that when I ate the leftovers for lunch today. Perfect. Though admittedly you couldn't taste the celery.
Well I started with an empty page and it is now full - mostly of waffle - but at least I feel a bit less empty. The world is full of wonderful things everywhere you look. Just stand still and look. Below - two things I saw on my walk this morning - well kookaburras are just wonderfully unique aren't they and the spotty kind of blossom just caught my eye. Stare long enough and you will see something of interest - or beauty. With a story. The story, however, is more difficult than the beauty.
POSTSCRIPT
September 15
2023 - Salted caramel
2022 - Sugar cane
2021 - Trying to please everyone
2020 - Lucky dip - unadventurous me
2016 - Al fresco dining
No empty September 15ths it seems
Very philisophical. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" as either Plato or Margaret Hungerford in 1878 was supposed to have said. As I was reading your interesting piece, I came across the photo of an empty plate, which is a sign of a successful cook, but not in itself a thing of beauty. (Thanks John Keats) who added a bit later (in Endymion) "Some shape of beauty moves away the pall from our dark spirits".😉.
Thanks Rosemary. You engaged me,