Last week by coincidence I found a secondhand book about the American painter Sam Francis (published by museum van der Togt, Amstelveen, which costs me a whopping two whole euros). Francis was influenced by the work of abstract expressionists and most of the work in this book can be seen as coloured tributes to Jakson Pollock.
The book contains mostly pictures of his work and it has a few pages as an introduction of the painter.
And the following stood out to me:
To a greater or lesser degree Francis’ work is characterized by a search for ways to utilize the arsenal of (universal) archetypes (inspired by Carl Jung) stored in his unconscious.
Sam Francis believes for example that melancholy can be recognised by a certain structure. "I am very aware when I am depressed. I am very aware when I am in a state of melancholia. I know what to do with it. I go deeper into it and from that I am able to make beautiful images, in melancholia; you'll find that it is a structure, a huge structure, and it is programmable in the sense that once you are in it, you take a good look at it and you get a lot of different things from it. It's a source, melancholia does that. It is a very deep state of contemplation for meditation on the world. (..) it has facets. It is constructed like a diamond. The diamond of melancholia opens you up to many ideas".
Although I don't know if melancholy, or depression for that matter, has a certain structure, I found his view inspirational ……. and whatever happens there will be colorful structures created from the depths of my soul.
