Interview on the Mount
Jill Evans´s interview with deshepherd for The Blessed Truth.
Sunday, 10th October, 2010.
Jill: Thank you for taking the time to join me this afternoon.
Guy: It´s a pleasure,at least I hope so.(laughter)
Jill: For those of us who aren´t familiar with your work,Guy de Simon a.k.a. deshepherd is the artist behind www.blacksheepmuseum.org - a site that went online in the beginning of 2000 and was in the top 1 million sites in 2002. Were you surprised by its success?
Guy: Well success is relative. The rating was great but as for financial renumeration or being approached by galleries, that never transpired.
Jill: Let´s focus on the success side of the story for now. Was it your work, your message, advertising or what that brought you to the attention of the internet community?
Guy: I think there were a combination of factors at work but certainly not advertising. We never spent a dime on that. One factor was the Riddle which provided an endorsement of the black sheep and its path in contrast to the unthinking bleeding white sheep. It appeared on the net at much the same time as the onset of the contemporary usage of sheeple or sheople amongst brave individuals on the internet who spoke up against the abuses of authority, individuals generally denegrated as conspiracy theorists, amongst whom I must number my gnostic friends. A second factor was the visual impact of the paintings themselves. They are expressive and charged. What with depends on one´s projections. The third factor is the curation of The Open Book itself which deals with projections and the archetypal projection of the black sheep on a number of levels.
Jill: It was the multi layering of The Open Book that I found most absorbing, and of course the exhibits themselves. Those three words, The Open Book, succinctly summarised the ongoing autobiographical content of the exhibition. It could even be read as the good book open and awaiting the apocalypse, couldn´t it?
Guy: Yes, indeed.
Jill: More on that later perhaps. The title was followed by the prologue in which deshepherd describes his path, and that in turn is followed by The Riddle.
Guy: Yes,that´s correct. The Riddle with its symbolism justified the blacksheep and its path on an archetypal and personal level.
Jill: Yes that was quite clear but surprising when I found myself confronted by Ecce Homo, a monumental all too human portrait of the blacksheep which is actually quite small, isn´t it?
Guy: About A4 size.
Jill: Then followed a series of autobiographical portraits of the blacksheep. I was particularly drawn to The Scapegoat.
Guy: That´s one of my favourites too. Interestingly enough the title was used by Holman Hunt, the Pre-Raphaelite who painted The Strayed Sheep.
Jill: Yes, that was the work that provided you with the symbolism for The Riddle and the blacksheep series.
Guy: That´s right, but I doubt if I would have arrived there without my travelling companion and apprenticesheep.
Jill: You mean Bebe of course.
Guy: Yes.
Jill: After the Ecce Homo series and then the Blacksheep series we come to the Ballad of Guy and Bebe describing how you arrived there and the problems you encountered on your path.
Guy: Yeah,we were very much into John Lennon at the time and as our problems with immigration echoed theirs, we adapted their song title.
Jill: And The Ballad of Guy and Bebe is followed by The Flowering and the Landing.
Guy: Yes,I was guest artist at the Haagweg 4 in Leiden, Holland. Bebe accompanied me and much of the series came to us then, as did the Flowering and The Landing. As you know many of the Puritans fled from England to Holland and then sailed in the Mayflower from Leiden to the New World. We were in the same boat so to speak!
Jill: Syncronicity is a thred that runs throughout the curation.
Guy: Definitely so. Without it one would not have signs verifying whether or not you´re on your path.
Jill: Is syncronicity something we can learn to channel and read?
Guy: I think it finds the seeker on his path, and being a seeker he has the personal ability and natural inclination to read into it.
Jill: Can a bleeding white sheep change to a blacksheep?
Guy: Grace is a wonderful thing. Have you heard U2´s take on it from their album All That You Can´t Leave Behind ? I love it.I really admire Bono.
Jill: He´s great isn´t he? "Grace finds beauty in everything". We´ll leave a copy of the lyrics at the end of the transcript of our intervew for the edification of our readers. Coming back to the curation, The Landing of the Mayflower doesn´t happen, does it?
Guy: No, at least not yet. As you said about the Open Book, the story is ongoing as the title implies. What follows is our muse room, The Happening, which links to influences affecting us on the political, economic and social sphere. It´s the raging storm we´re having to navigate in these difficult epoch end times.
Jill: Apocalyptic in a very real sense. Don´t you think that these antiestablishment sites might make dealers and collectors shy away from you?
Guy: Probably, but it´s only from the anti establishment or conspiracy projection view point that that sort of thing occurs. From a truth seeking perspective there is no problem. Unfortunately gallery owners have to make a living and their reality is concerned with adifferent light.
Jill: Yeah, but prejudicial projections is what you´re going to get from the mainstream.
Guy: True, but mainstream never leads but follows. It´ll come round, at least when it´s convenient for them not to ignore it.
Jill: Do you think that you will have more than a passing mention in Art History, I say passing mention as it seems evident that The Open Book is pertinent to the history of the internet, but what of your art with respect to the History of Art?
Guy: Van Gogh was and is my guiding light. He never had a school and nor will I. Our autodidactism precludes that. On the other hand you have capably described how the Open Book deals with projections on the archetypal and personal level. The paintings themselves depend upon projections and playing with them, at least those on which I used the palette knife. As you no doubt know, reading a painting depends entirely on the viewer projecting, without which there would be no recognition. Magritte´s Ceci n'est pas une pipe is the best illustration of this. It is not a pipe; it is a depiction of a pipe. My figures are far from realistic, but recognisable because I depend upon people´s projections when constructing them. The manner in which I do it and my technique make my art innovative which taken together with The Open Book places the work in any meaningful discussion on projections, and it is this that lies at the core of the history of art.
Jill: You haven´t shown much by way of art since you went online. Is there much more?
Guy: There is and I hope to shortly redo the gallery and site. The gallery until now was only incorporated to help our listing when we went online. I hope to change that around.
Jill: So do I. Do you want to get into the top million again?
Guy: I hope not. With the billions of sites now around such a ranking would mean for us that we are history and no longer relevant!
Jill: A dilemma indeed. Thank you very much for giving us your time and I would like to wish you and your good works the success that they deserve. Thank you.
Guy: That is very kind of you, thank you. It has been my pleasure.
Grace
Grace, she takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name
Grace, it´s a name for a girl
It´s also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything
Grace, she´s got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She´s got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma
She travels outside of karma
When she goes to work
You can hear her strings
Grace finds beauty in everything
Grace, she carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips
She carries a pearl in perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Grace makes beauty out of ugly things
Music: U2
Lyrics: Bono
Album:U2 All that you can´t leave behind