Am I painting yet?

John and I occasionally play a family word game, based on our
different usage of the word "yet." (His less standard usage is, I
think, a 'Muricism from some early years spent in the Midwest states).

Our conversation might run like this:

J: "Are the cats upstairs yet?" (Meaning: Are they upstairs still? I
saw them go up a half hour ago.)
K: "Yes, they're still up in the sunny window. They haven't come down yet."

Hold this train of thought while I consider my Astrological Plants series. I've been thinking a lot lately about what is/isn't painting and whether what I'm doing with this series fits in.

These details of "Leo" pose the question. Do these drawn symbols, the splashes of orange/yellow texture created by applying plastic film, the collaged patches, the lettering, constitute real painting? Or just using paint for -- a design? an illustration? Certainly, the leaves of the plant are closer to the Right Stuff. In fact, this kind of treatment (the loose brush strokes building up the form, the easy blend of colours) would be called "painterly" by folks who have spent a lot of time moving paint around to create what in general is called a painting. This is what I have a great aim to bring to my real work -- but meanwhile, I'm determined to finish this series. Maybe I should just describe the pieces with that ever useful and ambiguous term "works on paper."

Years ago, when I took drawing courses at Vancouver Community College, my teacher (who made his living part-time from his paintings) told a story about meeting old art school colleagues, also "real artists," who laughed at him and said, "You're not still painting!!" Presumably, they'd dropped painting and moved on to trendy ventures like filming hour after hour of wind blowing through the leaves of a tree and displaying the film on three adjacent TV screens. (Not kidding: I spotted this at the Vancouver Art Gallery on my last trip. Can't we just sit outside and directly experience for ourselves the wind blowing through the leaves?)

I'm not sure we can blame it on Picasso -- the questions and debates go back much longer, with variations over time. But the famous film maker Jean Renoir, in his exquisitely touching book RENOIR, MY FATHER, relates this story:-- The artist Renoir was asked, "Who is the better painter? Picasso or Derain?" And he answered: "Derain, because he makes paintings." (which is not to say that that old rogue Picasso couldn't make grand paintings if he wanted to, but it's not his paintings that caused the stir).

So, yes, I'm still painting. But am I painting yet?