Monday, January 18, 2010

Gillian Ayres

Painter Gillian Ayres is 80 this year and looking forward to an exhibition of her new work. Some quotes from an article in the Artists and Illustrators magazine

"Old age is a bastard, really," she says. "I don't feel any different inside to how I did when I was 15. I hobble about and look old in the mirror, but inside I feel exactly the same as I always did."

"Creativity increases all one's life and you can never have enough...I know that I won't be here in another 78 years and that does increase the pressure, but I just carry on."

"It is really for other people to decide what they think about the new work. I just want to paint."

That comment about feeling the same inside whatever age you are is so true. It's something you become more aware of as you get older, I think. We may need joint pain relief - my piano fingers are starting to feel some effects of arthritis, I think - and our knees may suddenly give out when we're climbing stairs, but inside we 'see' ourselves as the person who can still do anything our 20-year-old self could do, and as being as good-looking as we were at that time, too.

I'm not sure her comment about being here in another 78 years has been accurately quoted (I got this from an ezine); perhaps it should read another 7-8 years?


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