Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / The Violet Hour From Author James Cahill Abstract Art Storytelling And Beyond

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The Violet Hour From Author James Cahill Abstract Art Storytelling And Beyond · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: About you. But when I drive into work, I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to listen to the same podcast over and over again.
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  Speaker 1: I'll get back to it, but right now I just
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  Speaker 1: need a break. So that was the reason why we
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  Speaker 1: created ero dot net A r r oe dot net.
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  Speaker 1: When you're seeking a break, then go get something else
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  Speaker 1: For instance, one of our biggest ones is called CTCs.
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  Speaker 1: We all think we know the lifestyle of those that
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  Speaker 1: work in our favorite grocery store, but are you living it?
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  Speaker 1: And would you want to live it? Ct CS, It's
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  Speaker 1: an experience you're going to really take a look at
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  Speaker 1: only on ero dot net A r r oe dot net.
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, I wrote it. It's James here.
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  Speaker 1: Listen to your voice. James, Oh my god, just keep talking.
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  Speaker 1: I'm okay, I'll be fine. Any any type of headache
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  Speaker 1: medicine is gone because I got James.
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  Speaker 2: Now. I know people in the US love it. I
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  Speaker 2: know they can't get enough of it.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my god, how did you find this path to
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  Speaker 1: write such a book? Because you have opened me up
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  Speaker 1: in so many different ways to become even more aware
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  Speaker 1: of all things around us.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you say that, thank you. I mean, actually,
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  Speaker 2: I think as a novelist you can't receive better trade, really,
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  Speaker 2: because that's what you're hoping to do, fundamentally, is open
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  Speaker 2: people's eyes to the world and get people to see things,
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  Speaker 2: to see ordinary life in a new way, even really subtly.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you're trying to draw out the hidden strangeness
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  Speaker 2: or perversity in things, you know. And my brand new novel,
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  Speaker 2: The Violent Hour, is all about the contemporary art world,
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  Speaker 2: the high end art business, which I've worked in for
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  Speaker 2: a very long time, and not every reader is going
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  Speaker 2: to know that much about art or about that world.
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  Speaker 2: But I think that there's a lot of ordinary life
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  Speaker 2: and ordinary human relationships in there as well, and I'm
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  Speaker 2: just interested, as most people are, in how those things
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  Speaker 2: work and the weirdness that exist the inside everyday life. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because I can relate with this James in the
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  Speaker 1: way that I mean, there are times that I felt
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  Speaker 1: like I was Thomas holler In because I too had
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  Speaker 1: put my paint on a canvas. I did have visions.
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  Speaker 1: I also had a life to live, and that's where
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  Speaker 1: I really really got into the idea that creativity is
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  Speaker 1: an addiction because I could not put that damn paint
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  Speaker 1: brush down. I could not stop dreaming about being in
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  Speaker 1: a gallery. I couldn't let go of I want this
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  Speaker 1: in someone's house, I mean, And that's maybe that's what
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  Speaker 1: I love about this book, is that you're you're talking
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  Speaker 1: my street.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm trilled you say that. And Thomas Haller met
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  Speaker 2: the character you mentioned, my main character. I think you're right.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, he's an artist and creating pictures. Making art
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  Speaker 2: is absolutely essential to his life. It is like an addiction.
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  Speaker 2: It's something he can't not do. And I think in
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  Speaker 2: his case it's because it's a vital form of self expression.
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  Speaker 2: There are things about his life and about his past
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  Speaker 2: that he can't tell people. You know, he's got the
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  Speaker 2: very dark, difficult secrets. There are things he can't express
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  Speaker 2: about himself except when he has when he's in the studio,
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  Speaker 2: when he has a paint brush in his hand, or
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  Speaker 2: an aerosol can or whatever it is he's working with.
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  Speaker 2: This is his his form of expression, and the paintings
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  Speaker 2: he makes, which are these beautiful but quite dark turbulence
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  Speaker 2: abstract paintings, are a way of expressing. But also I
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  Speaker 2: guess concealing some of the darkness inside him.
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  Speaker 1: But it's so true. It's so true because I will
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  Speaker 1: I will sit there and tell people what you see
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  Speaker 1: on this canvas right now, that's not the real story.
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  Speaker 1: You need to figure out how to get the acrylic
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  Speaker 1: paint that's on this right now and figure out what
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  Speaker 1: the original painting was beneath it.
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  Speaker 2: Right or if there ever the whole story. This is
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  Speaker 2: the thing with ours. You know, it gives, it provides
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  Speaker 2: you with hints, and I think novels that you know,
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  Speaker 2: the best sort of fiction writing is like that too.
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  Speaker 2: A lot remains below the surface or is hinted at,
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  Speaker 2: and that there's the characters. It goes to storyline. There
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  Speaker 2: are things you know. You know you're not going to
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  Speaker 2: know absolutely everything. I know that as readers, particularly of thrillers,
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  Speaker 2: you often want to know how it's all going to
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  Speaker 2: end and how everything fits together. But obviously life isn't
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  Speaker 2: like that, and I don't want readers to be dissatisfied.
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  Speaker 2: But with characters, I think it's more about commercially removing
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  Speaker 2: layers and seeing seeing by degrees into a person and
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  Speaker 2: beginning to understand why they are the way they are.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, it's so funny you say that when you say
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  Speaker 1: remove the layers, and yet you've got Claude Berlins who
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  Speaker 1: sits here and yeah, he's just adding more layers to
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  Speaker 1: the picture. And and it's like and you know, and
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  Speaker 1: that's one of the things when when I when I
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  Speaker 1: was first introduced to the character, I'm going, oh, we've
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  Speaker 1: all met a Claude before, those that promise this and
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  Speaker 1: this and this and this, and it didn't happen. But
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  Speaker 1: but it's still It's one of those where a lot
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  Speaker 1: of artists are going to come to this and going
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  Speaker 1: it's James, James, how did you know what what did
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  Speaker 1: you do to make sure that you knew what we're
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  Speaker 1: talking about and what we experience.
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  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's a good question, told Balins. By the way, yes,
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  Speaker 2: it's that is the is the source of Machia alien
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  Speaker 2: powerful art dealer character who in a way exerts a
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  Speaker 2: lot of influence over Thomas over the years, and in
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  Speaker 2: some ways Thomas has sold his soul to this man.
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  Speaker 2: So there's a kind of faustian element of that whole storyline.
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  Speaker 2: But in terms of drawing a character like that, and
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  Speaker 2: you know, and I'm careful not to make my character
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  Speaker 2: too cartoonish, because he is one of the more one
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  Speaker 2: of the more BoRit of evil characters in the book,
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  Speaker 2: for want of a better word. But I want the
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  Speaker 2: complexities of subtlety still to be there, and I think
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  Speaker 2: it just comes through observing people, through observing life. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I mentioned I've worked in this world, this business for
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  Speaker 2: a long time. You run, I don't base my character
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  Speaker 2: directly on real people, but I suppose I am always
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  Speaker 2: picking up little things aspects of people, grasping this and
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  Speaker 2: that together to make a fictional character. And that's what
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  Speaker 2: I did with claud I think it's why people that
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  Speaker 2: know the contemporary art business will recognize him very well.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because I mean to me, I mean, it'll oh,
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  Speaker 1: please don't hate me for this that I looked at
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  Speaker 1: Claude as being, oh, he's going to kill me with kindness,
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  Speaker 1: but he's also going to kill me because when reality
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  Speaker 1: sets in, it's not what he said it was going
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  Speaker 1: to happen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, look, I mean, like a lot of darker
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  Speaker 2: characters in stories, he has a charisma, he has an
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  Speaker 2: a feel about it. Yes, you know you need to
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  Speaker 2: you need to in a way like him against your will.
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  Speaker 2: And that goes for another character in this story, the
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  Speaker 2: art collector character Leo Gosman, who is a real estate
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  Speaker 2: mogul in his eighties. I mean, this guy is in
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  Speaker 2: many way as a monster. You know, he's really ecocentric
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  Speaker 2: and grasping and has done all sorts of awful things
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  Speaker 2: in his life, and it seems to be completely unrepentant.
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  Speaker 2: But as a reader in the end, I want you
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  Speaker 2: to kind of almost liked him against your will. You
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  Speaker 2: need to be able to see that even a man
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  Speaker 2: like that has human aspects to him, and there are
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  Speaker 2: debts to his experience and his past there I thinking
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  Speaker 2: could have happened to him that are going to make
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  Speaker 2: you understand him. So I'm always interested in sort of
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  Speaker 2: encouraging a reader to empathize with somebody who might seem
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  Speaker 2: like a horrific person.
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  Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with James Cahill coming
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  Speaker 1: up next, the name of his book, The Violet Hour.
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  Speaker 1: We are back with James Cahill. Isn't this just your
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  Speaker 1: way of saying, hey, look that what you need to
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  Speaker 1: do is go and listen to their story, because that's
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  Speaker 1: how I buy my artwork. It all the pans. Like
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  Speaker 1: when Peter Max was with me, I bought the painting
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  Speaker 1: not because I love the painting. I just love the
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  Speaker 1: stories that he was sharing with me that day, and
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  Speaker 1: I said, I got to have this so and I
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  Speaker 1: think that's what you I mean. Even when I'm sitting
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  Speaker 1: here and I'm being introduced to Lorna Bedford, we all
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  Speaker 1: know the gallery owners, but we don't know the story
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  Speaker 1: of the gallery owner.
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  Speaker 2: Well, this is exactly right. And I think in the
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  Speaker 2: in the contemporary art scene, like a lot of worlds,
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  Speaker 2: you know, people have their public face, they have their
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  Speaker 2: name and their identity. And Laura, who I think in
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  Speaker 2: many ways, is the conscience of the story. She's the
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  Speaker 2: character I identify with most closely. She's a British art dealer
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  Speaker 2: in her forties. She's lived in New York for a
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  Speaker 2: long time. She's running the successful gallery, so she has
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  Speaker 2: a public identity and people kind of know what she's about.
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  Speaker 2: But this is very much the story and who she
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  Speaker 2: is at a much more personal level, what has made
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  Speaker 2: her the person she's become, and some of the pain
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  Speaker 2: and trament in her past is what you know is
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  Speaker 2: what you learn about in the course of this novel
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  Speaker 2: the way in which she's been scarred by early experience.
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  Speaker 2: But it's also, I hope, more redemptively about how she
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  Speaker 2: comes to live with that stuff and move past some
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  Speaker 2: of it and live in spite of it. So much
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  Speaker 2: of this novel, The Violent Hour, I think, is about
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  Speaker 2: how people have to you know, are avoiding their lives
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  Speaker 2: becoming a kind of trap or a snare. And that's
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  Speaker 2: the case with Lorna. You know, she has this public
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  Speaker 2: reputation that she has to live with and that people
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  Speaker 2: know her by, but this is very much the story
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  Speaker 2: of her interior life and her interior world as well.
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  Speaker 1: Doesn't she also give up that image of this is
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  Speaker 1: what it's really like to be a part of a gallery.
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  Speaker 1: This is not an art museum. This is a gallery.
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  Speaker 1: This is a business. We all have to make it.
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  Speaker 1: I don't care what your story is in the past. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: we've all got to find harmony somewhere, somehow, someway. And
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  Speaker 1: you give us that that storyline, as dark as it goes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well absolutely, it's also the commercial reality of the
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  Speaker 2: y You're right, I mean a gallery, a commercial gallery,
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  Speaker 2: a contemporary gallery as a business. You know, it's a
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  Speaker 2: fast moving, fast paced business that you know, little advised
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  Speaker 2: by its sales, and you know that means a certain
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  Speaker 2: kind of person thrives in it, and I was interested
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  Speaker 2: in presenting that reality. You know, very often novels or
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  Speaker 2: films or plays about art are not so interested in
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  Speaker 2: the commercial reality of the thing. But that's always been there,
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  Speaker 2: you know, since the Renaissance, since antiquity, art has been
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  Speaker 2: a commodity. And if in fact, by character Leo the
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  Speaker 2: art collector ends up saying this to somebody at one point,
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  Speaker 2: you know, don't forget art always had a price. You know,
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  Speaker 2: it's a romantic illusion to things that it didn't. So
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  Speaker 2: I really wanted to show some of those everyday workings
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  Speaker 2: of the art business, because it is a business, and
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  Speaker 2: you get that through the character of Lorna. But she's
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  Speaker 2: one example of a kind of you know, an art
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  Speaker 2: dealer with integrity, with principles, with a brilliant eye. She's
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  Speaker 2: in a way the best kind of art dealer. And
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  Speaker 2: if you balance her against Claude Pllins, who you mentioned before,
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  Speaker 2: he's a different kind of art dealer. You know, he's
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  Speaker 2: much more personally ambitious, there's much more ego. I'm not
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  Speaker 2: saying he's altogether bad, because I'm not sure anyone in
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  Speaker 2: his story is. But he represents a very different kind
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  Speaker 2: of art dealer from Launa.
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  Speaker 1: Did you put paint on a canvas or have you?
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  Speaker 1: And the reason why is because how are you making
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  Speaker 1: this seem so real? Because you're relating with me who
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  Speaker 1: have the I have the paintings inside this studio and
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  Speaker 1: basically around the country. But how are you speaking my language?
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  Speaker 1: Are you an artist?
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  Speaker 2: I'm not really an artist. I mean the reason I
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  Speaker 2: answer that question slightly ambivalently is I wanted to be
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  Speaker 2: for a long time. I mean, like a lot of people,
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  Speaker 2: I did arts at high school and I con flirted
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  Speaker 2: with the idea of going to art school in London,
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  Speaker 2: but then I went down the academic route and that's
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  Speaker 2: sort of where I remained all through my career as
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  Speaker 2: a writer and lecturer and an academic. But that early
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  Speaker 2: desire to paint, so I did, do you know? I
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  Speaker 2: did paints and drawer and all of that kind of
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  Speaker 2: stuff when I was young. That early desire, I think
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  Speaker 2: probably has influenced the way I write, in the way
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  Speaker 2: I think as a novelist, and I do want my style,
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  Speaker 2: my literary style to feel really intensely visual. I guess
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  Speaker 2: it's not an accident, although I sometimes pretend it is.
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  Speaker 2: That the titles of both my novels have a color
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  Speaker 2: in them, and I'm always thinking about color and lights
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  Speaker 2: and questions of you know, the look of things, And
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  Speaker 2: certainly when I'm describing the you know, the creation of
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  Speaker 2: a work of art in Thomas's studio, the acts of
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  Speaker 2: making a painting, I want that to feel as d
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  Speaker 2: and real and authentic as it can. And I spent
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  Speaker 2: a long time with artists, working with them, seeing the
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  Speaker 2: way their minds work. So I think that that probably
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  Speaker 2: is the basis.
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  Speaker 1: For this see And that's every bit the reason why
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  Speaker 1: my wife and I both agree that our eyes are
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  Speaker 1: going to be on this app that we got on
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: our flat screen TV called britt TV, that your stories
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: are going to end up on there. You're either going
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: to have a twelve part series or you're just gonna
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: have a very long movie about this, because I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you really have our attention and our imaginations.
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  Speaker 2: Well, look, I would love that, And I have to
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  Speaker 2: admit when I was writing The Violence Hour, I was
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  Speaker 2: thinking a lot about movies and TV, and there's quite
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: a few cinematic influences in that story. I mean, the
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  Speaker 2: character of Thomas the artist is an absolute lover of
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: mid twentieth century cinema. He loves all those old classic
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Technicolor films. But I was thinking also about Fille Noir
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: and Sunset Boulevard and all of these influences are in there.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: So I think this would lend itself brilliantly to an adaptation.
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  Speaker 2: But of course I'm going to say that I'm biased,
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: but I really think it would.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, where can people go to find out more about you, James,
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  Speaker 1: Because I want them to really dive into this experience.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: And I'm not saying it's a book that you read. No,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: You're going to experience this book, and that's what people
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: want for their summertime reads.
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  Speaker 2: Well, people should start by ordering The Violet Hower itself.
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  Speaker 2: My previous novel, teflo Blue, is out there in the
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  Speaker 2: world as well, and it's also a story about art.
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  Speaker 2: It's set in London in the nineteen nineties and it's
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  Speaker 2: about the art scene in those years. And I also
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: have a nonfiction book, a major new book coming out
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: this autumn, or This Fool in the US and internationally
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: called The Beverly Hills Housewife, and that's going to be
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: a story all about David Hockney, his lover. So with
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  Speaker 2: Los Angeles, a particular painting he made in the nineteen
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: sixties called the Beverly Hills Housewife and the Extraordinary Story
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the life story of the woman he depicted in that painting.
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  Speaker 2: So that very much is a story about La, and
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I suppose obliquely my own love of La, where I've
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: lived for the last couple of years. And as I say,
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: that's coming out later this year. So the best place
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: for people to start as with my books, and there's
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: plenty more online. Go to my Instagram, look me up
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: on Google. There are a pair of kings out there.
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  Speaker 2: But I always say to people, start with the books.
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  Speaker 2: There's much more of me in there than you would realize. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Well, then I'm putting it down here on my calendar
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: that I'm going to be seeing you again this coming
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: fall when that new book comes out. Absolutely, will you
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: be brilliant today?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, sir, Thanks Sarah, it's been lovely chatting to you.