Nice? Writing my previous post I began to see more clearly the way in which I was using the term as a pejorative. I have used ‘nice’ as an unqualified shorthand confirmation of my prejudices, partly class based. The distinction between taking a stand and parroting preconceptions is obfuscated by thoughtless use of terms. Elena Thomas opened up this issue with her comment re ‘nice’ and ‘satisfactory’. It is about the politicising of terms. And in that sense it is about power and ideological hegemony. I use the term in part to defend myself from threat. What I describe as nice, I imply is not nice in a manner that lacks (or exposes) the (lack of) courage of my convictions. Using terms in this way enables me to avoid what I know may be true, a transference as I endow something other with my shortcomings. That’s what has concerned me recently, that my ‘art’ is an avoidance strategy held in place by appropriate values and language. This painting was made, and is still being made, alongside the dotty bird. In both I decided to allow what might be nice to emerge, and to be at ease with it. That may simply be surrender. Referring to Anthony’s post, I wonder if there is a kind of nice that is so because it lacks the courage to be beautiful, ugly, truthful, an anxious stopping short, and a diversion of life- painting-art, into deferential ritual. My previous post made mention of ‘..my six year old…’ and what should happen but a nearly-six-year-old arrived at my workshop to continue with her painting. It is true that a six year old can do it. The language of infantilising is another instance of ideology disguised as judgement. Having put both images on the post, comparison is both necessary and inevitable.
