Kaffe Fassett, Californian artist and textile designer, lives and
works in London. Trained as an artist, his paintings have been shown
and collected in London, New York and San Francisco over many years.
His murals, too, feature in many homes and commercial enterprises. The
decorative arts and the objects we collect around us have, from early
days, been his particular passion. He has published ten books on
design, from knitting and neeedlepoint to patchwork and mosaic. It is
doubtful whether there is one designer in the land who does not keep
some or all of his books on their shelves for inspiration. |
Kaffe in his studio. |
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this then, and a working artist? How is this possible? There could be
two explanations for such creative energy, beyond unquestionable
natural talent: Kaffe's trans-Atlantic sense of urgency (once fired
with a creative idea there is no stopping him - he wants to make it
manifest "now"!) and his extraordinary passion and insatiable appetite
for colour. When you stand surrounded by his work his message is
clear: colour lives for him.
Kaffe is cunning with form.
His ability to compose a picture makes it all look disarmingly easy
(which those who know, know it is not), but it is in his handling of
colour, the way he arranges objects, how he sees them, and his
handling of the paint itself that conveys to us his own delight in
what he is looking at. He can make the objects appear empowered with
the joy of being, as if they have a wish to express themselves. Their
seeming vitality can reach you even (or particularly?) when you stand
back from his work. That vitality sings out at you. It is clear that
Kaffe lives by and for colour. It would not be far-fetched to say that
for Kaffe, colour is his very medium, whatever the substance he uses.
In everything he creates he consciously sets out to make us aware of
the delights of our physical world. In trying to convey his
extraordinary perceptivity with regard to colour, I think of a Welsh
countryman who, once asked to describe what a poet was, replied after
thought: ". . . well a poet is someone who sees and sees and SEES . .
. " That definition would be equally appropriate for Kaffe the artist.
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ANNE JAMES Producer /Director, BBC and Channel Four |
