Joseph Wood Papin

The Street Is My Studio Joseph Wood Papin

"To study the meaning, the significance of what one sees - to depict and interpret contemporary life - is the profession of the artist. Not just to copy one thing which remains stationary as one works but rather the immensity, the world in microcosm, the undulating mass, the phantasmagoria of life. The possibilities are virtually endless. The ever changing spectacle of this city is a kaleidoscope: street life, rallies, riots, confrontations, parades, the mechanics of everyday life; contrasted with pomp and circumstance, whether it be within the peculiarities of politics, or the cultural world, or pretenders to culture; theatre, opera, the movies, opening nights, the galleries and museums. To go wherever the characteristic aspect of the scene is to be found, to be as it were a mirror with consciousness and with a conscience" (Joseph Papin).