Art Reboot

117 leaving a visible trail not only of authorship but of appreciation across the ages. The collective noun for a surfeit of seals might appropriately be a ‘blizzard’. My website ( e-yaji.com) , devoted to Chinese art and the arts in general, takes its name from yaji , the Chinese term for an ele- gant gathering: a group of like-minded friends getting together to view and create paintings and calligraphy, to talk, chant poetry, eat and drink. The savouring of art is often best done alone, but after we have all done that it is good to meet, to share our enthu- siasms and to be opened to those of others. Such gatherings hap- pen all over the world, but it is less common to paint together on a joint work. Newcomers are often shy (though occasionally they surprise with fearless dash), but with practice they learn the art of the gathering: the give-and-take on the paper, the turn-taking, the well-judged gesture and the blunder, the jokes and stories, the mock condemnation, the endless reasons to laugh. In the Anglo-Saxon poem ‘The Wanderer’, the mead-hall of fire, friends and drink is contrasted with the bitter and barren winter outside its walls. How wondrous it is to be in the hall and to make art together. And where do they go, all these joint works? In the grim light of morning, most are used to line the floor of the songbird’s cage, where a final layer of spattered snow is artlessly dropped.