Portrait of an Artist and a Man
October 9, 2009
A friend of mine from back in Freiburg days has been a full professor of English at the University of Leipzig for a decade or more now. When Elmar of the blue eyes, very curly hair and infectious smile recently emailed me an attachment of a painting he had just finished of a beautiful area called Soest, close to where I now live, I was absolutely astonished – I knew he dabbled in the arts in addition to his work at the university, but I had no idea just how talented he was, nor could I understand how he managed to find the time. So I asked him if he might answer a few questions for me, and thought a portrait of such a versatile personality deserved to find a space here.
Did you ever expect you would be a prof?
Yes, at the age of ten or eleven I wanted to become a professor of history, but then the idea faded away and was replaced by “chemist,” “psychologist,” “writer.”
Your academic interests have always been somewhat unorthodox, I would say. So tell me, what is up with the fascination you have always had with a) bicycles and b) time travel?
Of course, bicycles are time machines - you can feel a different time when you cycle. They connect you to the great cyclical movements in the galaxies as to the small ones in your cup of coffee. It is the most efficient machine on earth, non-polluting, and therefore poses a geometric-mechanic-
You have traveled extensively – how did that happen? What are some of your most vivid travel memories?
It started at the age of 14, when I went on my first cycling tours – through Eastern Westphalia, then to Denmark and to France. Though Chesterton once claimed that travel narrows the mind, I have constantly faced this challenge. It is good to see yourself in perspective – i.e., to see that your world is one among many others equally valid. And I like to exchange ideas, communicate with people from distant places. There has always been an interest in the exotic – starting with Japanese archery and Chinese culture, which my father introduced to me, then an interest in Islam and over a longer period an interest in Russian and Eastern European cultures. Most vividly I remember my trip to the Altai Mountains with a group of Russian friends, and my adventures in India. There is adventure everywhere if you look for it. I’m probably on some sort of quest for a Holy Grail, and it might well be just round the corner, in the local pub.
Which place(s) do you consider your ’spiritual’ home? Why?
I take spiritual in the sense of “constantly inspiring” (not religious). In that case I would say my home region of Soest/Westphalia is a constant inspiration. Whenever I return it is back to the Middle Ages, to old European values and to a beautiful city with green sandstone walls and churches. It is also connected to my friend and teacher, the late Hugo Kükelhaus, a philosopher, architect and ecologist. He lived there and I visited him often. And of course there is family in the area, another type of spiritual roots. Soest inspires my painting, and has inspired others as well, such as a Soest painter killed in WWI, Wilhelm Morgner, whom I admire.
The place where I am right now also constantly inspires me: Leipzig. It is a gateway between East and West, but also the past and the future. I have been writing about the city ever since I settled here, e.g. my book of prose poems called Leipziger Passagen.
Would you say there were any advantages to becoming single again in middle age? What were they?
It helped me to return to the source, to reconstitute myself. Suddenly, after certain events, you are exposed again and naked and that makes you ask certain questions about yourself: who am I, what do I want in this life, these remaining years, what kind of partner am I looking for? All these questions very often remain hidden when you are in a relationship. And middle age is when you start seeing the rim of your flying saucer.
Not only are you a prof, but you are a creative writer and an artist. Where do you draw your inspiration from? Does being a prof allow you to be as creative as you would like?
I have been drawing and doing watercolors since age 20. I did this especially when traveling – probably on a more extensive scale when I visited Japan – a country that inspires painting and drawing because of its shapes and colors. That was in 1977 & 1985. It was a sort of visual diary alongside the written journals. I discovered acrylics around 2000; this was connected to my recently having become single again. My father was a house-painter, but also painted pictures. So I learnt a little from him. I also took a 3-month course in watercolors in England in 1973. That was all. I never planned to become a professional, it’s always been a pastime to get rid of words, words, words, by which I am besieged day after day in my other life. To create another space, that is. I try to find a slot for painting in my studio – it was good to rent such a place, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing anything – between 6 and 8 pm, after my university work and writing and before I start reading. It’s normally a dead time when I would be zapping TV or doing stupid things.
There are periods when it is very difficult to write or paint – too much teaching, examining, bureaucratic work – but there are other times, when – if you really want to – you can do something. Sometimes it is also good not to be allowed to be creative. That puts some pressure on creativity and you return to it with great relief and pleasure. It’s all a question of the correct dose, to paraphrase Paracelsus.
If you were not a prof, what would you like to be?
A writer and painter, or an ethnologist.
I had to repress a smile at this last overly modest response, because anyone who gives Elmar Schenkel’s homepage www.uni-leipzig.de/~literatu/
the most cursory glance will soon see that he can already boast a list of publications as long as my arm. Publications include both creative and academic writing as well as articles for the renowned Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.
And, since he has already realized his dream of becoming a painter, all that’s left is the ethnology part. If we define this as Wikipedia does, as “the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity,” then it seems to me that Elmar Schenkel might quite possibly be the man with the verve and energy to take it on — if only in his spare time, possibly while bicycling through a field in a remote corner of Westphalia!
About the Author : Tamara-Diana Braunstein brings us her stories from Senegal every week. She was born in
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