I live in the age of communication. Although nothing can replace the experience of observing a great
work of art in real life, one cannot deny that aesthetic energy is transferred
from the mere observance of a work of art, no matter how it was observed.
Like theatre vs. film vs. literature vs. radio, the story, ideally remains
the same; it seems to be more a matter of preference as to how one
hears a story or observes an image. In this respect, on an average
day, I have the capability of observing two or three times as many images,
and be affected by those images, than an average person 20 years ago.
In the same respect, I, as an artist, have a much greater choice as to
how I would like to present my own imagery, or tell my own story.
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I live in the age of communication... Life is much more fast paced now. Motion-pictures, television,
radio, Internet -- I remember a time when there were only three channels
on the television. My parents remember a time when there was only
radio. My grandparents remember a time when there were only books.
When my daughter was born, we had almost 100 channels on our television.
When she has children, I can't imagine how many channels she will have
on her own television, or if she will even have a television. We
no longer have to live life anymore; we merely have to turn on the
TV in order to experience something different from that which we have.
If I feel like experiencing sadness, perhaps I will turn on the TV and
watch 'The Man in the Moon' or 'Jean d'Florette' with a VCR. In this
world, we are not only flooded with imagery, but with a type of experience
mankind has never seen: safe experiences, a gunfight without blood
or death, or a gunfight with blood and death, yet one in which we can still
walk out of the theatre after it is over.
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I live in the age of communication........ The rate of information exchange in the civilized world is astounding
and increases almost daily. A citizen of the civilized world is capable
of observing a great many more images than their ancestors. A simple
flick of the switch of a computer or television brings to the eye a mass
of visual and audible imagery. A person must only flip open
a book or magazine or flip a switch on a computer in order to absorb the
energy generated by an artists image.
The Purpose of Art
The sole purpose behind the creation of a work of art is to allow it's
observance through, and stimulation of, the senses; to communicate
something to someone else or to the self. Throughout history, artists
have documented human mentality and emotion in their artistic creations.
As we look upon the works of historical artists, such as Van Gogh, to gain
insight into the 18th century mind, so can we look upon the works of current
artists to gain insight into the modern world. Artists are people
who give society feedback on the human condition; they are the forehead
of humanity, if you will. Simply, they are aesthetically
sensitive people experiencing life in society who are willing and able
to communicate how they relate to it. The resulting imagery
can then be used by society, posterity and even the artist who creates
it, to draw real conclusions about the current condition of humanity and/or
the self.
Art generates aesthetic energy causing reactions in the observer.
In this way, art communicates real emotions, real concerns, and real
meanings to the aesthetically sensitive observer of any era.
Art has the ability to surface subconscious thoughts and feelings without
the hindrance of conscious prejudices.
Allowing the subconscious image to surface is one of the most important
aspects of the creation of socially significant art, in that only then
can the image be honest and un-hindered by mundane educated thought.
Every experience causes a great change in the type and character of the
image that surfaces from the subconscious. One merely must be knowledgeable
and technically skilled enough to cause it to manifest itself physically,
as well as aesthetically sensitive enough to recognize images when
they surface, or are observed in real ife, and courageous enough to honestly
create them. Art is a tool for self discovery, a very
personal quest for the self, and, as Carl Jung states:
"What is most personal is most universal",
therefore, art created in this manor is extremely valuable to society
as a tool for societal analysis.
Honestly and vigorously expressing the results of our life experiences
is, in my opinion, the greatest contribution an artist can make to society.
Now we can observe the artists images and ask ourselves in which way, if
any, does the image relate to my own personal experience? The images
educate the observer, allowing the expansion of his/her level of understanding.
The images stimulate societal growth and document the state of humanity
for posterity.
We must also be aesthetically sensitive enough to be able to differentiate
between significant art and material waste. This is truly not difficult
when we maintain a level of honesty during observation.
Take for example the following images, which one(s) do you find personally
significant?
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Of course the observance of the original works would be better, yet the
difference to me is quite clear. One discusses the human condition
the other is, in my opinion, little more than an extremely expensive
wall ornament. It is not the abstraction that is the problem.
An abstract work of art created out of need will generate as much aesthetic
energy as a realist work.
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Naturally, there are people who will find a wall decoration to be personally
significant, yet still the potential audience remains very small for aesthetically
dead work. They then rely on the popularity of the artist
for marketability. This is saddening and very dangerous for society.
In short it is a lie for profit and drastically hinders societal growth.
Hence our current social condition.
Throughout history an artist could generally be identified as the creator
of a work of art by the style in which it was created. The cubist
work of Picasso, Abstract Expressionist work of Pollack, Impressionist
work of Monet; artists of the past are identified more for how they
applied paint to a painting surface than why they painted in the first
place. Style was original and unique to the individual.
At the present time, I tend to agree that, generally, there are a finite
number of methods in which paint can be applied to canvas. A writer,
after all, has only so many words to choose from. Artists may now
take a more pluralist approach to art in that they can choose style as
they choose colour, texture, shape, etc. A visual artists has a great
many dictionaries, if you will, with which to create his images.
Style is merely another one. Red and black create a striking contrast
when used together, as do abstract expressionism and realism when used
in the same work of art.
Throughout art history, mankind has created a wonderful dictionary of
styles, a visual vocabulary, if you will. With this language we can
express what is considered most personal, which is also, again, according
to Carl Jung, most universal. In this respect, art has only reached
the end of its adolescence.
Artists and galleries are struggling to find something new and different.
In fact, there may be a minute style or brush-stroke that has yet to be
exploited; two objects that have yet to be combined, however, like
a particle of dust that escapes the broom, it really is not going to be
a very significant discovery.
We are now ready to take art to a higher and deeper aesthetic meaning;
to fulfill it's purpose as a tool for the exploration of the entire gamut
of the human experience. We, as humans must merely be courageous
enough to really look upon the images and be honest about their relationship
to ourselves. As in the Wolfgang Pettersen film, "The Never-ending
Story" Atreu must pass the second gate in order to find the name of the
princess and save the world from the nothing. The second gate was
the magic mirror gate, in which Atreu had to look upon his true self, a
very scary thing to accomplish. Art, as the magic mirror gate,
now needs to reflect the true essence of the human being, beautiful and
ugly, for us all to learn from. We as artists need to create completely
un-hindered, soul-filled visual expressions created as a result of honest
human experiences and emotions as witnessed or felt by ourselves.
It is time to live with art and not for art.
In contemporary expressionism, an artist must command a very eclectic
attitude towards artistic style, thus allowing the envisioned image to
maintain it's integrity, and thus, it's honesty. For example, if
a surrealist image surfaces in the mind of an impressionist painter, and
the painter creates an impressionist painting from it, simply because of
the lack of courage or inability to try something out of his normal realm,
then the image will generate little or no aesthetic energy since the integrity
of the image was ignored and the vision tainted with educated conscious
thought. It would be a lie not only to the observer but to the artist
himself. Art is not about how well you draw but about how well you
see your true self and how well you can honestly express how you feel.
Art is not science, it has no concrete laws, rules or boundaries.
Art is not tangible. Art is limited only as far as the end of the
human mind, thus from our human perspective, art is limitless. It
is truly unfortunate that within the past 25 years or so, society began
to lose its confidence in it's aesthetic sense, therefore has relied on
education in order to validate it's artists. This is an occurance
which deprives humanity of significant art and replaces it with educated
drival under the guise of significant art. The degeneration of societies
aesthetic sense and it's reliance on formal education is one of the greatest
causes of the post-modern dilemma. The proper societal validation of artists
should come not from formal education but from the collective observation
of their works.
The art education facilities that I have visited/attended tend to focus
on the mundane aspects of simple technique in the guise of career oriented
education. Art education can only be achieved within the artists
own mind and heart. For Example: I learned the basic
technique of Lithography, a rather complex printmaking technique, in a
few weeks time during a workshop. To master the technique would take
many years of practice, not classes. The best art school is
the street outside the studio you sit in. Get out and experience
life, have relationships, run naked though the woods like an animal, be
a human, gain experiences and you will have a need to paint. Your
experiences will explode out of your hands like a volcanic eruption and
you will create a masterpiece that most of the entire world can relate
to. That is significant art. No school that I know will teach
you how to live life. No school that I know will teach you how to
get over losing your daughter in a marital separation. No school
that I know will teach you how to get over being raped. No school
that I know will teach you how to express the feeling of being in love.
No school that I know will teach you how to express your reactions to these
and other experiences. They all however will teach you the proper
way to clean your brushes, and after 4 to 6 years of your life, and of
course $40 to $100,000, you will get a beautifully designed piece of parchment
which certifies your ability to clean brushes. I really do not wish
to completely disown art education, just place it in the proper perspective.
Since the artist requires completely un-hindered vision in order to
create significant and socially beneficial works of fine art, the artist
also critically requires the total unrestrained freedom to create.
Simply, censorship is, in my opinion, the destruction of human creativity
and is a key signature of the beginning of the degeneration of society
itself. Sometimes an artist creates what may be considered socially
controversial or obscene, and an observers first reaction may be to look
away or to destroy the image. First of all this is proof that
art is a powerful tool that can cause such a reaction, secondly there are
experiences in this world that are not pleasant, and it is the unpleasant
experiences that truly need to be discussed, since only then can we, as
a society, truly begin to deal with the problems on a real and logical
level. For example, the nude image has developed a recent history
of being an inappropriate subject for visual art and works containing such
images have been the target of governmental censorship and in fact many
of them have been destroyed in the name of morality. There
are countless valid reasons for an artist to create such an image;
perhaps the artist is visually discussing problems associated with humanity
in which the clothed figure would give the depicted subject a distinct
social class, whereas the nude image could be rich, poor, healthy, sick,
etc we wouldn't know. In the case of child nudity, perhaps
the artist is discussing childhood problems, human growth, or even the
self. Perhaps the artist merely wants to express the joy of being
alive. Perhaps it was the degeneration of moral values in society
that caused the artist to create the image in the first place. Nevertheless,
the government chose not to look at the art for answers but merely avoided
the problem all together by claiming the work to be pornographic and destroying
the potential healing artistic statements, hence perpetuating the problem
for another generation.
There are great differences between art, pornography, and abuse.
Again, one must merely be wise and brave enough to see the difference.
As a minister myself, I have a strong belief in God and try to live my
life according to a divine standard. I have my share of problems
with pornography and have strong opinions concerning sex in advertising
and the commercialization of a potential beautiful human function.
However, I am also a veteran of the American military in which I defended
the freedoms that allow us, as free people, do believe what we choose to
believe and to do the things we choose to do, so long as no one gets hurt
in the process. Protection of my children is my own responsibility,
it is not the responsibility of the government nor the church nor anyone
else.
As citizens of a society based on freedom, we all should be free to
create both artistic and pornographic works in so far as the participants
in the creation process be willing and unhurt in any way. Forcing
a person to do anything against their will is a criminal act of abuse that
should be punishable by law. Abuse whether of a child or an adult,
is the brutal violation of that persons personal freedom and is unhealthy
not only to the victim but to society as a whole. However, participation
in a creation process is by no means an abusive experience, in fact it
can be a very healthy and educational experience that I would personally
recommend.
The conscious mind requires logic and is hindered by our own prejudices
against anything that may be vaguely difficult or painful to understand.
The subconscious mind is a sea of intuition and brutal honesty. Culminating
these into a stream of images causes the manifestation of extremely powerful
works of art and is the essence of human creativity.
Images derived in this fashion retain human emotion and allow even
the artist to become a mere observer. Each work becomes, in essence,
a self-portrait, containing deep thoughts and feelings of the artist.
A culmination of the conscious and subconscious manifesting itself into
a physical expression allows the work to become free and independent from
the artist. The works can not be chained to a social stigma, for
they are in a category above conscious thought. The images become
singular towers of individuality containing the image of a human soul.
They fall into a category above judgment and preconception. The artist
cannot fully comprehend them, unless he/she fully comprehends the self,
but can merely draw conclusions about the self from observing them.
Art is not a career but a life, the dedication of expressing honesty
through art to humanity. Contemporary Expressionism is not a movement
by normal standards, but an evolutionary process of human creativity.
It is art itself. Images derived from the soul are the only
images truly beneficial to society and thus will be created until the end
of our time. Contemporary Expressionism is the art-world at
the are of 21; the end of arts adolescence and the beginning of its
purpose.
I am a Contemporary
Expressionist in that:
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I create my works from un-hindered,
honest, personal visions directly resulting from my experience of being
alive.
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I do not restrict myself
to any particular style or medium and thus learn, perfect and utilize all
those that are necessary to cause my personal vision to physically manifest.
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I do not allow my visions
to be hindered by fear, social acceptability, marketability or personal
prejudice.
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I share my work with other
people thus participating and becoming an integral part of society.
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