Posted by Atticus on August 10, 2004, at 19:29:31
In reply to 3-D Art, posted by Jai Narayan on August 10, 2004, at 8:17:40
To Jai of Atlantis, Keeper of the Emerald Flame of Visions,
It's very interesting that you bring up the topic of artistic inhibition, because Alyssa often asked me a similar question. She was too self-consciously trying to create (flourish of coronets) ART, rather than using the media for self-expression. For her, the ART became the end in and of itself, rather than the means to try to grasp and transmit some perceived truth about the human condition. Certainly, aesthetics are very important to me when I write or draw, but at the end of a piece, I step back and see if it is verbally or non-verbally communicating something larger than itself. She also, I felt, relied far too much on others for approbation of her work. For me, the process was (and remains) radically different, though I never could quite convince her that she'd enjoy the process more if she'd at least give my advice a go just once. The times I have felt artistically stymied (when my brain wasn't chemically misfiring, which is a whole other can of worms) occurred when I thought too much about how the piece would be received. I very quickly arrived at the conclusion that as long as the work was emotionally naked and brutally honest, as long as I had held nothing back for fear of being judged, I was answerable to no one. This was a very liberating epiphany. If someone likes a written or painted piece I do, fine. If not, well, "Chacun a son gout," as the French say. I truly don't care which way it goes; I know in my own gut if something is working or not, and usually if it's not, it's because I've withheld something important -- maybe even something ugly about myself -- for fear of being perceived as odd. Interestingly, now that I openly acknowledge my mental illness rather than hiding it like some dark secret, I've felt a greater degree of freedom and less inhibition than ever. If people already think I'm crazy, I've really got nothing to lose by really pushing the envelope artistically. My painted work has always been mostly about the fusion of ancient and current mythologies, the parallels between the two, and why we need them. I haven't created any myths as nifty as our ancestors did in developing Atlantis, but I think along the same lines: How can I bring a mythic aura to what seems to be the mundane nature of day-to-day modern life. One of my paintings shows, in psychedelic tones and semi-abstract marks, a titanic marine iquana in place of Manhattan, with the skyline its body-length dorsal fin, and all the famous buildings simultaneously recognizable yet transformed into Native American totems. The notion behind it, I suppose, is the idea that all of the spirits and dreams of all the people and creatures who have ever lived on this 26-mile-long piece of earth i call home have permeated the soil, and the land remembers it all, and the land is so old that in its mind, these myths have become one with the earth spirit's identity. It's titled "In the Dreamtime." I have it hanging in my office at work, and almost everyone uses the same word to describe it: "Weird." But then, so am I, so I guess it's a success. Another, "Shaman," links a live performance by the late Kurt Cobain, who lived in Seattle, with the notion of the holy frenzy. I've included all types of Pacific Northwest Indian symbols and totems, as if, like the shamans of old, the sheer group energy of the concert had summoned up ancient gods invisible to all but me. Kurt himself is covered in abstracted totemic symbols, and about to smash his guitar at the show's climactic moment. It's not as cheesy as it sounds -- honest. The swirling mark-making system and rich palette give both these paintings a clear sense of a chaotic and off-balance mind at work -- my own. They were painted within months of each other in 1998, as my mental disintegration and substance abuse accelerated. i guess there's not so much a preoccupation with death (though, of course, Cobain did kill himself) as there is with the unseen forces around us. Perhaps on some level, I was relating all this to the unseen and uncontrollable forces taking my mind from me. Hard to say. But I guess the bottom line is to be utterly honest in the work, to conceal nothing, and let the chips fall where they may. I don't know if any of this was helpful, but all I can offer is my own take on making visual art. Ta. :) Atticus of Atlantis, The Rogue Who Even Now Is Being Pursued By King Niall's Soldiers For Filching The Emerald From The Royal Sceptre And Trading It For A Dozen Bottles Of Incomparable Atlantean Wine
poster:Atticus
thread:374887
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20040729/msgs/376132.html