Recently I wrote an ---Artist Statement!!--- for an exhibition. This was not a fun project. It just feels awkward to explain visual art with clumsy words. Simon and Garfunkel sang, "and all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity." That said, I think that now I will write some "artist statement" type words.
"Whats it all about, Alfie?" What IS it all about, this obsessive making of images? It is about spending my time with color. It is about interacting with the world. Art is a way of exploring this individual
human on earth experience. About this particular self, exploring reality in a deep manner. About experiencing all the riches of perception. Processing these riches in my poor befuddled brain. Hallucinating pictures. And then creating unique visual communications.
We are all in this together. Here we are, lots of us humans. Bumping into each other at Wally World. Fighting over beads at Mardi Gras parades. Scrappling with the office bitches. Eating and sleeping and loving and searching for comfort. We are alike and different. Alike in that we all want comfort, want joy, and want the best for our children. We perceive each other, we talk, we produce memos.
We are all in this together, but our minds are separate.
What I intended to say, what I said, what you heard, and how you interpreted it are four different things.
Each of our interpretations of our separate perceptions is individual, is different. A meeting of the minds, that is what we say when we agree with each other. But even when we agree there are subtleties of difference. We are separate. There is between us a wide gulf that we imperfectly bridge with communication.
Visual communications bridge the gulf in a deep, richer manner than verbalization. A picture is worth a thousand words. (I am just saying, really, I love words, love to read.) Even with pictures I am reducing my interpretations to a manageable level.
With art I attempt mind to mind communion. The communion is imperfect, reduced, but it is the best that I can do.
Barbie, vintage Barbie face, Barbie's sixties face. Here she is, all glammed up in an antique English Queen's dress. A monarch for all times.
Digital painting for print. Completed recently. Marilyn Monroe pictured as Aphrodite or Venus. This is an appropriate depiction, as Marilyn has certainly become an enduring Love Goddess. To create this picture I harvested several Marilyn images from Bing. The final figure composition stitched together several different historical photographs to create an image that pleased me. Her famous pose came from one picture, face from another, hair from the third reference photograph. The shell came from Botticelli's "Venus". While repainting the low resolution shell, I was gained more appreciation for Botticelli's artistic genius. The wave inspiration came from the famous, ancient Japanese wave painting. I experienced a frisson of delight while experimenting with the wave. I realized that by duplicating the wave and transforming it horizontally a heart shape was created. While I was distorting Marilyn's dress in the liquefy function it began to look like angel wings, and this delighted me. The two waves appear threatening, a watery heart, threatening imminent engulfment, an unintentional reference to her tragic demise. It was a lot of fun to create this picture.
Well, I havnt been here for a while. Ive been painting on canvas and dont have much digital work to post.
I started with a classical painting of Marie Antionette and several pictures of Helena Bonheim Carter's face. Then, more hours of jolly good digital fun than I care to count. Voila! An image that has never been seen before.
