No Rules!

Opalescent

Digital painting, 24M, 12/2013

Why do I love making art?

NO RULES!

The canvas is like a small piece of real estate, it is a concrete part of the world.  The canvas is a neighborhood and a series of canvasses can make a city.  Or, a vision of Heaven. (I  avoid Hell.  Why go there?)  (Yes, I reserve the right to contradict myself.)  I can watch the bloom of an imaginary Elysian Fields unfold.  I can, me, by myself, unrestricted by the plans of others, I can populate that empty space of matter with a comic/serious personal pantheon or any other preposterous images concocted by my muse.  Haha, how fun is that?

The canvas allows me to translate the ephemeral landscape of mind, of personal imagination, into concrete reality.  This is a place where I can replace the monkey mind radio with entrancing colors, and occupy myself with the craft of making marks.  My head gets quieter.

 Freedom on a small flat surface, freedom to make a tiny bit of material wiggle in anyway that I can wrangle. 

When I face a white stretched canvas,  I have a space that is not constrained by rules.  There are guidelines.  Yes.  Composition guidelines.  Color harmony theories.  Appropriate imagery is expected, but not mandatory.  All of these guidelines may be broken.  In fact, an artist can make a career of consciously ignoring any of these guidelines and expectations.  In fact, whole artistic movements have centered on breaking the norm.

The best art is subversive.

Creating something totally new on canvas, I am constrained by the limits inherent in the paint.  Paint can do amazing things, but there are limits.  And, I must work primarily within the limits of my skills, but there is also, the challenge of expanding skills.


Making art is the only place where I find unrestricted freedom.

 

Rule Rules, Rules

OK, you get it, I don't like rules.  I have been surprised to find that some people do like rules.  They are relieved to know the correct way to behave.  This discovery gave me food for thought.

Some guidelines are necessary.  But, too many rules restrict us from reaching our full potential.  Rules can dampen the spirit, constrict the soul.

Common courtesy guidelines help with the flow of personal relationships.  Good manners are simply consideration for the other person. 
 
I/you must edit thoughts before they make it out of the mouth. Words can hurt.


Remember all the rules of school?

Sit in your desk. Sit still don't wiggle.  Don't talk.  Pay attention. No running in the hall.  Is the real function of school to mold behavior, put us in a straight jacket of appropriateness? We were trained to follow the rules.  Stop that or you will get detention. Are we molded to be compliant worker bees.  Go to the principles office!  NOW!  Shame!

This is something that I do not understand:  Why do so many children need medication to make them appropriate for school?  Wouldn't it be better if the school was appropriate for the children?  To expect an eight year old child to sit still for hours at a time, is unreasonable and inhibits the free blooming of the student.

 We must follow the rules of laws, of course. Some rules we need, to oil the gears, to keep us from stepping on each other.  But, must we also follow the superfluous, irrational laws.

There are procedural rules.  Like, the procedure for driving a car is strict.  No playing with the rules on that channel.

So some rules are necessary, but many just restrict personal freedom. 









Here are two articles about rule breaking art.  I was confused about the artist who made "Piss Christ".  I had him confused with Damien Hirst.  Hirst floats zebras and calves in tanks of formaldehyde.  I guess I was fundamentally confused, because in my mind urine and formaldehyde both have a disgust factor.  In my mind both zebras and the crucifix should receive some respect.  Or maybe not.  Just another tidbit for thought.  These artists took a sledge hammer to appropriate imagery. 

Rule Breaking Shock Tactics

Blasphemous’ art work is damaged

April 19, 2011

AN ARTWORK depicting a crucifix in a glass of urine, named Piss Christ, has been attacked by protesters at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Avignon. New Yorker Andres Serrano’s photograph was attacked just hours after nearly 1,000 demonstrators gathered to protest over the “blasphemous display” outside the museum. Two people managed to force their way into the museum and attacked the Piss Christ with a hammer. Another photograph, showing a nun’s hands at prayer, was also attacked. No one was arrested but security camera pictures have been passed on to police. The Piss Christ was being shown as part of an exhibition titled I Believe in Miracles to mark the 10th anniversary of the Lambert collection in the former papal city. Catholic activists from the group Institut Civitas had called the protest about the exhibition and general secretary Alain Escada told La Provence newspaper: “We are living in times of Christianophobia. We demand that this work be withdrawn from the Lambert collection”. The abbot of Cacqueray said to the newspaper: “Imagine if Mohammed or Anne Frank had been bathed in urine. This secularism is done against Christ while installing Islam in France. We would be as well to rename secularism as Islamism.” The museum reopens today amid reports that staff have been sent death threats. It has the Piss Christ still in place so people can see the damage. Created in 1987, the photograph has been called the original “shock art” as it predated many of the more modern examples such as Marcus Harvey’s collage of Myra Hindley created from children’s handprints and Damien Hirst’s shark in formaldehyde.

Blasphemous’ art work is damaged

April 19, 2011

AN ARTWORK depicting a crucifix in a glass of urine, named Piss Christ, has been attacked by protesters at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Avignon. New Yorker Andres Serrano’s photograph was attacked just hours after nearly 1,000 demonstrators gathered to protest over the “blasphemous display” outside the museum. Two people managed to force their way into the museum and attacked the Piss Christ with a hammer. Another photograph, showing a nun’s hands at prayer, was also attacked. No one was arrested but security camera pictures have been passed on to police. The Piss Christ was being shown as part of an exhibition titled I Believe in Miracles to mark the 10th anniversary of the Lambert collection in the former papal city. Catholic activists from the group Institut Civitas had called the protest about the exhibition and general secretary Alain Escada told La Provence newspaper: “We are living in times of Christianophobia. We demand that this work be withdrawn from the Lambert collection”. The abbot of Cacqueray said to the newspaper: “Imagine if Mohammed or Anne Frank had been bathed in urine. This secularism is done against Christ while installing Islam in France. We would be as well to rename secularism as Islamism.” The museum reopens today amid reports that staff have been sent death threats. It has the Piss Christ still in place so people can see the damage. Created in 1987, the photograph has been called the original “shock art” as it predated many of the more modern examples such as Marcus Harvey’s collage of Myra Hindley created from children’s handprints and Damien Hirst’s shark in formaldehyde.         Damien Hirst, Reportedly Britain's Richest Living Artist from Wikipedia

   

Damien Hirst
Hirst in a still from the movie The Future of Art
Birth name	Damien Steven Hirst
Born	(1965-06-07) 7 June 1965 (age 48) Bristol, England, UK
Nationality	British
Field	Conceptual art, installation art, painting
	Damien Steven Hirst[1] (born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent[2] member of the group known as the Young British Artists (or YBAs), who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s.[3] He is internationally renowned,[4] and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist, with his wealth valued at £215m in the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List.[5][6]