Philosophy Of The Eternal And Universal

How to create art that is timeless? I think it must represent the eternal and universal. In my endless mission to create more meaningful work that transcends cultures and borders, I went back to a few philosophers for guidance.   

Although it appears that Arthur Schopenhauer was a cynical sexist asshole, he had some interesting thoughts about art: 

The deliverance of knowledge from servitude to the will, the forgetting of the individual self and its material interest, the elevation of the mind to the will-less contemplation of truth, is the function of art.

A work of art is successful in proportion as it suggests the Platonic Idea, or universal, of the group to which a represented object belongs. The portrait of a man must aim, therefore, not at photographic fidelity, but at exposing, as far as possible, through one figure, some essential or universal quality of man.  

For example, tragedy may take an esthetic value, by delivering us from the strife of the individual will, and enabling us to see our suffering in a larger view. Art alleviates the ills of life by showing us the eternal and universal behind the transitory and the individual. 

The title of this painting is Tell Us Where The World Went. Over the summer of 2017, I camped in and just outside of Yosemite with some friends. I took a photo of them and used it as a reference for this painting. Only a few days after we left, a huge fire broke out and destroyed the area and thousands of acres and homes. The year 2017 is going to prove devastating with regard to wildfires. 

Tell Us Where The World Went, 36.5" x 48", oil and acrylic on canvas over panel, 2017.

Note: The title of this piece comes from a line in The Road by Cormac McCarthy, p. 166.

To Be A Machine

Recently finished a stop-motion short film called HOP, a piece about life, mortality, and a theory of immortality.

I needed a dreamy version of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as the music theme, but I couldn't find a recording anywhere. So I took up a keyboard myself, learned the relevant portions, and you can hear me playing it. I do not claim to be an expert with the piano; indeed there are portions of the song that sound imperfect, but with the somewhat raspy recording, that was the intention. I chose not to fix the slight errors, use an expensive instrument, nor seek an impeccable recording studio. I like when stop-motion is a bit choppy, not completely fluid, so as to reveal the imperfect nature of humankind. So the song needed to match.  

The theory of immortality in the video was a contemplation of the contemporary transhumanist movement. Mark O'Connell recently wrote a book called To Be A Machine about the topic. "Transhumanists believe that technology — specifically, a direct interface between humans and machines — is the only way our species can progress from its current, far-than-ideal state. Evolution is now in our hands, they claim, and if that means shedding the evolutionary training wheels of flesh itself, so be it." More info at NPR. 

Click on the Videos Tab on this webpage to watch the video. 

Hate Won't Win

Reverend Clementa Pinckney, senator and senior pastor at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston, South Carolina, will be remembered for his dedication to public service and spirituality. Fellow state senator Marlon Kimpson described him as "a giant, a legend, a moral compass,"

Portrait of Reverend Clementa Pinckney, 24" x 18", 2017

Reverend Pinckney and the eight others who were murdered at the church have become symbols. Positive symbols of love and resistance, I think; spiritual symbols connecting all of humanity as one. We face conflict and fight on, crack, struggle, rise, fall, and rise again. Although they were victims of hate, they have risen and are glowing emblems of our push to create a more culturally cohesive society that appreciates and celebrates differences. Hate won't win. 

Furthering the Intermission series

As in all of my artwork, the process of creating this piece relied on a leap of faith. I didn't have a vision of its finished appearance but instead worked in stages of the unknown -- not knowing exactly where I was going while relying on my experience and skills and having faith in my abilities of creation.

Similar to many of my other recent paintings, prior to painting in acrylic and oil, I first formed the three-dimensional surface with clay. As the clay dried, it cracked naturally, creating an effect that resembles fossilized forms, a reminder of our own vulnerability in this world. 

This painting furthers my ongoing Abstract Intermission series: In the battles of life, there is loss, persistence, and deliverance. Some of these episodes, more dramatic than others, serve as pillars or beacons in our own timelines. Then there are the lulls or periods of recovery from and preparation for past and future battles -- the necessary intermissions in between that often feel nameless but impact us nevertheless, sometimes in more important ways than the memorable events of our pasts. Sometimes we meander along our amorphous, cracked, or abstract thoughts. Our plans for the future are never definite and our memories constantly change. Nothing lasts forever. Like Tyler Durden says in Fight Club: Even the Mona Lisa's falling apart. 

Fossil I (Intermission XII), 36" x 48", oil, acrylic, clay, epoxy resin, wood panel, 2016