Writing: journals home

"You can't solve a problem on the level at which it was created."   - Albert Einstein

The focus here is on my writing, but much has been utilized in my artist statement.

      I like to write, but I don't really know how to judge my own writing.  Is it good?  Is it competent?  Am I saying anything worth anyone's time?  I guess that I have to address that in two ways.  First, in the terms of my artwork, and secondly as my role in a social society.  In relation to my artwork, I think my writing is an extension of what has become the purpose to my art: a way of capturing what otherwise would be lost to time.  Sometimes the visual art is just not enough, or can't seem to grab a hold of what is in my head. The written word in conjunction with visual art has a long history in illustration and narrative art.  The association of text and visual art is often criticized by those who want the pure visual work, but I see the visual art and the written word as a marriage of thought. Any argument relative to my artistic style (realist) and art movements pushing boundaries, are best left to my art journals, this is more about writing.
     As far as how it relates to my role in a society, it is much more of a journal, or a diary of my life. I have not climbed too many physical mountains in the world, but I am pretty adventurous within myself.  Despite looking really hard at how I want my art "life" to go (or even just my life), I have only come to one conclusion: I can't plan and control my life, there is too much of the unknown looming around.  So I am letting it ride, and seeing what happens.  I have been shooting for what makes me happy and fulfilled, not what my "career" is supposed to be.

     Art is a huge part of who I am, but I am also very diligent at not limiting myself.  Many artists hone in on their one area of expertise, I have never been able to do that.  To put it simply, I am all over the place.  Sometimes I like to say that I have art ADHD.  I enjoy the hands on elements of drawing and painting, sculpture, and digital work- but I am also a very big fan of the mental gymnastics of performance art and philosophy.  Shooting yourself in the arm (Chris Burden "shoot!", 1971) simply for the experience- now that is art!  Art can be an exploration of experience, and with that comes an inherent risk of failure.  Failure is a possibility when the attempt is to take a viewer somewhere new within the realm of how that viewer thinks. And that is the core of creative thinking- going someplace new.  Merce Cunningham (Dance) had a quote: "The artist has to ask themselves, what is the point of doing what you already know?"  But our current mentality might be losing the opportunity to explore ideas due to how much pressure we are putting on ourselves to succeed.  It is that pressure that seems to create goals that don't align or ever meet our true needs as people.  In order to understand success, you have to also understand failure.  Failure; that has such an awful connotation in today's world- and that is sad, because without failure there can be no success. Yet; there is little to no room, or time- or acceptance for anyone to fail anymore.  There is a banging drum of pressure to succeed that is beating at our jobs, in our relationships, schools, families, bands, clothing/music/toy choices, clubs, pee wee football, vacation spots...well - pretty much everywhere.  It is that pressure that forces the choice to play it safe.  Where will that pressure lead us as a people, a culture, a nation or as a society?  I'll tell you where- not to anyplace that has any new ways of doing anything.  That is what fear does, it keeps you frozen in place. 

     As a general philosophy- I am a Taoist.  They say that those that try to explain "the way", do not understand it.  The more that you talk about it, the farther away from it you get.  Instead I will say that I believe in balance- and balance is vital in life.  There is a balance between success and failure that leads to a greater understanding of life's obstacles.  Both failure and success eventually meet and disappear into one another, in reality (a reality that may or may not really exist) they become one.  One opportunity, one path.  Loss and failure are an opportunity for personal renaissance, a chance to explore yourself- growth through challenge and adversity.  I believe that it is not what you do when everything is going right, it's what you do when things are going wrong.  The challenge of overcoming adversity is what fuels my fire.  It's fighting the fight to make the world the way that I want it to be- to make this time we have in life worthwhile. The only control I have is to give up trying to control things.  Most of what I write about is sorting out all the chaos of trying to understand life.  That is my art.  Art is more than a career, more than money, more than notoriety, or materials, more than products or a process.  As I have stated many times in other writing, art elevates the human soul beyond the chains that seem to burden our societies.  It is an expression of who we are at any given point in time- in our soul.  It is an expression of the internal.  Be that calm or turmoil- it is our value.  And without that internal human component, we are left with a vast emptiness.   Art is that important. 

      In my stints with teaching college, I used to preach to students to let go.  Stop being precious with what you are doing.  Stop the push for style, and jobs, and money, and ego.  Set your career goals, yes- but set larger goals to meet important values within yourself.  Therein lies the key.  To look beyond those pressurized hurdles to see how big the picture can be, because anything else will become a dead end.  In youth it is so hard to see the whole of your life, instead the focus is solely on what is right in front of you.  As you age, the questions of what you spent your time and energy on start to creep in, and spending a life chasing or being a slave to money and career has very little value.  I guess that as an artist I realized that I had better get used to that idea, or I would spend all my time chasing money and career shadows.  A few years back I stumbled upon a quote by Christopher Reeve, who went from Superman to paraplegic: "Misfortune can force you into doing things you should be doing anyway.  Lessons come from adversity.  Anything can happen to anyone.  You can find a new lease on life- more meaning that you thought possible in simple things...Let go.  Live in the moment.  Go forward."  

1-Me, Myself & I  2-Politics  3-Art   4-Race  5-Consumerism  6-Children  7-Media & Society  8-General  9-Paranormal

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1-Me, Myself & I  2-Politics  3-Art   4-Race  5-Consumerism  6-Children  7-Media & Society  8-General  9-Paranormal