HOLD UP Art

"Let me just say up front, I’m sure glad I’m a painter, not a writer. Just when I think all the words are lining up to mean what I want, I notice something wrong, and they all go fluttering away…. that’s not what I meant. Try again. This is the third draft – the charm perhaps.

My favorite “ism” is surrealism. I think that once artists learned to paint the world around them – call it ‘realism’– it was a short step to paint imaginary realities. Maybe the Greeks were the first surrealists, with all those stories about centaurs, mermaids, satyrs, and so on. Mythical creatures, visions of heaven and hell, dreams and nightmares – artists have always painted realistic images of worlds which never were. Surrealism has existed in various forms nearly as long as realism, and I consider it to be the second “ism.”

Those old-time surrealists, the Greeks, are still the most interesting to me, and I have a lot of questions to ask, which form a key component in my endeavors. Some of these questions are: What events led to the conception of centaurs, mermaids, and all those other hybrid critters? If these creatures really existed in our world, would they be a result of genetic mutation or environmental pollution? Would a 100-foot tall radioactive chicken be able to kick Cyclops’ ass? Or Godzilla’s? If these creatures really existed in our time, how would they survive? What would their lives be like, and what would our treatment of them tell us about ourselves?

My goal is to communicate my thoughts about these questions. In asking these questions I’m aware of the lack of answers and the potential to create more questions. If people who view my paintings end up asking the same questions I asked as I painted them, isn’t that also a form of communication?

But don’t look to me for answers. Like somebody really famous (we all know who) said, the answers are all “blowin’ in the wind.”