Friday, December 5, 2008

10 rounds in 15 seconds

I must admit that medieval torture devices are rather interesting. They say a lot about how far we've come, or rather - how actively we try and hide the horrendous, inhumane ( allegedly ) things we do. I am bewildered by the idea that torture is inhumane, when we've done it for so many thousands of years. Murder is inhumane, but we kill all the time... War is inhumane - but we do it for sport ( as I see no valid reason for our current war, perhaps only to flex some American Muscle ), discrimination is wrong, lying is wrong, etc., etc., but we do these things all the time.

Why do we continually deny it? Social stigma these days is quite a powerful tool, but that alone doesn't keep people from doing it behind closed doors. So what does that say? What does it mean? Other than these alleged inhumane things are quite humane and are a trait of human nature. I'm not saying go torture the next person that walks by your house but oh, it's something to think about now and again.

Thinking like a psychopath doesn't make you one.. But there was a recent statistic that stated 1 in 100 human beings exhibit psychopathic tendencies or thoughts, or actions.. Most of them become successful businessmen/womyn ( I had to ). Maybe it isn't so abnormal. I put my money down that if they tested good ol' ex-president-george-w.-bush was examined they'd find he was a psycho. Path.

And now for something completely different.

While I haven't taken pen to paper lately ( oh, I've been "busy" with my apathy and my insurance company ) I have been doing a lot of thinking about my "style" and why and what it means and all sorts of other b.s. and wondering about why I feel pulled so many different directions..

I enjoy religious art, not old school ( catholics expanded to a region where pot/shrooms wouldn't grow, before the dark ages old school ) where they removed all aspects of a body that made it so - where men and women looked the same though women weren't worthy enough ( save for that virgin mary ) to be portrayed as the long dark robe ( which we'd now arrest someone for wearing out on the grounds they could be a terrorist ) with that horrible hair.. Not that old school..

Maybe back from when the greek gods weren't "myths" though by todays standards their religion is still terribly valid.. Though I'm not so fond of their hair styles. Romans knew what was up. That classical, beautiful art. I'd love to go back in time and punch Constantine in the face. That man did not know what was up. He was so far down he was in China. Have you seen his wide eyed monument to himself? It's horrible. It makes me want to kick puppies. And I love puppies.

I love the romance of it, and at times the darkness behind a sculpture.. When you see it you're taken aback by the skill and the marvel of these tiny to massive human figures you can hug and feel the muscles in the body.. You can look into their "blank" eyes, but you can still see something, you can still feel a presence. I imagine the sculpture. You can touch what his hands touched so long ago, and when you do you are touching brilliance and greatness, and nothing like touching a celebrity or a president. I am no sculpture, but that idea is something to strive for.

And I'm torn, I suppose, between that romantic beauty with its capacity to be darker than it appears.. To the more modern "trends" I guess you could call them that, because finally there's a trend out there that has some half decent taste behind it. The bright flat colors and the vector shapes, and often the portrayal of some nature of some kind. The layering and fakness of it all; I call it fake because it's art that can't be touched, even printed it's still empty and false. But it's still appealing. There's a different kind of movement inherent in it.. But these days art we see is influenced by music ( fake music ). I suppose that's the movement I see. The fakness of it all reminds me of Barbie. It's a phase that will pass, and it might make some footnote in a history book 100 years from now. In reality it's actually a quite shitty style of art.

I highly doubt that Myron turned on music to inspire and motivate himself to work. It was his hungry gut and probably a little bit of misery that drove him to make his discus thrower. The motivation was internal.. Which as a society we've lost these days. We aren't hungry, and those who are don't have a pencil or paper to document it. And the Roman Discus thrower doesn't do Myron's original any justice.

So how do you combine the classical with the modern, the real with the fake, the beauty and the beasts. Cheesy, I know.. But it's my dilemma.

1 comment:

Elise Tanner said...

As far as I can tell, today's current "artistic movement," if you will, is kind of up in the air. People can't seem to give it a name or a clear definition. This, I think, in itself defines this "post, post-modern" movement. Twenty years ago it was appropriation, it was utilizing new technologies, it was about conceptualization and identity. Now, what are we? Has the strong presence of identity been lost in modern art? Is this why you, and I, have a difficult time defining our styles as artists? Or is it simply that we're still learning, inexperienced?
You've brought up what I've been thinking about a lot lately. The more I learn, the more I question, and (supposedly) the more I progress as an artist. I think you're going through the same experience.
I wish I had answers for you. But it would seem I've only presented you with more questions.