So I am reading about Joan Miro this morning….looking around my studio at my most recent drawings and thinking how they have come from the unconscious part of my brain.  Listening to music and drawing to the rhythm and actually drawing with no thoughts in mind has lead me in a new direction.  But back to Miro…

a quick drawing after a conversation

All of you have stubbled on various topics while looking at Wikipedia and thus I have done the same.  Another look at Surrealist activity and all the links to follow has brought me to the connection in my own work — that being to pure psychic automatism.  The writings of Breton and his contemporaries among others led to quotes which I post for all to enjoy.  They have certainly validated many of my thoughts recently and I wanted to share them with you:

Quotations

• “I could spend my whole life prying loose the secrets of the insane. These people are honest to a fault, and their naiveté has no peer but my own.”
• “We are still living under the reign of logic: this, of course, is what I have been driving at. But in this day and age logical methods are applicable only to solving problems of secondary interest.”
• “Let us not mince words: the marvelous is always beautiful, anything marvelous is beautiful, in fact only the marvelous is beautiful.”
• “Surrealism will usher you into death, which is a secret society. It will glove your hand, burying therein the profound M with which the word Memory begins.”
• “Surrealism does not allow those who devote themselves to it to forsake it whenever they like. There is every reason to believe that it acts on the mind very much as drugs do; like drugs, it creates a certain state of need and can push man to frightful revolts.”
• “In this realm as in any other, I believe in the pure Surrealist joy of the man who, forewarned that all others before him have failed, refuses to admit defeat, sets off from whatever point he chooses, along any other path save a reasonable one, and arrives wherever he can.”
• “It is living and ceasing to live which are imaginary solutions. Existence is elsewhere.”

words and more words

The moment always comes when we revisit our current body of work with words to convey it’s meaning in the artist statement.  The words are intended to explain our work to our viewers.  Richard Tuttle (one of my favorite artists) commented once in an interview that the viewer should have to do some of the work and we should not have to explain everything.  While artists do after all provide the work…should artists also have to explain or should they allow the viewer to interrupt at will?  Would the art survive without a written purpose?

 There are moments when the intent of the work is unclear even to yourself–but we  must present our thoughts anyway.  Then there are the opposing occurrences when we are so very clear of our work  and surely the viewer  must understand what we are saying…but do they?  If they do, then why must we explain so much?  If they don’t, have we failed?

There are any number of reasons an artist must write the statement.  Applications for a residency, proposals for an exhibit or to accompany the entry form for a show.  On this Sunday afternoon, while the sun shines outside I sit at my desk and ponder over the words necessary to explain my current body of work.  My hope is that it is concise, intriguing and honest–most of all clear.  Of course all on one page and always subject to change with every submittal …. I wonder about this formality of the business.  Ummmm???  the oh so often dreaded artist statement!!!!  Any thoughts from readers???

study for balancing series

At what point does pushing two opposing forces actually create balance and when does the strain of such forces create unmanageable conflict?  Can one have balance without an interplay of conflicting elements?  Does our body and mind determine these boundaries unconsiously or do we accurately access the need for balance… and work to create this state of being. Perhaps it is within the control of some while others do not acknowledge the signs of extreme tension and choose to exist in a state of unbalance.   What are the external and internal forces which help, hinder, enable or interfere with this…then what are the results?  Is balance created without friction or tension?  These are thoughts and issues of exploration in my current work while at a residency program at Virginia Creative Center for the Arts.