July 6th, 2008
I discovered this poem, “Living Moments,” in a painted box jammed pack with other poetic notes I’d jotted down 33 years ago. It made me wonder how many 22-year-olds around the world at that time felt the same about their experiences of life-reality-nature. And if so, did they express them too through some art of thought? That would be fascinating to see: an exhibition of Thoughts On Life created by young adults worldwide who stopped at a given moment to think about it: Life, and ask: What am I living, sensing, seeing, and believing at the moment about Life?
Today, these words still hold true for me. The images they evoke suggest that consciousness is ageless. And any higher awareness reveals a truth that freely soars in the wind like a colorful kite of intuition—no matter how many strings of skepticism tether it.  Â
June 27th, 2008
M51 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cat’s Cradle
June 26th, 2008
We’ve enlisted every technology and every medium of human expression to accelerate every communication possible at any given moment, and yet we’re still struggling to figure out what WE WANT TO REALLY SAY to the Whole World — the ONE WORLD — what exactly our next steps should be in creating Our Collective Future…together. That’s the future which somehow doesn’t resemble our phenomenally violent past and that genuinely represents the passions, concerns, dreams, and hopes of its collaborative creators.
Here are some visual metaphorms to help us think about Our Future: The ONE (?) we truly want and “the one to avoid”:
May 16th, 2008
What’s so new about “now”?
I just read David Gates’ article, “The New New Thing: Same As It Ever Was” (Newsweek, Dec. 31, 2007/Jan. 7, 2008; pp.98-100), and sighed: So what’s new? Plenty of progressive artists and visionary scientists have arrived at this same awareness; and yet, they’ve remain unsatisfied.
“In the arts, the march of progress has reached its destination. Happy now?” Gates writes.
No. And we may never be. I gather it has something to do with hope. According to W. Bonfils of The Denver Post, “There is no hope for the satisfied man.”
Although I don’t agree with Gates’ conclusion that the arts have ‘reached its destination,’ I do believe its reached a milestone in which it’s possible to think there are no new forms of expression - only new statements about supposedly new forms of self-expression.
Gates enquires, “Is there a place left where a rebel artist can still jump the fence and start making trouble?” in the same breath he answers, “What fence? What trouble?”
What? Look around! All the ‘fences’ are still in place. We’re running into them everyday, like the fence of New, and Now.
March 30th, 2008
“Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow: Coping with Chaos.” Installation view: Tweed Museum of Art
There’s a serious challenge facing Art Education today - a challenge that’s shared by every form of disciplinary knowledge, which we’ve compartmentalized and categorized for centuries: We’re taught to experience and understand things by how they’re defined. If we define them narrowly, we experience them narrowly; meaning, in a narrow-minded way. If we define them broadly, we tend to experience them more broadly and with open minds. From my personal experience of “all things art,” I’ve found that the broader the definition, the richer the experience. Always.
Here’s how this fact plays out in reality: If I adopt a general definition of art - as “a product of human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind, by transmitting emotions and/or ideas” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art) — then I could extend it to encompass one of several intentions of science too.
According to the Wikipedia definition, “Art is also able to illustrate abstract thought and its expressions can elicit previously hidden emotions in its audience.”
Again, the same can be said about the more demonstrative aspects of the physical sciences as well, whereby audiences get to experience a scientific principle or concept (gravity, friction, etc.) and have it move them in ways that no statement-picture can do. You get it [the concept or physical analogy] by feeling it first. Understanding comes by way of feeling and doing.
As a visual artist, I understand that my audiences may not “get” my artwork at a glance or without feeling it; meaning, they may not grasp its aesthetics, its qualities, its symbolisms, its beauty, and its truths. No matter how obvious I believe the art is. The creative act of “getting it” or “getting a feel for it” takes time and attention.
Actually, it also takes some real focus to “absorb” the essence of any artwork by any audience from any period. Especially, in our Post-Modernist and Post-Contemporary times, in which every definition and nearly every art offering is being questioned, this statement takes on even more weight and substance.
Considering the intensity of our lives today, we all seem pressured to find the time, attention and focus before sprinting off to our next appoitnment. So these three elements, which enrich our experiences of art, are limited to milliseconds in most instances and mere minutes in the best circumstances.
The main reason I always care to present an interactive lecture on my art at every museum, cultural and educational organization exhibiting my artwork is to engage people in a lively, thought-provoking conversation. A conversation that doesn’t just center on the selection of artwork I’m presenting, but, more broadly, entertains the possibility that this art and other forms of art can help transform our world. After all, my passion is to find new ways to help people see and understand how we can use the arts to help improve the state of the world. And my desired outcome for this conversation is always the same: To challenge our imaginations to think beyond our present perceptions and definitions of art. As I’m fond of saying: Perceptions define reality.
One reality I’ve learned to respect over the years: It isn’t necessary for an audience to understand the science in art — or the art in science — in order to appreciate an artwork. Everyone can simply and purely experience the materials and absorb the aesthetics of a given art form without having to mull over what the artist means or might mean or should mean.
When viewing my own artwork, which I feel is both visceral and cerebral, I enjoy challenging myself to simply flow with the layers of concepts embedded in the art. For me, that’s key to the whole fun of making art: searching for hidden treasures of meanings that are often concealed the physical work.
Anyway, when you’re exploring any artwork, ask yourself these basic questions: What am I looking at? What am I seeing here? What’s this experience all about? How are my feelings influencing what I’m seeing? How do I define art and understand the work of artists today?
You may just discover that your feelings and sense of empathy are blocked: perhaps the artwork you’re encountering is exploring a different definition of art and aesthetics than what you’re familiar with or are willing to embrace. Simply: its forms of expression differ from your own. Of course, sometimes we’re just plain numb to novelty — or overwhelmed by it — and, consequently choose not to feel it.
Art welcomes everyone’s interpretation of it, at the same time it encourages us all to relate its contents to our lives and personal experiences. Essentially, it’s an open invitation to spark some insightful dialogue. It also exists to pinch our consciousness enough to wake us up to see — as the psychologist Arthur Koestler saw so clearly — that we may be “sleepwalking” through life rather than awake and responding to it.
Everyday challenge yourself to see the world “Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow,” to echo the title of one artwork that responds to the current chaos shaping our world. You may surprise yourself with some rewarding and refreshing insights into how we might work together to better cope with life’s boundless chaos that’s not only here to stay; it seems to be growing more radically disruptive as we “progress” … download free motorola ringtones | free funny ringtones | gratis ringtones | phone ringtones verizon | virgin mobile ringtones | free nokia phone ringtones | cingular free music ringtones | free ringtones for nextel phone | free phone ringtones verizon wireless | 24 ringtones show tv | t mobile ringtones | cricket free ringtones | free sprint ringtones | free cellular south ringtones | cell free phone ringtones wallpaper | cell phone ringtones and wallpaper | cheap virgin mobile ringtones | download free nokia ringtones | music real ringtones | free real tone ringtones |
