A Crossing of the Swords
I finally figured it out: artistically speaking, I am an iconoclast. Almost.
Merriam-Webster defines an iconoclast as, "a person who attacks settled beliefs or institutions." I do this compulsively, but not destructively, so my iconoclastic DNA is a few genes short of a full strand, which suits me fine.
I digest any and all artistic precepts and schools of thought... and then I reject them all. Then I court them again, giving them a chance to earn back my trust. "Doveryai, no proveryai." Trust but verify.
I don't favor form over line, nor realism over abstraction, nor glazing over impasto... what I favor is the tension between the extremes. Tension creates energy, and without it – as with a lax guitar string – a composition will fail to resonate.
I even do this with my own painting method, and each time I paint I attack the canvas in a different way. I'm sure the people in my painting group think I am, at times, the most senseless Bohemian, especially when they catch a view of the train wrecks I sometimes create with paint on canvas. I appreciate their kindnesses in not pointedly making me aware of my gaffes, and they are quick to encourage my successes.
The successes I have are not prodigal. I paint a lot, and when I don't have a brush in my hand I am thinking about art; mine, traditional and modern art, life as it relates to art, and vice-versa. I am seeking the unknown chord, that which will be made perfect in the context of the viewer's inner music.
To better articulate almost-iconoclasm, let's move in the other direction: The things I love in art: line and form; tonalism and fauvism; impressionism and dadaism; painterly and linear; bold and subtle; represented and implied; warm and cool; dark and light; earnest and absurd; coherent and irrational; chastity and pornography; cave painting and photo-realism.
I truly love it all, or at least I love the continuum, and I will be the first to point out that the emperor has no clothes to the artist who embraces a yin without recognizing the validity of the yang. The power of one is derived from the existence of its complement.
In art, this power can be intellectualized, critiqued, and analyzed, but these practices serve only to teach us how to see. The tension and the power – the intensity – only exists in the moments of perception. It is then and there that the potential is released.
In my art, certain stylistic elements recur often enough to be recognizable. My goal is to continue my artistic journey as a raw expedition in search of this sublime prey: intensity. Along the path I will gather tools and techniques, reject some, allow some to evolve. Like an internal debate, or an intellection-emotional crossing of swords, the art will be sharpened over the years in this process of steel-on-steel.
I hope to create images that have meaning, emotional energy, and intensity. That is the payoff... the victory.
